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

hair as if she were a young child looking for acceptance, before she picked up her cauldron and left the cave. The blustery night air cooled their ash-covered faces as they slowly made their way up to the entrance.

“So, now what? You’re going to go back to the Circle of Owls and turn me in to your leader?”

“I have to go back and tell them something about Celeste and hopefully help Thea and the boys without getting killed… or imprisoned. I think that you should stay far away from Monkey Tree Village and stay away from anyone that is part of the Circle of Owls. I told you – Cricket needs all three of you in the same place and if they can’t find you, then it won’t happen!”

“I’m not going to stop until I get rid of every single one of them that hurt my mother and kept me locked up in that hole all of those years.”

Agatha stopped and turned around. “Listen to me. She is getting closer to whatever it is she is trying to do, and that is going to end with all three of you dead, and her destroying everything that is good in this world.”

“You’re a member of the Circle, but you’re fighting to stop them now? You make absolutely no sense.”

Agatha had tears in her eyes and gritted her teeth in frustration as she tucked her hair behind her ears – her cheeks were now a shade of red that matched her hair.

“Nothing in this world is as it seems all of the time. When I first met Cricket I thought she was going to help me become a great witch and would teach me how to control my powers and be able to make potions that no one else could make – Do you know what it’s like having a sister who makes everything look so easy? Cricket said that she understood my pain and that she needed my help to make the evil in this world disappear. I believed her. I needed something to believe in. She made me believe that my sister was the reason I wasn’t successful. That is why I joined the Circle, and that is why I tricked my sister into going to Sorgin. When I saw my sister hooked up to that IV, and when I found out that Cricket was stealing souls from everyone, and not just the evil people, that’s when I realized that I made a huge mistake! I was going to tell Robin and Thea everything, but…….”

“You died, right?” Lilly cut Agatha off before she was able to finish the rambling thought that she was fighting her tears against. “You smell like you and your sister….you figured out how to steal your sister’s magic, didn’t you?”

Agatha let out a sigh of relief as she leaned against the damp wall of the cave, sliding her back all the way down until she was sitting on the ground. “I didn’t figure it out – Robin did. She absorbed me when I was on the pyre, and I have no idea how she did it. I was in blackness. Total blackness and the feeling of freezing cold – then I was stuck inside of Robin’s head. I could hear everything and feel her thoughts. Occasionally, I was able to take control of her body. I took her knowledge, and my knowledge and figured out what needed to be done. She kept suppressing me and I couldn’t handle it anymore.” Agatha rested her forearms on her knees as Tinker came and plopped down beside her. “I don’t think Robin actually understood what was happening, and thought she was losing her mind. Maybe I was driving her mad? I’m not sure, but I wasn’t being very nice to her, but I couldn’t handle being stuck in there anymore. She acts like an idiot but is so smart…it’s infuriating! She got so scared once we got the new headquarters I just pushed her all the way down into the body. I can hear her, screaming in there. I don’t know how to let her out, but still be me. When you’re a twin, you’re a part of your twin. Forever.”

For a brief moment Agatha could have sworn that she saw a bit of emotion on Lilly’s face, until her eyes went back to being dark.  Lilly stared at Agatha for a few moments before she started to speak: “Regardless of your intent, you were still part of the reason my mother is dead, and I was forced to do all of those things for all of those years. Stay away from me, and stay away from the Circle of Owls so I don’t have to do anything to you, do you understand?” Agatha knew that she should make direct eye contact with Lilly and went to watching the top of Tinker’s head as she spoke to her.

“Do you know that she told all of us that you were killing people for your own pleasure? That’s why we didn’t help you. She told everyone that your mother had you eating people’s souls for her to stay alive. That’s why.”

“None of you asked me about what was happening. You took bets, and cheered her on as she burned my neck, and threatened my mother!” The tears had started flowing as Lilly couldn’t hold back the emotions any longer. “If you didn’t just help all of the dragons, and actually had a soul I would have taken it already.”

Without letting Agatha respond Lilly was already going through the entrance in the tree out to the forest, leaving Agatha and Tinker sitting alone in the dank cave.

Agatha had to find the right words to report back to Cricket. Words that would keep her alive long enough so she could save her friends, and, hopefully, her own neck. For the first time in a long while, Agatha was going to do the right thing…..if she could only figure out what the right thing