Chapter 13: Suspense

    The trial has begun. The higher Maddie and I climb, the foggier it turns. The spiral staircase never seems to end. I feel like Maddie and I are lost in another dimension. Just thinking about this, a shiver runs down my spine. If only someone could push this fog away.

    Maddie interrupts my negative thoughts: "I'm sure it's beautiful out there."

    Oh, it's more than beautiful, Maddie. She needs to brighten my day more often.

    "What do you think we'll find at the top?" Maddie continues.

    Heck, I don't know. Tracey said the top holds the weapon needed to defeat Calamitous, but... What can defeat him? When I think of something that can take out a sea monster, I consider the magic from the gods: either Poseidon or Neptune. Then again, I may just be crazy. I did kidnap a little girl from a cruise ship.

    Maddie and I continue our ascent. Eventually, we reach the deepest section of the fog. The Ocean disappears from our view, but it reappears by the time we make it to the top of the cliff. We're now standing on a circular platform that has a single pedestal in the center of it. A few flowers grow out of the dirt surrounding it, and the hot rays of the Sun warm the chipped rocks. Within the pedestal is a single sphere. Blue magic, which has the appearance of smoke, swirls in the clear treasure. That's our weapon?

    Maddie is just as bewildered. "Are you serious?" she snaps, stomping to the pedestal. "We climbed all this way just to find a sphere?" Her annoyance accelerates like a high-speed boat chase with each passing second. I wonder why girls are so emotional. I can tell that Maddie wants to scoop up the sphere from the pedestal, but I don't know what will happen if she does. The trial is not this simple. It can't be. It never is. Something fishy is going on.

    "Maddie, wait!" I yell in my language, but I'm too slow.

    Maddie removes the sphere from the pedestal. She shares our find with me and asks, "What on Earth was Tracey talking about when he said this piece of junk can help us?" It flickers in her hand, and the smoke-like magic swirls even faster. I'm now convinced that this sphere belongs to a fortune teller.

    From out of nowhere, the weather in the surrounding area changes drastically. Black storm clouds emerge on the horizon. White, yellow, and even mysterious, blue lightning flashes in them. The Sun disappears above Maddie and me and is replaced by thick fog. The Triangle does not appreciate that Maddie stole from the Magic World, and I know this.

    "Put it back!" I shout. I grab the sphere, but Maddie fights me.

    "No!" she argues. "This thing may be useless, but I'm sure it's worth a fortune." Since when does Maddie care about money? Why is she acting so strange? She wasn't like this on the Ecstasy.

    During our tussle, a familiar voice speaks up behind us: "That sphere is the source of the Water Clan's magic."

    Maddie and I are so startled that the sphere flies from our hands in a slingshot-like fashion. We trip over each other's feet and topple to the ground. Wind rushes through our hair, and there is a rumble of thunder in the distance. The gods are not happy.

    The sphere hits the platform and starts to roll, right when a figure emerges from the fog. He stops the treasure with the ball of his foot. Tracey picks it up. He brings the sphere to his face. The blue shimmers on his clear complexion.

    Smiling, he says, "Well done, Will and Maddie."

    What a tease! I knew Maddie and I should have never trusted him! Claxtons cannot be trusted; they're claxtons! I narrow my bushy brown eyebrows to an angry position.

    Tracey notices my frustration. "Will, you have it all wrong. I'm not evil. I'm just testing you," he adds. "Poseidon, my uncle, gave me orders to bring you and Maddie to Atlantis."

    What? His uncle? Poseidon is Tracey's uncle? Wait, does that mean he's the heir then? Oh gosh, if he is... then Maddie and I are so screwed. How could we be so gullible and fall into the claxton's trap?

    "Tracey, why are you doing this?" Maddie inquires. She definitely still likes him. She rises to her feet and takes a step closer to him.

    "I'm not evil," he repeats, tapping the platform with the toe of his boot. "What we're standing on is Atlantis itself. It's under this island, in a realm that is exclusive to the Bermuda Triangle. This pedestal is the gate." Tracey pushes past Maddie and me and approaches it. He runs his hand across the structure's chipped rocks. It appears that he is looking for a secret switch. The sphere remains in his free hand.

    The Magic World is full of secrets. I still have so much to learn about it, both good and bad.

    Traumatized by what is to come, I back away from Tracey and Maddie. Do I seriously need to travel to Atlantis for my clan to accept me again? What kind of sorcery is this? Hold on, it's not sorcery; it's straight-up suicide.

    I need to get out of here. Tracey said that it was prohibited for me to fly, but heck! Who made him in charge of the rules? I reach for my necklace pendant, just when another zephyr blows my brown locks. The air grows significantly colder.

    "What are you doing, Will?" Maddie fearfully asks.

    Tracey hears her and looks up from the pedestal. He gasps when he sees me. The sphere drops from his grasp, and he yells, "Will, don't you dare transform!"

    Too late. I clutch my necklace pendant.