Book 4.5 Spartan Frost by Jennifer Estep

Author:Jennifer Estep [Jennifer Estep]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 3

Dad threw on his Protectorate robe, while I went back to my room and put a heavy black snowsuit on top of my winter clothes. On the way out the front door, I grabbed a sword from one of the walls. Sergei and Inari were already outside waiting in Sergei’s black Range Rover. Dad and I piled into the back of the vehicle, and the four of us took off.

Sergei drove for about thirty minutes, twisting and winding through the mountains before slowing down on a remote section of road and stopping the car on the shoulder. Sergei reached into the glove box, pulled out a black toboggan, and tugged it down over his head, hiding his brown hair from sight. He grabbed another toboggan and handed it to me. I yanked the fabric down over my ears, grateful for the extra warmth it provided.

“Now, we hike,” Sergei said with a big grin and a wink.

I grinned back at him.

We left the car and trooped through the snowy woods single file, with Sergei creating a path through the snow and the rest of us following along in his wake. The forest was completely silent, except for our harsh, frosty rasps of breath, and even the birds were still and quiet in their hidden roosts on the branches above our heads. Everything smelled crisp, sharp, cold, and clean, and I breathed in deeply, enjoying the icy burn of the winter air in my lungs.

Finally, we crested the ridge we’d been climbing up for the last ten minutes and reached the back side of the property that was serving as the Reapers’ hideout. The four of us hunkered down in the deep snowdrifts at the edge of the trees and got our bearings.

An enormous building lay in the clearing before us, one that was even larger than my family’s mansion. It too was made of wood, glass, and stone and had three wings that were joined together, each of which boasted its own A-line roof. Even though it was midmorning, lights still burned inside the structure, fighting a losing battle against the unrelenting grayness of the day, but I didn’t see anyone moving through the glass wall that was set into the back of the building.

“What is this place?” I whispered.

“Part of an abandoned ski resort,” Sergei whispered back.

“The bank foreclosed on it before the season ever started, so it’s been sitting here empty all fall and winter.”

“All of which made it a perfect place for the Reapers to take over and use,” Inari added, his dark eyes fixed on the structure.

“Well, it looks like someone’s home, with all of those lights on,” Dad murmured.

“So what are we waiting for?” I asked. “Let’s go say hello.”

My voice was dark, harsh, and ugly—as dark, harsh, and ugly as I’d felt ever since that day at the auditorium. I didn’t want to talk to the Reapers—I just wanted to kill them. No, scratch that. I didn’t even want to kill them. Not really. I wanted to make them hurt, like I’d hurt Gwen.

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