Free Dark Frost by Jennifer Estep Page A

sleep, I wrapped myself in my purple flannel robe and trudged up the stairs to the third floor. Really, it was an attic, although Grandma had put some furniture up here for me. After my mom had died, I’d spent hours up here, just staring out the window, crying, and wondering why my mom had been taken from me so suddenly, so cruelly. I must have asked myself why a thousand times, but there was never any answer.
    It wasn’t any easier now that I knew the real reason why.
    I snapped on a lamp. Stacks and stacks of battered cardboard boxes formed a zigzag maze through the attic, stretching from one side of the house to the other. Most of the boxes held your usual clutter, old magazines Grandma had never gotten around to throwing out, worn-out clothes that didn’t fit anymore, Christmas decorations we’d put away until next year.
    But there were some newer boxes in the mix—boxes full of my mom’s things. Her clothes, her books, her jewelry, even her makeup and a bottle of her favorite lilac perfume. Everything my mom had left behind in our old house when she’d been murdered last year. All the pieces of her daily life she’d never use again, thanks to the Reaper girl.
    I hadn’t looked at the boxes since her death, but now it was a necessity. Over the holiday break, I’d been going through the boxes and the items inside, one by one, trying to find something, anything that would tell me where my mom had hidden the Helheim Dagger. I’d used my psychometry and touched every single item in every single box, hoping my mom had left me a clue somewhere, that I’d pick up something, get a vibe off it, and see exactly where she’d hidden the dagger.
    It had been one of the hardest things I’d ever done.
    Everything I touched, every sweater I held or necklace I brushed my fingers across brought back a memory of my mom. In a way, it was like I was seeing a condensed version of her life and all the things she’d seen, done, and felt along the way. It was fun flashing on her favorite toys as a kid and seeing her playing with them, her brown hair in pigtails, and freckles dotting her face just like they did mine. But it also reminded me of how much I missed her—and how I’d never see her smile or laugh or talk to her again.
    In a way, touching her things was like losing my mom all over again—a dozen little deaths packed into each and every box.
    But I was determined to do it. My mom had hidden the dagger back when she’d been going to Mythos and had been the Champion of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. Now, as the goddess’s current Champion, it was my job to find the dagger—before the Reapers did.
    My hope had slowly dwindled as I opened box after box and didn’t find what I was searching for, until now there was only one box left I hadn’t been through. I pulled it over to an old, gray velvet loveseat in the corner, opened the top, and started going through the items inside. Clothes, a worn-out slipper, some dried-up markers, a few books, a roll of quarters my mom had forgotten to take to the bank. It was an odd mix of items.
    One by one, I touched everything in the box, wrapping my fingers around the items and reaching for my pyschometry magic, straining to see everything I possibly could with my Gypsy gift. All I got were a few weak flashes of my mom buying the clothes in the store or shaking the markers and grumbling because they were out of ink. Pretty standard stuff. Most of the time, I didn’t get much of a vibe off common, everyday objects that had a specific purpose or function or ones that tons of people used every day like pens, computers, or paper clips. I only got the big, high-def flashes, the major whammies of memories and feelings, when I touched something a person had a deep, emotional connection to, something she’d imprinted a piece of herself on, like a treasured family heirloom ring or a favorite Christmas ornament someone had made when he was a kid.
    Still, one by one, I went through the