The Void of Mist and Thunder (The 13th Reality #4) Read Online Free Page A

stupid jokes.”
    George looked at Sato. “And you?”
    The boy folded his arms across his chest. “I said I’m ready. And my army is too.”
    “Okay, then.” George thought a moment. There were countless things that needed to be done throughout the Realities. Where to start? “Sato, I want you to go back to the Thirteenth Reality and destroy the remaining creatures that Jane manufactured at the Factory. We need to make sure that world is safe and back to the way it was meant to be.”
    “Done,” Sato said immediately, without the slightest hint of fear.
    “And . . . us?” Paul asked.
    George put his hands on the table and leaned forward. “You two are going to pay a visit to a very old friend of mine. She lives in the Third Reality, and we can only hope that she doesn’t eat you for supper when you arrive.”

Chapter 5

    Squishy Grass
     
    Lisa screamed when it happened, but she couldn’t hear her voice over the terrible sounds of thunder that pounded the air like detonating bombs. One second she’d been sitting in the forest, looking at her mom and the Barrier Wand, hearing a hum and feeling vibrations in her legs. The next, she’d been whipped into a tornado of swirling gray air, spinning, the world tilting all around her. The noises pounding her skull. She tried to find her mom—at least see her—but there was nothing. Only a gray whirlpool of smoke.
    And then it ended. Abruptly.
    Lisa’s body slammed onto soft, squishy ground. She immediately felt moisture seeping through her clothes and jumped to her feet—which was a bad idea. Her mind was still recovering from whatever she’d just been through and dizziness twirled inside of her until she fell right back down. She was lying on a huge field of grass, saturated with rain. Heavy clouds hung in the sky above her, making the day seem dark.
    Her mom was close, the Barrier Wand in her lap. She sat up and stared at Lisa, dazed.
    “What . . . ?” Lisa began.
    “I have no idea,” her mom replied. “All I did was try to latch on to Atticus’s nanolocator and pull him in. It shouldn’t have sent us somewhere else.”
    “Well, unless we went back in time to before trees grew in Deer Park, it sent us somewhere. We were sitting in the woods about three minutes ago.”
    Lisa hated the feeling of the wet grass soaking her pants, so she tried standing again, this time much slower. Her legs wobbled a bit, and the endless sea of grass tilted a few times, but soon she was steady.
    She turned in a slow circle, taking in the view of the place to which they’d been winked. Super green grass stretched in every direction, running down a slope toward a stream that splashed and sparkled as it cut across a rocky bed. On the other side of the stream, trees dotted the land, growing thicker and taller until they became a huge forest. There was no sign of civilization anywhere.
    “Mom?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Where in the world are we?”

    Three hours of searching didn’t answer that question.
    They walked together to the stream, crossed over at a narrow spot where large rocks jutted out of the rushing waters, then explored the other side. They eventually made their way to where the trees thickened into a dark, ominous forest. They’d found no clues or signs of life—human, anyway—and when they stood at the wall of pines and oaks, it was almost as if they were stopped by an invisible barrier.
    “Why can’t I get myself to go any farther?” Lisa asked.
    Her mom’s answer didn’t help. “Because we’re in a strange land, and there might be hideous monsters in there.”
    “Good point. Let’s just walk around the edge of it; maybe we’ll stumble across something eventually.”
    “As good a plan as any.”
    They set off, Lisa right behind her mom, who still hefted the golden rod of the Barrier Wand in her hands.
    “Tell me more about the old days,” Lisa said. The clouds still churned above, dark and heavy, but it had yet to rain again. At least the air was