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

magic, she’s just an old woman and didn’t want to chance that her immortality was gone too. She patiently watched as cricket chipped off the clouded part of the spirit crystal with a chisel and a hammer. She then took the clouded pieces and cautiously ground them into a fine powder with her mortar and pestle she had sitting on the table. She put the mixture into a bag and sniffed the contents. She could feel the rush of Sorgin’s powers coursing through her veins from just the little bit she inhaled.

Cricket was delighted that the spell worked and stopped in her tracks as she could hear what the owls were saying.

I told you she was going to trick that old witch.

I want to go fly around the trees! When do we get let out again?

I don’t like how she looks at us. I don’t trust her.

“You never told me that you could talk to the animals and hear what they’re saying. I wonder what other interesting powers I have in this bag.” Cricket said as she gently placed the pouch into the pocket of her pants.

“What are you going to do with the rest of it?” Sorgin nervously asked as she was fixated on Cricket’s pocket.

“For now, I’ll hold onto it. See if you can earn it back by being useful to me. And no more tricks Sorgin. I know the imp part of your brain can’t help it, but I’m going to need you to try to be loyal.” She raised her eyebrows and gave Sorgin a very disappointed look as she showed Sorgin out of the room. “Make sure you shut the door behind you.”

Sorgin opened her mouth to speak but Cricket raised her finger to her crimson lips to tell Sorgin not to talk.

Sorgin defeatedly walked out of the room and looked over her shoulder back into the room before pulling the door shut behind her.

Cricket giggled to herself as she hugged the tattered book next to her chest. “So, you guys can understand what I am saying, huh?” She said up to the rafters to the owls overhead. She waited for a moment and listened to their responses before she walked over to the large window leading out to the trees. “Go find me all the spirit crystals throughout the lands. The more you bring me, the better I will make your home here!” She flung open the latch and the hundreds of owls of all types and sizes flew out into the wilderness to do their mistress’ bidding.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Though Charles had been hellbent on finding Lilly Quinn, or the Grimalkin, or whatever that was that had him stupefied, none of the leads had panned out for his search party. He felt defeated, and his group started to run out of supplies and had opted to return to Izotza. There he found Dean and Thea covertly packing for a new adventure, trying to secretly sneak out of the castle without Irving or Robin finding out that they were leaving. As his search party was walking in the door, his elbow was grabbed by his brother and he was escorted back out the door to where the penguins played in the snow.

“Well, hey guys, nice to see….”

“Shhhhhhh!” Thea’s hand was over his mouth. “Shut up and come on!” she whispered at him with a playful wink.

The three of them briskly walked to the main gate, with Fig racing behind them, avoiding the windows of the castle where Irving or Robin may see them. Through the front gate, Thea flipped the enchanted mirror onto its face, so no one could see them leaving, other than the guard. “We’ll be back in a little while, just going for a walk.” She smiled awkwardly at him as she continued down the path, elbows linked with both the brothers as she went. The guard gave a smile back, with his eyebrows raised in confusion – it was then obvious to Thea that he didn’t care that they were leaving.

Once they were into the trees, Thea let go of Charles’ arm. “Now am I allowed to talk?”

“Sorry about that, but we didn’t want any attention drawn to ourselves.” Dean wrapped his arm around the shoulder of his brother, giving him a side hug squeeze. “How was your mission?”

“Oh, it was great! Killed the Grimalkin and saved everyone!”

“Really?!” Thea gasped as she spun Charles on his heels to look him in the eye.

Charles raised his eyebrows and gestured to his empty hand he was holding out like he was showing off a new trophy. “Yeah, got her head right here! Didn’t spend weeks being led in circles by fairies and elves at all.” Thea could hear the sarcasm in his voice this time when he spoke.

“Jerk.” She said with a shove to his shoulder as she started to walk down the side of the mountain.

“Do you mind telling me what’s going on? Since I was dragged out of the kingdom and told to shut up? Curious as to what you two are getting me into now.” He picked Fig up who was whining about being in the snow again and put him up on his shoulder, carrying him like a sack of potatoes.

“We are going to visit the spot where we think the Circle of Owls may be holding Penelope and see if we can get her out.”

“Okay, that sounds like we’re going to have a fine adventure, but why were we sneaking out of there.”

Dean chimed into the conversation: “Thea didn’t want Irving to try to come again as that would just be another person we have to watch, and he was getting himself hurt more than helping when he left the castle before…..and Robin is acting extremely weird. She said she can talk to the Baba Yaga and that she knows the entire history of Thea’ s family. She wrote it all down in one of her books…..and she’s talking to herself, and using different voices when she