When a Phantom Spawns by Maggie Marks

Author:Maggie Marks
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510747371
Publisher: Sky Pony
Published: 2019-09-11T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

Mason woke to his brother’s face, inches away from his own. Even in the dark, shadowy room, he noticed that Asher’s eyes had never looked so green—or so terrified.

Mason jerked upward so quickly, his head began to spin. When he reached up to steady it, he felt the turtle helmet pressed firmly down over his ears. The memory of losing it flooded back, and Mason’s heart began to race. It’s okay, he told himself. You can breathe now. Take a breath. See?

The cool water soothed his lungs, but his fear hung around like a cloud of lingering potion. We’re running out of time, he remembered. The turtle helmet works for now. But it won’t work for long.

Asher tugged at Mason’s hand, leading him back toward the hole in the ground. He still wanted to go down—back the way they’d came. Finally, Mason gave in.

As they swam into the lower chamber, Mason spotted a shadowy shape behind a pillar. What was it? Without potion of night vision, he could barely see his hand in front of his face. He reached for the sword at his side.

But as the shape swam out from behind the pillar, Mason recognized Luna. Asher swam quickly to her side and reached for her pack, but she was already unzipping it. When she pulled out a bottle of potion, Mason was hit with realization, as if a sea lantern had just gone on in his mind. Asher wasn’t trying to swim out of the monument. He was trying to get back to Luna—to get more potions!

Asher guzzled them down one by one—flinching only a little when he drank the fishy, foul-tasting potion of water breathing. Then Luna offered the bottles to Mason. He drank greedily, eager for the shadows in the room to disappear—for the warm glow of potion of night vision to return. When it came, he relaxed, breathing deeply.

Luna drank her share of the potions, too. Then she waved them toward the hole in the floor. It was time to go back—and this time, Mason was ready to follow.

But as Luna lowered herself into the hole, she froze . . . and then swam back out. She touched her finger to her lips, warning the boys not to make a sound. Mason crept to the hole to take a look.

A hulking green guardian lurked in the water below, and the mob was not alone. Mason could see the spiky tail of another guardian. And was that a third that just swam by? He glanced up at Luna. Now what?

She hesitated for a moment, studying the passageway into the next room. Then she shrugged as if to say, What choice do we have? Together, side by side, Mason and Luna swam toward the doorway, with Asher close behind.

When they were safely inside the next room, Luna stopped and pulled her map from her backpack. She opened it up and slid her finger just below the heavy crease of a fold line. Mason thought again of

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