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

past it; the scales were purply-pink and then snow white, and then like it wasn’t even there. The dragons barely acknowledged her presence, the look of defeat was across each of their faces. “I’m going to get you freed, just don’t eat me.” Lilly said as she started to climb on the rocks. There was a small river running below the mountain and torches had been lit around the opening. The dank smell of the wet grass, that was left for the dragons to sleep on burned the insides of Lilly’s nose. She couldn’t see anywhere that the key could be, but she was able to at least get the heavy chainmail off their backs, so they could spread their wings out.

Lilly brought one egg down to the opening, and the dragon in the middle must have recognized it as her own. She started to smoke out of her nose and was hovering slightly above the ground, thrashing her wings as hard as she could. “Easy now. I’m bringing them to you. I don’t want them!” She gently set the egg down on the ground by the dragon’s nest. The dragon took the egg within its talons and pulled it under its body. The dragon’s eyes were warmer as it seemed to smile at Lilly. “I’ll be back with more.” She said softly as she skittishly held out her hand to touch the snout. “I know how it is to be locked up and kept from your family.”

Lilly made several trips back and forth from where the eggs were found, down to the mothers at the base. On her last trip down with the fourth egg, she stopped at Celeste’s body and emptied all her pockets, turning up nothing that she would find useful – then she looked at the jewelry that the old witch had been wearing, and there was nothing there either. “Where are you hiding it?!” Lilly hissed as she kicked the foot of the corpse – doing so knocked lose the false bottom of the heel on her boot. Inside, was a small brass key on a purple string. Lilly’s eyes lit up with excitement as she put the key around her wrist and took the last egg down to the mothers. This egg belonged to the unidentifiable dragon on the end. She had shot a short stream of fire up to the ceiling when she saw the egg – causing some rocks to fall from above. “Hey! Relax! You’re going to get us all killed!” Lilly’s voice echoed through the mountain. “I think I can get you out!”

Lilly went from dragon to dragon, unlocking their massive legs from the iron clamps. The dragons let out a purring noise in delight as they started to try to get out of the underground cave. They paced from one end to the other, but the river flowed under a solid rock wall, leaving them no way out as they were too large to come down the path that Lilly had taken to get to them. She was perplexed! How was she going to get these massive creatures out of the cavern that was so far below ground? “How did you get here?” She softly cooed at the dragons, trying to keep her voice as airy as possible to keep them calm. The cavern shook as the dragons tried to ram the walls, but there wasn’t an exit in sight.

CHAPTER TEN

“Where did you get this?!” Thea said as she held the black book over Robin’s face with one hand and violently shook her awake with the other. “How long have you known about this?”

“What?! Wait! Did you go through my things?!” Robin jumped up in bed, throwing the covers across the room, with Tinker hissing as she was flung from her spot on the mattress.

Thea had stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, with her ear pressed against the wall, listening to Robin talk to a familiar voice; They spoke about Robin wanting to save the dragons, the Circle of Owls, and what to do with Thea.

Thea waited until the voices had stopped to creep into the room to find Robin sleeping with Tinker curled up next to her – there was no sign of anyone else being in the room. Thea carefully started to look for clues, finding the journal that Robin had in her bag. Thea sat on top of the table, with her legs folded under her and Fig on her lap, as she read the accounts of her family and their link to the Circle of Owls. The mixture of emotions and lack of sleep took over, and she had to get the information out of Robin immediately.

“Why are you digging through my things?!”

“What is this, Robin? How come you have never told me what you knew about my past? Is this even real?!”

“Of course, it’s real!”

“Who were you talking to all night? I heard someone in here with you.”

Tinker hissed at Thea as she started to grow between the two witches. This was immediately interrupted by a sharp swipe across the face from Fig, before he chased his sister out of the room.

Their voices continued to grow louder as they both were talking over the other. The noise alarmed Dean who had been down the hall and came running into the room, trying to get them to calm down.

“What is going on here?! Stop screaming at each other!” His deep voice boomed over their yelling as they started to talk softer, but still not stopping to let the other one finish.

“You were spying on me?! Who does that?”

“You’ve been acting strange! When I ask you what is wrong with you, you blow me off, how am I supposed to respond to that? Now who were you talking to?”

“I was talking to myself, alright?”

“That wasn’t your voice! Who were you talking to?”

Dean now was standing between the two as Thea continued to walk closer to Robin, clenching her fists at her