Touch of Frost Page 11

Page 11

 

  I closed my eyes, reaching for my Gypsy gift once more, straining to see something, to feel something, anything that might give me a clue as to who had murdered Jasmine. Or at least what her password was so I could unlock her stupid computer.

  I got a couple more images of Jasmine ordering stuff online-something that looked like a fancy knife or letter opener, along with a scarlet robe crusted with jewels. I got that same smug feeling of satisfaction, but that was it. Nothing else.

  There wasn't anything in the images that would tell me her password, which was what I really needed right now. I might be savvy enough to slip open a loose door lock, but I wasn't computer literate enough to know how to break into someone's system. I'd need help with that, which was a major, major problem. It wasn't like I had a friend here at Mythos I could just call up and ask for a favor.

  It wasn't like I had any friends here at all.

  But I'd come this far. I wasn't going to let some stupid password stop me. So I fired up my own laptop and used it to log on to the academy Web site, clicking through the various pages and links until I found what I wanted-a list of all the kids in the Tech Club.

  Mythos might be a place of magic, but it also happened to be inhabited by teenagers, some of whose parents owned computer companies and some of whom happened to be budding hackers themselves. For all the old-fashioned magic mumbo jumbo, the Powers That Were at the academy had realized that technology wasn't going away and had gotten with the times. Hence the establishment of the Tech Club.

  So all I had to do was find someone willing to help me crack Jasmine's computer and keep quiet about it after the fact-

  My eyes spied a name near the top of the alphabetical list. I blinked, making sure that I was seeing it right. She was in the Tech Club? Yes, she was, which meant that this whole thing might actually be easier than I'd thought. I looked at the name and sat there a minute, thinking about it.

  Then, I smiled. Oh yeah. This part was actually going to be fun.

  I stood in the back of the dining hall the next day at lunch, looking for her. Like everything else at the academy, the dining hall was totally pretentious. Instead of the long orange plastic tables at my old school, the Mythos cafeteria featured round tables covered with creamy white linens, fine china, and crystal vases full of fresh narcissus flowers. The tables were arranged around a large circular open-air garden that featured twisting grapevines, along with orange, olive, and almond trees. Marble statues of gods and goddesses like Dionysus and Demeter peeped through the greenery, watching the students eat. Suits of polished armor lined the walls, along with more oil paintings showing various mythological feasts. Somebody really cared about the ambiance in here, although I didn't know why. It was like eating lunch in a museum.

  And the food? It was just as fancy and froufrou as everything else. We're talking veal and liver and escargot and other stuff that I didn't even recognize. Who wanted to scarf down slimy snails for lunch? Yucko. The salads were just about the only thing on the menu that I would even eat, and only because it was really hard to screw up raw vegetables. Still, the chefs at Mythos tried, always carving the carrots into elaborate curlicued shapes and fashioning the tomatoes into rosettes.

  But the fanciest things were the desserts. Almost every one of them came in its own special serving bowl, was ridiculously small, and was served flambe. Seriously. A chef would come over and set your thumbnailsize chocolate-cherry souffle on fire, if that's how he thought it should be served. Whatever. I'd rather have a tin of Grandma Frost's fresh-baked oatmeal raisin cookies any day. At least then I didn't have to worry about getting my eyebrows singed off because I needed a sugar fix.

  I'd finished eating my usual grilled chicken salad five minutes ago, and now I was looking for the person who was going to help me break into Jasmine's laptop, even if she didn't know it yet.

  It took me another two minutes of scanning the crowd before I spotted her sitting on the far side of the dining hall, a book on the table in front of her, even though her black eyes were fixed on the band geek next to her. I wound my way through the tables, heading toward them.

  ". . . and so you see, there's lots of symbolism in The Iliad," Carson Callahan lectured in a patient voice. "All you have to do is pick out your favorite god or hero and I'm sure I can help you come up with something to write your English lit paper on. "

  Daphne Cruz gave the object of her affection a dazzling smile that turned her from merely pretty into downright gorgeous. "You're so smart, Carson. It's all just gibberish to me. "

  Daphne eased a little closer to the band geek and put her hand on his arm. Carson's brown eyes widened behind his black glasses, and he blinked several times. The two of them were lost in their own little world.

  I cleared my throat. "So sorry to interrupt. "

  At the sound of my voice, they started and jumped back from each other, as though they'd been doing something they shouldn't have. Daphne's head snapped up to me, even though Carson kept staring at her.

  "Then why are you?" Daphne asked in a low, ugly voice.

  She tapped a nail on her book, and pink sparks flickered in the air. The Valkyrie was annoyed with me for interrupting her pseudodate with her crush.

  I smiled at her. "Because I need to talk to you, Daphne. About that special project that we've been assigned for myth-history class. "

  She frowned. "What project? You're not even in my myth-history class-"

  "You know. The one we talked about in the girls' bathroom the other day. It was right after I told you about that charm bracelet that I found for Carson. " I looked at the band geek. "How did that work out for you, Carson? You and Leta?"

  Despite his dusky skin, the band geek still flushed an interesting shade of purple-red. "Um, well, I haven't actually, ah, done anything about that yet, Gwen. "

  "Well, you'd better hurry," I said. "The homecoming dance is Friday night. You wouldn't want to go without a date, now would you?"

  Daphne's eyes narrowed, and her glossy pink lips pressed into a line that was so hard and thin that I couldn't even see them in her face anymore.

  "Carson," Daphne said in a deceptively sweet voice. "I really do have to talk to Gwen. Maybe we can catch up later? Before last period and talk about my paper some more?"

  "Sure," Carson said.

  Daphne and I kept staring at each other. Carson's head swiveled back and forth between the two of us, not sure what was going on. Finally, though, after about thirty seconds of absolute silence, he got the idea that he should leave.

  "Okay, then, I'll just . . . go," he said.

  Carson stood up and started stuffing books and papers into his bag, before he looped the strap over his shoulder. He gave me another look before staring down at Daphne. The Valkyrie was too busy glaring at me to notice, but a sad, quiet longing crept into the band geek's gaze as he looked at her. Sweet, but I didn't have time for the Romeo and Juliet drama right now.

  "Bye, Carson," I said in a firm voice, prodding him on his way.

  Carson snapped out of his silent Valkyrie worship. "Um, bye, Gwen. "

  Carson gave Daphne one more longing look, then threaded his way through the tables and headed out of the dining hall.

  I waited until Carson was out of sight before I sat down in his spot. Next to me, Daphne packed up her own books and papers as fast as she could, probably intending to leave me sitting here by myself since I'd driven off her crush.

  "That was a cozy little scene," I said in a mild voice. "I didn't know you were such a flirt, Daphne. "

  The Valkyrie gave me a look that would have cut glass. "I wasn't flirting with Carson. "

  "Oh, sure you were. You were practically batting your lashes at him. And that hand-on-the-arm move? A classic flirting technique. Executed very well, by the way. Did Morgan McDougall give you some tips? I hear that she's quite popular with the guys. "

  Daphne glowered at me, but she didn
't deny any of it. She knew that there was no use, not after the confession she'd given me in the girls' bathroom the other day. She sighed, leaned back in her chair, and crossed her arms over her chest.

  "What do you want, Gwen Frost?" she snapped. "I've got an English lit paper to write, in case you didn't hear. "

  "I want you to help me with something. "

  She let out an angry snort. "And what would that be?"

  I looked around to make sure that no one was paying attention to us, then leaned forward. "I want you to help me break the password on Jasmine Ashton's laptop. "

  Daphne frowned, as though she didn't understand what I'd just said. "Jasmine's laptop? How would you even-"

  Her black eyes widened. "You have it! You have her laptop! You dirty little thief!"

  "Sshh!" I hissed, glancing around to make sure no one had heard her. "Not so loud. I'm trying to keep this on the down-low. But yeah, I have her laptop. And some other stuff, too. "

  "What are you doing with Jasmine's laptop?" Daphne snapped. "You going to hock it and buy some more of those stupid hoodies you're always wearing?"

  "No," I said in the calmest voice I could manage. "I want to see what's on it so I can figure out who killed Jasmine. "

  Daphne frowned again, but she didn't say anything. Instead, the Valkyrie sat there and stared at me, as though she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Everybody knows that a Reaper killed Jasmine so he could steal the Bowl of Tears. Whoever he is, the guy is long gone by now. "

  I shrugged. "Maybe. But I see things, remember? And I've got a weird feeling about all of this. "

  Daphne's frown deepened. "But why do you even care what happened to Jasmine? She wasn't a friend of yours. You didn't even know her. "

  "No," I replied in a soft voice. "But I was there that night in the library when she was killed. And it could have just as easily been me as her who was lying underneath that glass case with my throat cut and blood everywhere. "

  I drew in a breath and told Daphne what had really happened that night. How I'd been in the library, heard a noise, and found Jasmine's body. A shiver slithered up my spine as I finished my story. It was a thought that I hadn't even let myself think too much about until now, but it was true. Whoever had stolen the Bowl of Tears was the same person who'd killed Jasmine and knocked me out. So why hadn't he stopped long enough to cut my throat as well? Why hadn't he killed me, too? That way, there wouldn't have been any witnesses at all.

  "Look," I said in a quiet voice. "Everyone thinks that it was some anonymous Reaper who killed Jasmine and took the Bowl of Tears. But Professor Metis told me that Reapers can be anyone, even Mythos students. What if it wasn't some mystery bad guy? What if it was somebody we go to class with? That freaks me out. "

  Daphne didn't say anything, but I could see the agreement flashing in her eyes.

  "I use my Gypsy gift to find things for people, so I thought I'd poke around a little and see if I could figure out what really happened. So yeah, I broke into Jasmine's dorm room last night and I took her laptop, hoping to find some sort of clue on it. Something to at least tell me why she was in the library. Maybe that makes me a thief, but at least I'm trying; at least I'm doing something. Everybody else doesn't even seem to care that she's dead. You were one of her friends. Can you say the same?"

  Guilt flickered across Daphne's face before she could hide it.

  The blond Valkyrie stared at me, her fingers drumming on the white linen tablecloth and shooting pink sparks of magic everywhere. "So why come to me? Why ask me to help? Besides the fact that I'm one of Jasmine's friends?"

  "Because I know you're in the Tech Club, which means you can probably break the password with no problem. And because I've got something on you, which means you'll keep quiet about all this. "

  Her face tightened. "Carson. "

  I nodded. "Carson. "

  I didn't tell her what would happen if she didn't agree to help me. Daphne knew all too well. The rumor would spread through the academy like wildfire that she had a crush on Carson Callahan, of all people. It would go viral in about five seconds, and she'd be the laughingstock of the entire school. At least for this week.

  She sighed. "What do you want me to do, Gwen?"

  "Come up to my dorm room after last period today. Help me crack the password on the laptop and you never have to talk to me again. "

  "And you won't tell anyone?" she asked. "About Carson?"

  I shook my head. "Not a soul. "

  Daphne stared at me, trying to read my face and figure out if I was telling her the truth or not. After a minute, the Valkyrie made up her mind, because she stopped drumming her fingers on the table. She sighed and nodded.

  "All right. I'll do it. Not because I'm scared of you or whatever little rumor you might start, but because Jasmine was my friend. Okay?"

  "Okay. "

  I wrote down my dorm and room number and told her to meet me there later.

  "I can hardly wait," Daphne muttered before slipping the piece of paper into her giant Dooney & Bourke purse.

  "Yeah," I drawled. "It's almost like we're BFFs already. "

  The Valkyrie gave me another dirty look before she slung her purse over her shoulder and stalked out of the dining hall.

  Chapter 9

  The rest of the day dragged by, especially Professor Metis's myth-history class. I stared out the window again, wondering if Daphne would really show up at my dorm room and help me with Jasmine's computer or if the Valkyrie would stand me up and rat me out to someone-