Free Kiss of Frost by Jennifer Estep

to them yet and has thrown them in prison where they belong.”
    I nodded my head, and we were silent for a few moments.
    “You know, it’s just too bad that I didn’t have a bow and arrow tonight,” I finally groused. “I could have thought of you and defended myself against the Reaper.”
    “What do you mean?”
    I told the Valkyrie how I’d done better during archery practice this morning just by thinking of her, by calling up the memories I had of her at the tournaments she’d won.
    “Really? That’s cool.” Daphne tapped her fingers against her lips, deep in thought. “I wonder if you could do that with other things, too.”
    “What do you mean?”
    She gestured at her bulging book bag on the floor. “I’ve been reading up on various magical theories and powers while I wait for my own magic to quicken. There are lots of stories about folks tapping into other people’s powers. Most of them have some kind of mental magic, like you do. Telepathy or something that lets them see into other people’s minds. So if you can call up the memories of my archery tournaments, who’s to say you couldn’t do that with other things? Or even with other people?”
    I shrugged. “I don’t know. I never thought of my magic like that before. Usually I just get flashes off objects. I don’t actually do anything with the memories I see.”
    “Well, maybe you should try to, to see if it works,” Daphne said. “Either way you might as well start packing your bags for the carnival. Because I’m not leaving you here by yourself, not with a Reaper lurking around. You’re going to the carnival, even if I have to drag you kicking and screaming onto the bus myself.”
    Daphne’s pretty features took on a determined, stubborn look, and more pink sparks of magic flickered in the air around her. We might have only been friends for a few weeks now, but I knew she meant what she said. And with her Valkyrie strength, she’d have no problem twisting my arm—literally—to get me to do exactly what she wanted.
    “All right, all right,” I groused again. “I’ll talk to Metis tomorrow, and I’ll go to the stupid Winter Carnival with you. Just don’t expect me to like it.”
    Daphne grinned, and then stuffed another cookie into her mouth.
     

    I stuck to my regular schedule the next day, Thursday; weapons training, bright and early, with Logan, Kenzie, and Oliver; breakfast in the dining hall with Daphne; then a full day of classes. I eyed all the other students, wondering which one of them might really be a Reaper, but no one paid me any more attention than usual. Which is to say, nobody noticed me at all. I wasn’t exactly one of the popular kids, and I certainly wasn’t pretty enough for the guys to check me out that way. Most people—like Helena Paxton and her snotty friends in the library last night—just thought of me as Gwen Frost, that weird Gypsy girl.
    Finally, sixth period rolled around, and I slid into my seat in Professor Metis’s myth-history class. Carson’s desk was right in front of mine, and he turned around to talk to me. Carson was Daphne’s boyfriend, but he was my friend, too, since I’d helped hook them up in the first place. He was just an all-around nice, sweet guy with a tall, lanky, six-foot frame and dusky brown hair and skin. He also happened to be a total band geek, and was the drum major for the Mythos Academy Marching Band, even though he was only seventeen and a second-year student, like me. Carson was a Celt, and had a magical talent for music, like some kind of warrior bard, although I’d never really asked him about it, what kind of power he had, or what he could do with it.
    “Are you excited about the Winter Carnival?” Carson asked, pushing his black glasses up his nose and peering at me with his dark brown eyes. “This will be your first one, right, Gwen?”
    “Yeah,” I muttered. “And I’m just thrilled to death about it.”
    Carson frowned, picking up on my sour mood,