I opened my eyes to find Daphne and Carson staring at me.
"Well?" Daphne asked. "Did it work?"
"We're about to find out," I said.
I let go of her hand, put my glove back on, and plodded over to the edge of the hill.
"Come on, Gwen. You can do it," Carson called out in an encouraging voice.
I didn't know aboutthat,but I was going to at least try. And if I broke something on the way down, well, Daphne said the resort had awesome hot chocolate.
"Here goes nothing," I muttered, dug my poles into the snow, and pushed off.
And immediately wished that I hadn't. Everything happened so freakingfast. The snow was so packed and slick that it seemed like I was going a hundred miles an hour down the slope the second I took off. Plus, the sun glinted on the snow just so, throwing out dazzling sprays of light in every direction.
For a moment, hot, sweaty panic filled me, but I pushed it away and forced myself to focus, to call up Daphne's image, just like I had during archery practice with Kenzie and Oliver. I could do this. Iwoulddo this.
Daphne, Daphne, Daphne-I chanted the Valkyrie's name in my head and once again pictured her in her ski suit, sliding down that steep hill and loving every second of it.
In an instant everything changed.
My legs grew stronger and steadier underneath me. My arms dropped down to where they were supposed to go instead of wildly flailing around. My knees started moving from side to side to help control my speed, and I started leaning into the turns, such as they were on the bunny slope.
I drew in a breath and realized that skiing was kind of… fun.
Before I knew it, I was at the bottom of the hill. I moved the skis first right, then left, sending up a shower of snow and sliding to a stop, like I'd been on the slopes all my life instead of just a few minutes.
At the top of the hill, Daphne and Carson jumped up and down and screamed and waved at me. I lifted a shaky hand and waved back, a crazy grin on my face. I hadn't thought it would really work, but somehow, it had. It looked like there was a little more to my Gypsy gift than I'd thought. I'd have to tell Grandma Frost about it the next time I saw her, if she didn't already know. These days, Grandma always seemed to know more than she told me-about everything.
Daphne made a motion with her hand, pointing at the ski lift. She wanted me to ride back up there, probably so we go up to the next hill and see if I could do the same thing all over again. I waved back, telling her that I understood, and trudged off in that direction.
Several lifts snaked up the mountain at Powder, hauling students, profs, and everyone else up to the various ski, snowboard, and tubing runs, but there was only one lift at the base of the bunny slope. Since it didn't have nearly as many chairs on it as the others, I had to stand there and wait for it to come back around.
And that's when a low, ominous growl whispered behind me.
I froze, my blood suddenly as cold and icy as the surrounding snow. I knew that sort of growl. I'd heard it twice before in my life now, and both times, I'd almost died.
Riding over to the resort, meeting Preston, flashing on Daphne, trying to ski. I'd had a busy morning. So busy I'd forgotten about the fact that there was a Reaper who was trying to kill me-and that he just might send a monster to do the job.
I slowly turned around. At first I didn't see it, but then a movement in the thicket of pine trees at the far edge of the slope caught my eye. I strained to spot it in the shadows and then wished that I hadn't.
It looked like an overgrown wolf. Even though the creature was hunkered down in the snow, I could still see how very massive it was. It seemed to be roughly the same size as a Nemean prowler, with a body that would come up past my waist and was longer than I was tall. Something flicked in the trees behind it, and it took me a second to realize it was the creature's tail, slowly lashing from side to side and slapping snow everywhere.
Its fur was the color of crumbled ash-not quite black but not really gray either-and strands of red glinted in its thick, shaggy coat. The bloody tinge matched the color of the monster's eyes-a deep, dark, blistering red that seemed like it could burn right through anything, including me.
My breath caught in my throat. I'd only seen a drawing of it in my myth-history book, that weird, weird drawing that had moved and oozed ink all over the page, but I knew exactly what the monster was: a Fenrir wolf.
The wolf's lips drew back in a silent snarl, showing me its razor-sharp teeth. I knew that hidden somewhere in the shadows would be the creature's long, curved, black claws — ones that could tear through almost anything. Wood, skin, muscle, bone.
All put together, the Fenrir wolf was a nightmare come to life.
And now it was here to kill me.
Chapter 9
The Fenrir wolf let out a low, angry growl, and I slowly brought up my ski poles, holding them out in front of me. The thin, flimsy poles wouldn't do me much good against the wolf, but they were better than nothing. I knew better than to try to run. I wouldn't get two steps, not with the skis strapped to my feet, before the creature pounced on me and ripped me to shreds with its teeth and claws. Given the way it was licking its lips with its long, red tongue and staring at me with its bright, glowing eyes, the wolf would definitely enjoy that sort of thing.
This was the third time I'd been face-to-face with a mythological monster, and the only reason I'd survived the first two encounters was because Logan had stepped in to save me. But Logan wasn't here now, and I was all alone-
"Hey, guys! Over here! This lift isn't so crowded!"
A group of Mythos students zoomed into view, gliding over the snow and heading toward the ski lift. The wolf's gaze cut over to them, and it let out another low, ominous growl. While it was distracted, I took a step back, then another one, then another one, putting as much distance as possible between myself and the monster.
The wolf got to its feet and started stalking back and forth inside the thicket of trees. The other kids never even saw it as they stopped at the base of the lift and waited for the chairs to come down the mountain. The monster's gaze moved from them and then back to me, its eyes growing redder and angrier with each passing second, until it seemed like hungry flames flashed in the sockets were its eyes should be.
The wolf realized that I was moving away from it, but there was nothing the monster could do to stop me-not without showing itself. I didn't know how intelligent Fenrir wolves were, but this one must have instinctively known that it would be a bad idea to leap out into the middle of a group of kids. I might not be able to kill it, but the other Mythos students were warriors, trained to fight monsters. I had no doubt they could use their ski poles like spears to take down the creature.
Step by step, I backed up until I was standing on the edge of the group waiting for the chair lift. The other kids ignored me, of course, the way they always did. I kept watching the wolf the whole time, poles up and at the ready, just in case.
I thought about shouting out a warning to the others, but like running, I didn't think I'd even get to scream once before the wolf bounded out of the trees and tore open my throat with its claws. The Mythos kids might be warriors, but I didn't think they'd be fast enough to save me from the monster. I didn't even know if Logan was that good. Either way I wasn't about to bet my life on it-not now.