Joshua and the Arrow Realm Read Online Free

rock. Queen Artemis’s castle glowered down, daring us to enter.
    â€œWhat’s the plan?” I wiped the sweat off my forehead as Charlie and I chugged some water and tried Ash’s food. The salty squirrel jerky had a smoky flavor, and the pancakes were dry but nutty and filling.
    A cool breeze chilled my skin, reminding me of the blizzard blowing back home and all we’d left behind.
    Lore sniffed, the hair on his back quivering. “Can you swim?”
    I asked Charlie who nodded with a frown. Lore stared at us as if deciding we were worthy of his wet task. “We enter the moat, swim to the middle and where the moon aligns with the queen’s flag, swim below to an old underground gate that leads to the dungeon. It was usedbefore the moat was dug and filled.”
    I translated Lore’s words to Charlie, who gunned me a look like we’d be crazy to do it.
    â€œHow will we get Apollo? Get back out, get him back to his land, and get back to ours?” I asked Lore.
    â€œYou must trust me,” Lore growled, ears twitching. “Leandro trusts me.”
    So says the mutt. If Leandro were here, he’d do anything in his power to help us get home again. We had no choice but to trust Lore.
    â€œAnd he trusts what
you
may be,” Lore said with a jerk of his head.
    Those words zapped me like a live wire. This was why Leandro brought me back.
    Charlie pulled me aside. “
C’est impossible
, Joshua.” Lore watched us, his eyes shining like spotlights then he moved away to study the castle towers.
    â€œNothing’s impossible here,” I said.
    â€œPeople lie.” Charlie thrust a chin at Lore, who sniffed the ground. “Animals lie. We can find our own way. We did before. You and me.”
    â€œAnd Apollo.”
    â€œBut he’s the reason we came. He helped us alone. Let’s do the same.” He looked sideways at Lore and edged back toward the path we’d traveled.
    I tugged him back. “We rescued Finn and got home last time because we trusted people—and animals. Right?” The more I convinced him, the more I wanted to convince myself.
    He didn’t answer but stopped moving back and crumpled his skinny shoulders. He’d grown taller in the few months we’d been apart. Even with his slouching, I had to crick my neck up at him, waiting for his answer.
    â€œYou can’t trust family,” Charlie finally whispered. “So why these … these people?” He picked at a pocket thread on his jeans. He cleared his throat and said, “I don’t think my mom wants to follow us to America.”
    â€œOh.” My brain switched gears with his words. Guilt coursed through me over getting him caught up in this mess.
    â€œMy dad’s new job was supposed to make us happy. Their last chance, I heard my dad say. I think he tries too hard at the wrong stuff, you know?” He gave up on the thread and shoved it in his pocket, looking at me with wet eyes. “What if I never see my mom or brother again? Now I’m farther away from them … and might not get home.”
    â€œFriends don’t let each other down, right?”
    He tightened his lips and nodded.
    â€œThen come on. Apollo would do the same for us. We got home last time. We will again.”
    He sighed and nodded. “Let’s follow the fur ball.” The fur ball had finished sniffing about and waved a paw at us to follow. The closer to the castle we got, the more it looked like a crooked rock pile that’d been smashed together by the hands of some giant. Torches lit the massive wooden door at the end of the bridge arching over the moat. Figures strode back and forth in front of it: guards with snake spears that could blast you to ash.
    â€œHow do we unlock Apollo’s cell?” I whispered to Lore, as we hunkered down behind a pricker bush. They scraped my skin and I winced, shrinking back. The water on the moat rippled in a