Chapter 26

There was nobody else in the basement of the tower besides Chloe, Julie, and Ryan. For a few minutes, the kids just sat on the ground in silence, looking around, taking in what little there was to their surroundings.

“I’m sorry,” Julie said at last. “This is all my fault,” she whimpered. “If I had just waited back with you guys and we made a plan to enter Paradise a little more discreetly, then maybe we wouldn’t be stuck here in this cell.” She rested her elbows on her inner thighs and leaned her forehead down into her hands, covering her face, filled with guilt.

“Honestly,” Chloe said, “we probably would have ended up here anyway. Cecrops warned us that the merfolk wouldn’t trust us unless we showed them the wand, but they wouldn’t even give us a chance.”

“Chloe’s right,” Ryan agreed. “Even if we were more discreet, they would have seen us eventually, and then they’d just throw us in this c