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

of that, I’m getting out of here. You have all the same knowledge as Cricket does….you can stay and deal with her!”

Sorgin’s pace increased as they neared the stairs.

“Will you at least open the doors for us? Please Sorgin!” Robin pleaded as she stopped in her tracks.

“Robin, she’s right, we need to go!” Agatha was tugging on her sister’s arm.

“You don’t care! I’m going to help the people that have cared about me!”

Robin started to pull on the doors as she passed them, trying to get in, but all were locked.

Sorgin stopped at the bottom of the stairs and turned around to watch Robin struggle with the doors as Agatha was already out of sight upstairs. “Now we’re even for what I did to you before.” Sorgin said as the skull on her walking stick started to glow a blood red – all the locks throughout the dungeon clicked open at the same time. Robin turned to thank Sorgin, but the imp-witch was already gone. Fairies, elves, borgs, humans, witches and a whole slew of other creatures came pouring out of the cells – all adorned in little black collars.

Robin could see her friends, coming out into the hallway with the mass of creatures, making their way for the stairs. Her little grey cat even found her and rubbed on her legs.

“What are you doing here?! Thea exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around her friend. “It’s a long story, but it’s me! Like just me! Agatha is gone, and we should be gone too!”

“Where did she g…..” Thea wasn’t able to finish her sentence as the collar on her neck, and all the other collars throughout turned lime green and the smell of burning flesh filled the air.

“Everyone go back to your cells, NOW!” Cricket was standing at the top of the stairs with a little brownie man that was holding the controller that was zapping everyone. Robin watched in horror as her friends were laying on the floor, clenching the collars around their necks. “You. I’m assuming you’re Robin as I just saw Agatha running out of town. You bring Thea, and Lilly with you. You can even bring your cat.” Robin helped Thea to her feet and went down to the end of the hallway where she saw Lilly sitting on the floor, rocking back and forth with all of her fingers shoved between the collar and her burned skin.

“Oh mother, would you please join us too.” Cricket sweetly called out to Penelope who was the only one that didn’t get shocked as she didn’t come out of her room when the doors opened. “I would like to have a word with you.”

Reluctantly, Penelope poked her head out into the hallway. She locked eyes with Thea and smiled at her with a slight nod. Though Thea couldn’t remember anything about her, she knew that it was Penelope.

They followed Cricket to the great room, which was starting to fill with the owls returning with spirit crystals for their mistress. One by one they would swoop down, dropping pieces of purple crystal on the floor with a loud clank.

“Did all of you know that owls are very intelligent creatures? Especially this little guy here.” Cricket walked over to a tiny brown owl which wasn’t much bigger than her hand, who was perched on the back of her chair. “Thanks to the little bit of power I took from the imp-witch, I can speak to animals now….and this little guy right here told me that he wasn’t big enough to pick up the shards of crystal that he found in the Kingdom of Owls…..but he was big enough to bring me something else.” She paused for a moment and looked at the faces of the women who stood before her. Annoyance grew as none of them were asking her what that item was. “Mother aren’t you curious?”

Cricket stared into her mother’s eyes waiting for her to reply. “No Cricket, I am not curious. I can understand what the owls are saying, and I already know what you have. A mouse told me what you had before you ever came to the dungeon. What I don’t know is how you are handling it and our collars are still working, and your house hasn’t fallen down on top of you.”

“What are they talking about?” Lilly whispered to Thea.

Thea didn’t need to ask what was going on, as she already figured it out. Cricket had the golden acorn.

“I had the dwarfs bring it back to the Wisp in the forest. There is no need for such a thing here. The important thing is I’ll now be able to get back into the Kingdom of Owls and fix my spirit crystal that my darling niece destroyed.”

“I’ll destroy it again!” Thea exploded with anger and fear. “I’ll do it again!”

“You can’t without your magic. Besides, the rest of the Circle members are already making their way to the Kingdom of Owls as we speak. I’m going to need a lot more space to finish my project. And you, I have you to thank for it!” She walked over to Robin and wrapped her arm around her shoulder. “If you hadn’t figured out how to absorb your sister, I would never have figured out the magic part. Taking a creature’s soul is one thing, but being able to strip them of their magic? That is greater than immortality by itself!”

One of the massive Great Grey owls flew over to Cricket with the tattered book and dropped it into her hands.

“The copy of this book I had didn’t make sense until I read your note about swallowing the mixture instead of inhaling it. Then you can absorb the power! Genius! Too bad you didn’t have the drive like your sister, we could have done wonderful things together!”

“I can’t do it anymore. I can’t be your pawn. You’ll have to kill me Cricket! I can’t do it. I won’t!” Lilly was pacing between Penelope and Thea.

“You won’t have