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

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Agatha decided to run as if there was a sense of urgency back to the little house in the Monkey Tree Village – she knew that she had to make it look convincing long before she got to the village. She knew that Cricket had eyes everywhere and that she had to look concerned and scared. She ran to the front door- pressed her body against the door and banged on it with her open hand. Her palm banged on the door repeatedly until an elf answered the door.

“Where’s Cricket?!” Her voice cracked as she shoved passed the doorman. “Where is she?!” She ran down the hallway, sweat dripping down her cheeks as she went to Cricket’s room. She found Cricket eating her breakfast with Sorgin. Both of them looked startled at the witch running into the room.

“What are you doing?” Cricket shirked as she almost spilled her tea onto her dress.

“It’s your sister! She’s dead! And the dragons are gone!”

Cricket’s face twisted into pure anger as she smashed her cup down on the table. “What do you mean THE DRAGONS ARE GONE?!”

Agatha was taken aback by the fact that Cricket didn’t even acknowledge her sister was dead.

“Cricket, dear, did you hear what she said about Celeste?” Sorgin placed her hand on Cricket’s arm as she spoke to her.

“I don’t need Celeste, I need those DRAGONS!” Cricket was up on her feet and pacing the length of the room as she was thinking about her next move. She couldn’t hear anything that was coming out of Sorgin’s or Agatha’s mouths.

“This is your fault. I told you to go get the eggs, and you didn’t do what you were supposed to. You let the dragons get away.” Cricket’s voice was terrifyingly calm. “I knew letting you come back to the Circle was a mistake. A HUGE mistake. Do you enjoy making me look foolish, Agatha? Of COURSE, YOU DO! You’re not going to be given that chance again! I gave you everything you asked for. You have powers you never dreamt of before – when you came to me you could barely control a mud troll!” Cricket started to shake as the clouds outside started to roll in as the lighting bolt in her hand grew larger.

“Cricket, you don’t want to do this – especially in our new home.” Sorgin had her hands up in front of her as she tried to separate the two.

“Cricket, I didn’t do anything to the dragons. Your sister was already gone when I got there, and there is a giant hole in the side of the mountain. I can take you there and show yo……”

“Shut up!” Cricket screamed. “You are not going to talk your way out of this one, Agatha! Take her down to a room!”

She waved a hand and a pair of masked creatures came through the door and grabbed Agatha by the hands before she was able to conjure anything that would protect her from being attacked. A black collar was slapped onto her neck. She was dragged by her arms and brought to a room down the long hall – She was thrown into the room with the door locked behind her.

She fell hard, hitting her head against the bedside table. She rubbed her temple and wiped the small amount of blood that trickled down. She sat in the room and cried to herself for a while – she tried to conjure everything that she could think of, but each fizzled in her hand, and caused her black collar to start to heat up as if she was about to get zapped.

“Wasn’t this exactly what you didn’t want to happen?” Agatha shook her head and then could see the figure of her sister sitting in the chair against the wall.

“So this is what it feels like to see things that aren’t really there. Nice.” She sat on the floor with her back against the bed, rubbing her temple.

“It’s weird, isn’t it? Will you please be so kind as to give me my body back?”

“You’re still in it. You’re the one that brought me into it. I didn’t ask for this.”

“I was trying to protect you and save you! You show zero gratitude for that. You’ve been tormenting me for what? Almost a year? Making me seem like I was crazy to my friends and controlling everything I’ve been doing.”

“You trapped me in your head!”

“You were going to die! You’re a part of me Agatha! I couldn’t let that happen to you!”

Agatha continued to rub her temple as she stared at the figure that she knew wasn’t really there.

“You’re right Robin. I’m sorry. Okay? I’m sorry for everything!” Her tears flowed freely as she finally was truthful with her sister. She told her everything that had happened from the beginning. She told her of why she was so jealous of her growing up, and how Robin having powers to be a supreme when they were younger was driving her mad. How she thought she was joining the good guys, and how she learned of Cricket’s plans and at that point made the decision to side with her sister – and that she loved her even though being around her made her feel so much anger. Her sobbing grew loud enough that an org rattled her door and yelled at her to keep it down from the hallway.

“Robin, I’m sorry that it took me too long to realize that you weren’t the problem, and that I was my own problem.”

“I’m sorry that I absorbed you to keep your powers.”

“How did you do it?” Agatha asked through her tears.

“You know that I can’t say it out loud. That org is probably still sitting outside the door thinking you’re a crazy pants and talking to yourself. We don’t need Cricket or Sorgin finding out the spell.”

“Ah, Sorgin isn’t as bad as you think she is.” Agatha said with a shrug.

“She had me hooked up to some sort of potion that made most