I didn't have to. The Fenrir wolf let out one final growl, then slid farther back into the trees and disappeared.
The chairs finally circled back around, and the other kids scrambled onto them. Legs shaking, I managed to slipslide over and sit down on the final chair before it took off up the mountain. I leaned over the side and peered down into the trees, but I didn't spot the wolf anywhere beneath the thick tangles of snowy branches. It had vanished just as quickly as it had appeared.
But this wouldn't be the last time I saw it. The wolf would come for me sooner or later, lurking and hiding on the mountain until it got another shot at me, another chance to tear into me with its teeth and drag my body back to its Reaper master. I knew that, but I still couldn't stop the questions from filling my mind.
How was I going to kill it?
And who had sent it after me in the first place?
I was a little calmer by the time the chair lift reached the top of the slope. At least, I told myself that I was, even if my heart felt like it was going to pound out of my chest, and my palms were cold and clammy with sweat inside my puffy purple gloves.
Daphne and Carson were waiting for me. They sat at a wooden table that had been painted a bright, candy-apple red, and the glossy boards looked like blood resting on top of the snow. Or maybe it just seemed that way because I was still freaked out from seeing the Fenrir wolf.
My friends both clasped oversize mugs in their hands and slowly sipped the hot chocolate they'd bought from a guy in a concessions shack off to one side of the slope. Steam wisped up out of the mugs, the thin ribbons bringing the smells of warm milk, sweet cinnamon, and just a hint of tangy peppermint along with them. Normally, the rich aromas would have made me thirsty for my own mug of hot chocolate. Now, they just turned my stomach.
"Geez, Gwen. What took you so long?" Daphne said.
"Yeah, we thought maybe you'd fallen into a snowdrift or something," Carson joked.
"No," I said in a quiet voice. "But I saw a Fenrir wolf in the trees."
Instead of being scared by my confession, Daphne perked up. "Really? Cool! What did it look like? Was it really as big as a Nemean prowler? Did it have massive teeth?"
"Cool?" I asked, confused. "Why is that cool?"
Daphne and Carson exchanged a look, like they were in on some secret that I wasn't.
"Remember what Metis told us in class about how some of the Fenrir wolves still run around free in the wild?" Carson asked.
"Yeah… "
"Well, the mountains around the ski resort are one of the places they live. A couple of kids saw some of the wolves last year, hanging around the resort. The kids tried to get close to the wolves, but they just disappeared into the trees."
"And it's not just wolves," Daphne added. "There are tons of wild animals around here. Sometimes we see bears or mountain lions or elk, right at the edges of the slopes."
My friends started talking about all the animals they'd seen last year and some of the cell phone videos and photos the other students had taken.
"But-"
I opened my mouth to tell them it wasn't just some wild Fenrir wolf that I'd seen, that it wasn't more scared of me than I was of it, that it had red eyes and had seemed to want to kill me more than anything else. But at the last second I changed my mind. Daphne and Carson looked so happy cozied up next to each other. I didn't want to ruin their day by going on and on about just how big, bad, and evil the wolf had seemed, especially when they weren't really concerned about me seeing the creature in the first place. I didn't want to be a total wimp-or worse, have my friends look at me like they didn't believe me. Besides, there was a small chance I was wrong about the wolf being here to kill me. Wild or not, the wolf was still a monster. Maybe they all had red eyes. Okay, okay, so I didn't really believe that, but it made me feel a smidge better.
Anyway, my friends had come here to have fun. If word got out there was a wolf with red eyes roaming around the mountain, the Powers That Were might cancel the whole Winter Carnival. Maybe it was selfish of me, but I didn't want to be known as Gwen Frost, that Gypsy girl who ruined everything. That would definitely make me more of a misfit freak than I already was.
But even more than that was the fact that I wanted to be like the other kids. I wanted to be a real warrior. If the wolf was here to kill me, then I wanted to take care of the monster myself. Kill it myself. Even if I had no idea exactly how I was going to do that.
So I made myself smile at my friends, even though my face felt frozen and numb. "Let's forget about the wolf, okay? What do you say we go on up to the next slope and see if I can work my Gypsy magic again?"
"Sounds like a plan to me," Carson said, pushing his black glasses up his nose and grinning.
"See? I told you it would work," Daphne said in a smug tone. "I always have the best ideas."
"Of course you do," Carson told her.
Daphne rolled her eyes and punched him lightly in the shoulder. Carson retaliated by trying to steal the Valkyrie's hot chocolate. She swatted his hand away, and the two of them started laughing and mock fighting.
Neither one of them saw the strained, fake smile drop from my lips or noticed that I didn't join in the fun.
For the rest of the afternoon, the three of us zoomed down the various ski slopes, then rode the chair lifts back up to the top again. All the while I kept an eye out for the Fenrir wolf, and I made sure that the three of us stayed far, far away from the trees. To my relief, I didn't spot the monster lurking in the snow-crusted pines.
The higher up the mountain we went, the more crowded the slopes were, and I relaxed a little bit. The wolf couldn't get to me out here, not with all the kids and profs around. That would be suicide for the monster. As long as I stayed with a crowd, I was safe.
For now.
To my surprise, I sort of got the hang of skiing. All I had to do was use my psychometry magic and think of Daphne skiing, and I could get down all the slopes, even the really steep ones that twisted and turned like crazy. But the second I let my concentration waver, the second I started worrying about the Fenrir wolf, my memories of Daphne vanished-along with my ability to tap into them.
I found that out the hard way-literally. One second I was swooshing over the snow just fine. The next I was looking for the wolf. And the one after that, I found myself face-first in a snowdrift and not quite sure how I had gotten there. I sat out the next few runs after that.
Finally, at around five, we called it quits for the day and skied down the mountain to the hotel. The three of us ate dinner in one of the resort restaurants, which was just as expensive as everything else. And just like at the academy, the food was all fancy, froufrou stuff, like frog legs, rabbit, and pan-seared tuna. Yucko. I settled for a filet mignon cheeseburger, Parmesan sweet potato fries, and a piece of baklava made with sourwood honey and topped with toasted, slivered almonds. The baklava wasn't nearly as good as what Grandma Frost made, but it was sugary sweet, so I scarfed it down anyway.