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

are idiots.” She sang as she sat back into her chair to work on her project. “When this thing gets off of me, I’m taking my Circle back.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Cricket had been spending a lot of time alone, locked in the hatchery of their new little home. She enjoyed the company of the many owls that she had as pets. She sat in a chair of emerald green with small silver decorative bolts holding the fabric in place. The room had high ceilings with built-in nesting boxes for the owls. They would roost on the edges of their boxes and gently call out to one and other.

Cricket sat with her many piles of books around her that she had taken from her mother as she continued to read the dark arts – trying to cast a spell that would not only take someone’s soul to continue to give her immortality, but also how to rip the magic from another witch, to make her the strongest witch in the history of Erresuma. She sat, thumbing through the tattered pages of an old book, trying to look as if she was deep in concentration as she would glance up to the door. “Could she move any slower?” Cricket said under her breath as she finally saw the silhouette of Sorgin coming towards the room.

“Oh! Hello Sorgin! I forgot you were coming to visit with me today.” Cricket’s attempt to sound surprised seemed to work with Sorgin.

“Would you like me to come back at a different time?” Sorgin said as she looked uneasily around the room. She never did like being in the room with all the owls. It was unnerving to her that they spun their necks around in order to watch her walk into the room.

“Don’t be silly. I have some research I wanted to show you.”

Cricket offered a seat that she had cleared of books next to a small table that had a table cloth over the items on the table. She brought a book close to Sorgin to read as she dragged her chair next to Sorgin’s.

“Do you see this part here? It says that I can use the same magic that is used for the collars, but it will collect their magic into a spirit crystal that can be grounded down into a powder and inhaled to use their magic as my own.”

“Where are you ever going to find a new spirit crystal? I thought that Thea girl broke it the last time you met. The mermaids will never give you another one, at least not to the size that you had before.” Sorgin looked up from the book over the rim of her glasses to look at Cricket’s face. Cricket had a smug smile as she reached over and removed the cloth from the table. There was a small chunk of what was remaining from her previous stone.

“I’m not sure I will need my whole stone, I managed to save this bit that she didn’t destroy.”

Before Sorgin could even open her mouth to ask anymore questions, Cricket had blown a blue powder into her face, and spoke the ancient fairy language that Sorgin had just read in the book. Sorgin’s face burned, and her vision was blurred as she tried to grab her walking stick to defend herself with.

Cricket saw her reaching for the walking stick and kicked it up in the air with her foot and catching it with her free hand. As Cricket finished the incantation, she watched as the lavender colored essence left Sorgin’s body – being completely absorbed by the small bit of spirit crystal she had left. Cricket snatched the crystal from the table and held it up to her eye as she watched the clouded mass inside float in the nothingness. The owls were all calling and flying around the room, but all Cricket could hear is the deafening hum that was playing in her ears.

“What have you done?!” Sorgin shrieked from her chair. Her hand trembled as she unsuccessfully tried to conjure anything that would attack Cricket.

“How many times have you failed me? How you helped Thea against the Grimalkin and the coven when she would have died? I should have put a collar around your neck and left you down in the dungeon many times over. And the last straw was when I asked you if you had that book, the very one you are holding, and you told me no. You know where I found it? In a false wall, in your house when we were there. You were hiding the magic from me Sorgin, so now I’m going to hide your magic from you.”

Sorgin’s eyes were full of terror as she stared back into Cricket’s eyes. “Cricket, I didn’t even know that was there! And you told me I could collect Thea, I was just protecting what was mine….” She was trying to save herself, but her brain wasn’t coming up with a lie fast enough for her lips.

“We don’t need to do that justification game old friend. Because you have been with the Circle for so long, I decided to not kill you or lock you away. I want to see if you can redeem yourself and be useful as we move forward with my plan…..would you care to stay and watch how I’m going to use your magic? Or should you go and figure out how you’re going to make yourself useful?”

Cricket held out Sorgin’s walking stick. The skull inside of the handle looked dull now that it wasn’t pulling magic from the imp-witch. “Show me what you have learned.” Sorgin solemnly said as she pulled herself up to her feet. “Maybe there is something useful I can do with this in the future for you.”

Cricket turned her back on Sorgin, and for a split second Sorgin thought about hitting Cricket over the head with her walking stick, but she could feel the aches and pains in her back and realized that without her