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

Charles would see a shadow in the Winding Woods that reminded him of the Grimalkin. He would tell Thea and his brother what he saw, and they either didn’t believe him or didn’t want to believe him.

“Do you know how I know I’m right? You still don’t have all your memories back! That means the Grimalkin is still out there! The magic that took your memories is still alive.” He calmed his voice as he finished his thought. He needed her to believe him so that he stopped dreaming about the Grimalkin stalking through the night.

“I know that it sounds crazy, but I can see things that are going to happen. Like how my brother is about to bring you a present. You can cast fireballs, but the rest of us don’t see that as crazy.” Charles nodded toward the window to where Dean could be seen hurrying in from his shed.

“Thea? I made you something. I figured with this, you won’t have to worry about losing it.” He held out his hand to show her a small crystal necklace that had a carving of a purple sparrow.

“That was very thoughtful of you.” She kissed him on the cheek while watching Charles out of the corner of her eye.

Thea couldn’t ignore what he was telling her anymore. She felt that in her soul when other magic had been reversed after the battle. Though she kept her fear to herself and argued that it was just as if a human hit their head and lost their memory.

“Charles, even if you are seeing a Grimalkin, and even if it is Cricket, it will be someone else’s turn to fight her. The evil never ends. Just like our lives – there is no end to our stories; only beginnings. Even after we die, our stories continue. I’m tired of fighting. I’m tired of chasing a notion that we can rid the evil from the world and make Erresuma this “safe place”.” Her hands were moving as quickly as her words were coming from her lips.

“So, you are going to ignore this evil? You’re going to act like nothing is wrong?” Charles asked.

“No. I won’t ignore it. But I won’t go out looking for it either.”

It took a few years until the Grimalkin was proven to still being alive and had made its way to the Winding Woods, but by this time Thea had prepared all the fairies, elves, wisps, centaurs and boggles to know what to do when she made it to them.

Thea waited until the whispers of the woods confirmed that the Grimalkin was getting closer to their home. She took a chunk of the purple crystal and ground it into a powder. She then had Dean blow the mixture into her face. As she absorbed the powers of the crystal, she felt the power grow within her stomach as she did before.

“Now what?” Dean was concerned as he watched her veins glow through her skin.

“Now I’m ready to protect our family.” She placed her hand on her stomach that was now showing she was very much pregnant. “We’ve left the Grimalkin alone, and it should have returned the favor.”

Thea was able to create a force field around their houses that extended out to the woods.

She watched the darkness every night. She and Fig would sit on the stoop, watching the trees. Most nights they would sit without event, but one night when the moon was barely shinning through the trees, Fig’s fur stood on end and he started to growl as his eyes were fixated on the far end of the yard.

“Shhhhhh, sweet boy, it’s okay. I see her too.” She cooed, as she smoothed his fur.

Thea smirked as she hummed a tune, rubbing her belly as she felt her baby kick inside.

The bright yellow eyes of the shadowy black cat watched them from the darkness as she paced, trying to find a way into their homestead, but with no luck. Thea’s powers had grown strong enough to keep the Grimalkin at bay. She waved to the Grimalkin as she brought her little orange cat into the house and listened for its roar before shutting the door and joining the brothers for supper.

“Is she out there?” Dean questioned, as she set the table.

“She is.” Thea said, as she sat down at the table, dropping some chicken into Fig’s bowl. “But I feel she’ll be having a visitor soon.”

Thea nodded to the window; the brothers gazed out to see the Baba Yaga chasing the Grimalkin deep into the Winding Woods catching her by the scuff of her neck like she was an ordinary house cat.

Thea just smiled. “All the magical creatures throughout the world have different powers than they had before; it turns out I’m not the only one that digested parts of the crystal. I told you, it’s someone else’s turn to fight evil for a while. I’m sure we’ll have a new beginning to an adventure to keep us busy.”

Charles smiled and did his best to pretend to agree, he place an eye patch over his eye. He didn’t want to ruin the story of their next adventure.