The Circle of Owls (The Grimalkin Book 3) Dani Swanson (best books for 8th graders .TXT) 📖

“It looks like she’s on her way back to Izotza. We’re on the right path!”

“So, we walked weeks in the snow to go right back to where we started.” Thea chuckled as they continued to go up the next path to the next ridge.

“Not necessarily.” She looked over at Percy to see him nodding up the direction of the mountain. A few miles ahead, up the next slope there was a fiery red mass of hair blowing in the wind.

“Robin! ROBIN!!” Thea was now running. Throwing thunderbolts in all directions, trying to get her attention. “ROBIN!!!!” The group was running at full speed, screaming out her name. The mass of hair stopped moving, as Thea could see that Robin had spun around. She could faintly hear her yell back to her.

“We found her! Wait, she’s alone! Where’s Edward?”

Thea looked ahead and indeed only saw the form of one person coming toward them. She gave a worried glance over at Percy as they both continued to jog toward her friend.

They all were nearly out of breath by the time the witches reached each other. Both of them dropped their cats as they wrapped their arms around each other and fell into a heap on the ground; tears running down their faces as they hugged each other – both were speaking so fast that Percy couldn’t make out any words they were saying.

“I thought I lost you forever! Are you alright?!” Thea was holding Robin’s face by her cheeks.

“I’m fine now.” She said as she wiggled her face out of Thea’s grasp.

“Where’s Edward?” Percy’s voice was low, as he already knew the answer to the question he had asked.

Robin could only make eye contact with him for just a moment before she looked away with tears in her eyes. “He….he didn’t make it.” Her tears started to stream down her face, freezing in little icicles on her eyelashes. “He was protecting me against a horrid witch….and….she ate him.”

“The Baba Yaga? We also ran into her.” Thea said as she hugged her friend, trying to comfort her between sobs.

“She let me go because I had the egg and told her I would go give it back to the mother.”

Thea gave a blank look at Percy. He shrugged and sat down on a snowy log next to the girls. “Your book did say that she protected nature.”

“That is true.” She continued to rub small circles onto the back of her friend. “Did she actually talk to you? I couldn’t understand a single thing she was saying when we ran into her.”

“I could hear her in my brain.” Robin had the most twisted look of bewilderment on her face. “She was speaking that twisted elvish-fairy mutterings and I could understand what she was saying in my head. It was the strangest thing I have ever experienced! She told me that she would spare my life if I would save the life of the dragon. I don’t know how she knew I had the egg, but I wasn’t going to question it. Every time I tried to climb down a mountain, something would happen that forced me to go up the next ridge. It was like she could control my path. I went back to the cave where we had originally taken it from, and the mother was there that time. Tinker and I returned the egg and ran out of there before the mother could light us up.” She looked lovingly over to the grey cat who was cuddled up with her brother, Fig, licking each other’s faces. “I think they missed each other.”

Percy was trying to have a stoic look on his face, was fighting back the tears for his fallen friend.

“I’m sorry about your friend. He was a good man and did all he could to protect me.” Percy gently nodded his head before he got up and walked away from the witches.

“He’ll be alright. Let’s just give him a few minutes.” Thea held Robin back when she tried to go after him.

The two witches built a small fire as Thea filled Robin in on what had happened with The Circle of Owls, the interaction with her mother, and that they now needed to go rescue her grandmother from the circle. The whole while Robin sat with her own book in which she had the story of the Circle of Owls, fighting with herself if she should give the book to her friend. She eventually just placed the book back into her bag, keeping her knowledge to herself.

“We should get going before it gets too dark out. The wolves will be out to look for their dinner soon.”

The group decided to check in at the Izotza palace to see if there had been any news of the other parties, before they headed out to join the group finding Penelope. It took a few days to make their way over the snowy mountain, while avoiding going anywhere near the home of the Baba Yaga.

Thea had been informed that Dean and the Ice King both had returned with their party, but alas, without finding Penelope. She went into the parlor to find the Ice King in a drunken stupor as Dean watched from the couch.

“What’s going on?” Thea whispered to Dean. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and gave her a half sideways hug. “Your grandpa has been drinking for two days straight and crying about Penelope. We made it to the dungeons of the Kingdom of Owls but did not find Penelope. He found a skeleton in a cell that had her name on the door, so he is convinced that it is her that he found. We met your friend Lola, who says hello by the way, and she tried to convince him that it couldn’t possibly be Penelope, but as you can see, that didn’t go over very well…..Did you find Robin and Edward?”

Thea pushed open the door to reveal Robin down the hallway