A Way between Worlds by Melanie Crowder

Author:Melanie Crowder
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Published: 2019-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

18

GRIFFIN

GRIFFIN WOKE WITH a start. Goose bumps rippled over his arms and legs. Something was out there, just beyond the door. He held his breath, listening. His dad was snoring, of course. Waves slapped against the base of the tower, and the ocean’s song rose and fell in its never-ending melody.

But there—that was something else.

It was a clicking, warbling sort of call. Whatever was making the sound, it wasn’t human. Griffin shook his mom and dad awake. Philip rolled to his feet, eyes darting around the dark room. Katherine moved more slowly, cocking her head and listening. She lifted a finger to her lips, then pointed to the door. Philip swept Griffin behind him and the three crept along the wall. Katherine drew the door toward her and peered out into the darkness.

The song of the sea was louder with the door open, almost as if it were greeting them. Without any dust in the air, the moon was so white it gleamed silver, its peaks and craters startlingly clear. Moonlight shivered across the crests of the incoming waves, and it glimmered across the backs of something—many large somethings—in the water beyond the buoy.

“Look!” Griffin whispered.

“Incredible,” Philip murmured.

The moment they stepped out from the doorway, they were greeted by that same clicking, chirruping sound. It was definitely coming from those creatures. Their broad backs broke the water, revealing hornlike lobes to either side of gaping holes that could only be their mouths.

“Are they some kind of ray?” Philip whispered.

“Gigantic manta rays, maybe.”

“So they’re not dangerous, then?” Griffin swallowed.

“I wouldn’t say that.”

“They certainly seem to want something from us.”

“I think…” Griffin couldn’t believe what he was about to say. “I think they want us to come with them.”

At that, the giant rays broke the surface in unison, the clicking rising in a crescendo.

A tentative smile crept over Katherine’s lips. “I believe you’re right.”

She exchanged a look with Philip, the kind parents are always trading over their children’s heads. Another kid might have minded. But that sort of thing was new for Griffin—the everyday kind of thing he never thought he’d have again—both parents fussing over him.

Philip raised an eyebrow. “If we do nothing, Somni will control everyone on Earth. And they’ll use our armies to attack the other worlds.”

“If we do nothing, we’ll have no home to return to,” Katherine added. “Nowhere will be safe.”

So they stepped together to the edge of the lighthouse buoy. The air was calm, and warm even though the sun had been down for hours. The buoy tipped toward the waves and then away from it, toward and away. Griffin eyed the staircase leading down. They were going to swim with those rays—that much was clear. But were they supposed to just walk into the waves?

Before he could move toward the stairs, the giant rays dipped into the water, disappearing from sight. Griffin peered over the edge, then jumped back as one of the rays leaped out of the water to his right, twisting in midair, its slick back brushing so close to Griffin’s nose that his hair blew sideways across his face.

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