Everything in the room was white-white walls, white floors, white ceiling, even the blankets piled on top of me were white. The lack of color worried me, and for a second I thought I was still stuck in the snowbank before I was able to shake off my confusion.
My eyes skipped around the rest of the room, but there wasn't much to see-except for the statue. The stone figure perched on a long table directly across from my bed, turned so its eyes stared straight into mine. It was the same statue of Skadi that I'd noticed in the lobby and then earlier today at the outdoor carnival. Only this time, the Norse winter goddess's lips curved down, as though she was disappointed I'd survived the avalanche and was here in the infirmary, instead of buried in a cold, snowy grave. I pulled the blankets back up to my chin and looked away.
Footsteps scuffed on the floor, and Professor Metis stepped into the room. Faint lines grooved into her forehead, and weary worry darkened her green eyes. The professor looked all tired and used up, like she'd been the one out in the avalanche instead of me.
"How are you feeling, Gwen?" Metis asked in a soft voice.
"Fine," I said. "I feel fine."
The weird thing was that I really did feel fine. All the aches, pains, bruises, and scratches I'd gotten during the avalanche had vanished. In fact, I felt like I could hop out of bed right now and do a round of weapons training with the Spartans-and win. Which totally wasn't like me at all.
"Of course you feel fine, Gwendolyn," Nickamedes said in a snide tone, entering the room behind the professor. "Since Aurora just spent the better part of an hour healing you."
Aurora? It took me a second to realize that he meant Professor Metis. Aurora, so that was her first name. Pretty. I liked it.
"Did you-did you touch me?" I asked her. "When you healed me?"
If she had, it might help explain all the crazy dreams I'd had. Although I still wasn't sure where that memory of my mom had come from. Could it have been from Metis? She and my mom had been best friends when they were kids, so she had to have tons of memories of my mom. But the images I'd seen had been from the night my mom had died, when her car had been hit by a drunk driver. Surely, Metis would have told me if she'd been there that night. What reason would she have to keep it a secret? My head started to ache from trying to figure everything out.
Metis shook her head. "I didn't know if you'd want that or not, Gwen, given your psychometry, so I didn't actually touch you. It's more difficult, but I can heal people just by being in close proximity to them, sort of by pushing my aura into theirs and feeding them my energy until they're well again."
The way she described it made me think of Daphne and the pink sparks that always flashed around her fingertips. The Valkyrie had once told me that the color of her magic was tied to her aura and personality. I wondered if Daphne would have the same healing power that Metis did when the Valkyrie's magic finally quickened.
"So what happened?" I asked. "Up on the mountain?"
"What do you remember?" Metis asked, her voice much softer and kinder than Nickamedes's was.
I thought back. "Well, the chair lift was on the fritz, and I was slogging down the slope to the hotel when I heard some kind of explosion. I looked up, and there were flames dancing all over the top of the mountain. Then, a few seconds later, the avalanche started, and all the snow began sliding down the mountain, coming right at me."
I shuddered and hugged my arms around myself, as if that would somehow banish the horrible memory from my mind. I wouldn't need my Gypsy gift to recall the avalanche. No matter how many other bad things happened to me, I'd remember the roar of the snow for the rest of my life. The shadow of it blocking out everything else, and the cold, cruel force of it trying to pull me under and bury me- forever.
Across from me, I noticed the statue of Skadi was now smiling, as if the stone figure could somehow hear what I was thinking.Creepy.
Then another awful thought filled my mind. "No one else was hurt, were they? By the avalanche?"
"No," Metis said. "All the other students were either at the carnival or at the hotel. You were the only one walking down the slope at the time."
I sighed with relief. No one else had gotten hurt. Good. That was good.
Metis and Nickamedes looked at each other. The librarian raised his black eyebrows, like he was asking the professor a question. Metis shook her head the tiniest bit, telling the librarian no to whatever it was he wanted.
"What?" I asked. "What's going on? The two of you aren't telling me something. Teachers and parentsalwayshave that guilty look when they're holding something back."
Metis drew in a breath. "You're right, Gwen. I really don't know how to say this, but there is some… evidence that the avalanche wasn't an accident."
I frowned. "What are you talking about? Sure, I saw the flames and heard the explosion or whatever, but there has to be some kind of explanation right? The chair lift catching on fire or something?"
Nickamedes stared at me, his eyes as cold and hard as chips of ice. "Oh, there's an explanation, all right, Gwendolyn. Mainly, that someone caused the avalanche- on purpose."
Chapter 15
Despite all the craziness that had been going on the past few days, Nickamedes's words still stunned me.
"You think it was-it was deliberate?" I asked, cold dread pooling in the bottom of my stomach. "Why?"
Nickamedes stared down his nose at me. "Mountains do not blow themselves up, Gwendolyn. After we got you down here safely to the infirmary, Ajax and I went back up the mountain. We found some burn marks and other things that indicate that someone deliberately set off an explosion at the top of the mountain, which was what caused the avalanche."
The Reaper. I knew it was the mysterious Reaper who was trying to kill me. First, the SUV outside my Grandma Frost's house, then the arrow in the library, and now, the Fenrir wolf and the avalanche. Somehow, the Reaper had seen me leave the carnival and start down the mountain. I didn't know if he'd planned the explosion and the avalanche in advance or not, but he'd seen an opportunity to kill me, and he'd taken it.
And he'd almost succeeded. If I'd hadn't run for the pine trees, if I'd been just a second or two slower in getting there, if I hadn't tied myself to the tree…
If, if, if.
If any of those things had gone wrong, the avalanche would have swept me away-forever.
What was even worse was the fact that this time the Reaper hadn't cared who else he might have hurt. If there had been anyone else going down the mountain the same time I had been, if Daphne and Carson had decided to have lunch with Preston and me… My stomach twisted, and I thought I was going to be sick.
The door to the infirmary banged open, and Daphne barged inside, pink sparks of magic flashing around her, like a thousand tiny fireflies winking on and off.
"Sorry, Aurora," Coach Ajax said, sticking his head into the room. "I couldn't keep her out any longer."
"Gwen!" Daphne said, rushing over to me.
She bumped Nickamedes out of the way, her Valkyrie strength pushing the librarian back several steps. He gave her a sour look, and his mouth pinched down into a frown.
Daphne grabbed my hand, and her concern for me flooded my body. It was a nice feeling-in a panicked, anxious kind of way.