Midnight Frost Read Online Free PDF Page B

into a wide, loud yawn. “Wake me when there are Reapers to kill.”
    “I wouldn’t dream of doing anything else.”
    Vic glared at me, picking up on the sarcasm in my voice. “Hmph!” he huffed, then snapped his eye shut.
    I left Vic in his scabbard and propped the sword up next to Nyx. Despite his snit, I knew that Vic would give a shout and let me know if he or Nyx needed anything, and that Nyx would come running to get me if something happened to Vic. I liked that the two of them could watch each other’s backs, especially these days, when we all knew that Reapers could attack anywhere, anytime—even in the Library of Antiquities.
    I plopped down on a stool and logged in to the computer system. Then, I opened my bag of food and arranged it on the counter. I dunked my pretzel into the warm, nacho cheese sauce and was about to take a big bite when a door opened in the glass office complex behind me, and the sharp tap-tap-tap of wing tips on marble sounded. A moment later, a shadow fell over me, and someone cleared his throat.
    “Yes, Nickamedes?”
    “You are late, Gwendolyn,” he said. “At this point, do I even have to say again ? Perhaps it would be more appropriate to say as usual , or as always , or even for the umpteenth time .”
    “I’m not late,” I protested, waving my pretzel in his direction. “I’ve been in the library for ten minutes already. I was at the coffee cart. See?”
    Nickamedes sniffed. “Standing in line is not the same thing as actually being behind the counter working.”
    I rolled my eyes. Sometimes, I thought the two of us were just destined to disagree.
    “And will you please look at me when I am speaking to you?”
    I pressed my lips together, raised my head, and looked up at him. The head librarian was handsome, for a guy in his forties, with ink-black hair and blue eyes. You could tell how lean and muscled his body was, despite the dark blue sweater vest, shirt, tie, and black corduroy pants he wore. I wasn’t trying to be rude by ignoring him and concentrating on my food. Really, I wasn’t. But Nickamedes looked so much like his nephew that it made my heart clench. Because the librarian was yet another reminder that Logan was gone.
    “Thank you,” Nickamedes said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Now, as I was saying, you are late again , and I think that . . .”
    I immediately dropped my gaze back down to my food. Okay, okay, so I was totally tuning out his lecture, but only because it was the same one he’d given me a dozen times before. Besides, I was hungry. I started to lean forward to take a bite of my pretzel, when the librarian snatched it out of my hand.
    “Hey!” I said. “I was eating that!”
    “Correction, you were going to eat that,” Nickamedes said. “Right now, you are going to shelve books.”
    He put my pretzel down on top of its bag on the counter, grabbed a stack of books off a metal cart, and dumped them in my arms.
    “But—”
    “No buts,” Nickamedes said. “Books now, food later.”
    The librarian crossed his arms over his chest and gave me a pointed stare. He was standing between me and my food, so there was no way I could grab my pretzel, shove it into my mouth, and take it into the stacks with me. Even if I did, Nickamedes would complain about how I was getting crumbs all over his precious books. There was just no winning with him.
    “Now, if you please, Gwendolyn.”
    “Yes, master,” I sniped.
    Nickamedes’s eyes narrowed at my snide tone, but I didn’t care. I gave my food one more longing look before I tightened my grip on the books and trudged back into the stacks.

Chapter 4
    I spent the next half hour shelving books. By the time I got back to my food, the warm, soft pretzel and ooey, gooey cheese sauce were a hard, cold, congealed mess. So I dumped them in the trash and made do with my brownie and bottled water.
    I’d just finished licking the last of the dark chocolate crumbs off my fingers when Nickamedes