Midnight Frost Read Online Free PDF

couldn’t blame them for that, though. Most kids at the academy weren’t used to mythological creatures like Fenrir wolves, Nemean prowlers, and Black rocs trying to do anything but kill them.
    I was the last one in line, and, finally, it was my turn to order. I scanned the menu tacked up beside the cash register.
    “Give me a bottled water, a jumbo pretzel with nacho cheese sauce, and a dark chocolate brownie,” I said.
    Silence.
    I peered around a display of blueberry muffins. A woman sat on a stool behind the cash register, reading through a celebrity gossip magazine as if it was the most interesting thing ever. The woman was old—even older than Grandma Frost—with a shock of long, white hair that seemed to flow into the long, white gown she wore. Her eyes were as black, bright, and shiny as a bird’s, while dark wrinkles streaked across her face, almost like the thin grooves were filled with shadows instead of just sagging skin. She licked her thumb and turned another page in her magazine, completely ignoring me, even though I’d stepped up to the counter as soon as the Viking in front of me had left.
    I sighed. Raven was here today. I should have known.
    Raven ran the coffee cart, one of the many odd jobs she had at the academy, along with being on the security council, overseeing members of the Protectorate when they cleaned up crime scenes, and watching over any Reapers being kept in the prison in the math-science building. I didn’t know exactly why Raven had all of these jobs, since she didn’t seem particularly qualified for any of them and was always scanning through some magazine or another, but everything important always seemed to get done, and I guess that’s all the Powers That Were really cared about.
    I cleared my throat, and Raven finally put down her magazine. I repeated my order, and she moved from one side of the cart to the other, heating up my pretzel and cheese sauce in the small microwave and handing them to me, along with my bottled water and brownie. I reached into my jeans pocket, drew out a ten-dollar bill, and handed it across the counter to her, careful not to let my fingers brush hers. Not only could I flash on objects, but my psychometry also kicked in whenever I touched another person. Right now, I had no desire to see how bored Raven was sitting at the coffee cart making hot peppermint chocolate for folks.
    Still, as I looked at her, it seemed like her face flickered for a moment, as though there was something underneath her features the same way there was something lurking beneath all the statues on campus.
    “One day I’m going to figure out what you’re hiding with all of those wrinkles,” I said.
    Raven raised her bushy eyebrows at me, but she didn’t say anything. She’d never said anything to me, so I had no idea what her voice sounded like, whether it would be light and lilting or the cackle and crackle of an old crone.
    She handed me my change, sat down on her stool, and stuck her nose back in her magazine. I rolled my eyes, grabbed my food, and hurried down the main aisle to the checkout counter. Nyx trotted along beside me, her toenails click-click-clicking against the floor.
    I stepped behind the counter, laid my food down on it, and put my messenger bag on the floor next to a large gray wicker basket. Grandma Frost had given me the basket so Nyx would have a comfy place to hang out while I was working. I crouched down and unclipped the leash from around the wolf’s neck, although I left the collar on her.
    “I have to go to work now, so stay in your basket, okay?” I murmured, rubbing her tiny ears between my fingers.
    Nyx leaned into my hand and let out a contented sigh. Then, she plopped down on her cute, pudgy, baby belly, tucked her tail over her nose, and closed her violet-colored eyes. She’d been coming to the library with me for several days now, so she knew the drill.
    “The fuzzball has the right idea,” Vic said, his half of a mouth stretching