Chapter 1
Artemis chanted in Kubeo as her brothers lit the candles. The ritual they were about to do had only been approved an hour ago, owing to its danger, and they were trying to do it as carefully as their 8-year-old selves would allow. "What do we need first?" John asked, scanning the shelves lining the wall. Her other brother, Harry, picked up the battered notebook beside him. It was filled with the oddly slanted writing of one of their classmates, Martica, and she could see he was having trouble reading the list she'd compiled. "Er...Mugwort and African sea salt have to form a loose oval shape around the Chanter. Then we have to pour basilisk venom between Artemis's feet every 2 minutes. After the...erm, 10th? Yeah, 10th drop, we stop and one of us has to call on Iemanjá in...Latin? What? while someone else pours seawater around the oval," he looked up at John. "Weird. I don't know why we have to do it in latin. You wanna do it? You're better than me at that stupid language," he offered.Artemis held in a snicker as John made a face, although if it was because Harry had called John's best subject 'stupid' or if it was because he had to use it for a ritual, she wasn't quite sure.
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Artemis stopped chanting as Harry put away the seawater. They all collectively held in their breath, waiting to see what would happen. "What did Martica say would happen?" she asked under her breath. Harry checked the notebook. "In 2 minutes a really bright yellow light should appear and take us away back to the classroom," he muttered. John looked up and squinted at the clock on the wall. "oh... uh... guys? It's 1:30. Didn't we finish at...1:20?" They all looked at each other, then at the oval, which was starting to glow a faint green. "Mr. Castro isn't going to like this," Harry managed to mutter before the green light suddenly flared and encompassed them all.