First Frost by Jennifer Estep

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

“Is this real y necessary?” I grumbled.

A week had passed since Grandma Frost and

Professor Metis had informed me that I’d be going

to Mythos Academy in the fal . Earlier this morning,

Metis had shown up at my grandma’s house and

announced that it was time for me to take a tour of

the school. Ignoring my sul en protests, the

professor had driven the two of us up to Cypress

Mountain, past an enormous iron gate, and onto the

academy grounds.

Now we stood on the edge of what Metis was

cal ing the upper quad—the heart of Mythos

Academy. The picturesque quad looked like

something you’d find at an Ivy League prep school

or col ege campus. Enormous trees boasting thick,

green, leaf-laden branches, iron benches nestled

underneath them in the shade, a smooth carpet of

grass rol ing out in al directions.

“Can’t I just look at photos of the academy

online?” I grumbled some more. “You e-mailed me

the link and the password for the school Web site

already.”

“Yes, Gwen, it is real y necessary, and no, you

cannot just look at pictures online,” Professor Metis

said. “This is the same orientation we give to al the

first-year students, and you’re getting it, too, even

though at seventeen you’l be classified as second

year. Now, come along. We’ve got a lot of ground

to cover today.”

Metis stepped onto a gray cobblestone pathway

that made an enormous circle around the quad and

started walking at a slow, leisurely pace. I sighed

and trudged after her.

“These five buildings are where you’l be

spending most of your time. English-history, math-

science, the dining hal , the gym, and of course, the

Library of Antiquities,” Metis said.

She pointed out the appropriate structures as we

passed them, but they al looked the same to me—

dark gray stone buildings covered with curling

green ivy vines. Each one featured a variety of

towers and balconies, making them look like part of

some Gothic horror movie set instead of a posh

private school. I half expected jagged lightning to

suddenly crackle in the sky overhead, zoom down,

and slam into the top of one of the pointed towers.

That didn’t happen, but the more I stared at the

buildings, the more I realized there was something .

. . sinister about them. Not so much the buildings

themselves, I thought, but rather the statues that

covered them.

Gryphons, gargoyles, dragons, a hulking

Minotaur. It took me a minute to realize that al the

statues were carved into the shapes of

mythological monsters right out of the bedtime

stories my mom used to read me. The statues were

made of the same dark gray stone as the buildings

themselves, but for some reason, their teeth and

claws and talons glinted in the warm spring

sunshine. I thought the architect had taken the name

Mythos Academy a little too literal y. Mythological

monsters didn’t exist, no matter how real and

lifelike the statues looked or how their open, lidless

eyes seemed to fol ow my every movement . . .

right? I wasn’t so sure of the answer now. I shivered

and dropped my gaze from a pair of particularly

fierce-looking gryphons planted on either side of

the library steps.

Before I could ask Metis what was up with the

creepy statues, another professor came over and

started talking to her.

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