dreds of thousands of people died, Gwen. And
hundreds of thousands more will die if Loki is freed once more. The
world as we know it will be utterly destroyed.”
So the Chaos was death, destruction, and
blah, blah, blah, just like I’d thought. Another war, just like the one
that had been fought before. Except when Professor Metis talked about it
this time, a shiver swept up my spine. Like it was actually real. Like it could actually happen.
We left the main quad behind and stepped
onto one of the walkways that led out to the dorms. The student dorms
were smaller versions of the main academy buildings—lots of gray stone,
lots of thick, green ivy, lots of creepy statues everywhere.
Somehow, Metis knew that I roomed in Styx
Hall, without me even telling her. She walked me all the way up to the
front door. Since the student curfew was ten o’clock on weeknights and
the dorms automatically locked down after that, Metis had to swipe her
professor ID badge through the scanner to get the door to open for me.
I could have told her not to bother. That
there was a sturdy persimmon tree that reached up to a second-floor
window on the back of the building. The window had a busted lock, and
whatever magic was on it to keep students in or bad guys out had
dissolved or disappeared a long time ago. Now, a
