It’s been fun, but I think I’ll be going now.
CJ didn’t have time to think.
She grabbed the object from the treasure chest, stuffed it into her pocket, and flung her self upward, grappling for the rope, just as she heard a set of teeth snap below her.
It was awake. And it was lunging for her.
And if one was awake, then soon they would all be awake.
With her heart thundering in her chest, she scrambled to untie her foot from the rope just as she heard another snap. She saw a glimmer of white teeth and felt a warm gust of air brush her fingertips.
Holy sea slugs, that was close.
CJ finally managed to untie the rope and pushed her feet against the side of the pit, swinging out of the way just as a dark shape leapt up and clamped its jaws shut.
The sound sent a chill down her spine.
CJ could have sworn the crocodile had missed completely, but then she felt the rope start to give way above her. She reached up and felt the rapidly unraveling strands. The crocodile had bitten through the rope.
She was hanging by a thread.
Below her, the crocs were stirring as more of them woke up to see what all the commotion was about.
She ran her hand against the cavern wall, searching for something to grab on to before the rope snapped completely, but there was nothing. Her nails scratched uselessly against the stone walls.
She heard a soft Pop! Pop! Pop! as the final strands of the rope unraveled. She shot her legs out to the sides in a split and just managed to wedge herself between the walls of the cave.
“Ow!” she cried as her leg muscles stretched farther than they’d ever stretched before. “That hurts!”
She felt another whoosh of air below her as one of the crocs snapped its teeth at her. Once again, CJ grappled along the walls for a groove or a notch, something she could use to pull herself up, but the stone was too smooth. If only she had something sharp she could spike into the stone. Something like a sword or a dagger or a…
Hook!
She reached into her pocket and felt the cool, sharp steel against her fingertips. Somehow the hook had not fallen out while she was hanging upside down. She grabbed the handle with her left hand and stabbed the sharp end as hard as she could into the wall above her head. It seemed to hold.
Using the hook to support her weight, she inched her split legs up along the walls. Then, making sure her feet were wedged safely in place, she disengaged the hook and thrust it back into the rock farther up.
As the crocodiles continued to lunge at her from below, making their frustration known with angry growls and bitter snaps of their teeth, CJ inched her way up the walls of the pit, until she finally reached the part of the rope that was still attached. She desperately grabbed it and climbed the rest of the way up.
When she emerged from the pit, she collapsed into a panting heap on the ground. She lay there for a good five minutes, struggling to catch her breath and calm her pounding heart. Far below she could still hear the crocodiles, outraged that they had missed out on their meal.
She leaned over the edge of the pit. “Sorry to disappoint you, guys,” she taunted in a playful voice. Then she paused and added with a laugh, “No, I’m not.”
Turns out sidekicks are sort of useful—you know, when they’re not named Smee.
It didn’t take long for CJ to realize where she was. She was standing deep inside the right eye socket of the skull. She peered down into the great chamber below, where she and Freddie had rowed in on the boat. But the boat was nowhere to be seen.
“Freddie!” she called out. But only her own voice came back to her.
She tried again. “Freddie!”
There was still no answer. Where could she have gone? Had she gotten washed out with the tide? But that didn’t make sense. The tide was higher than ever now.
Then, a moment later, she heard Freddie’s voice: “What are you doing over there?”
CJ glanced down and to her right. Freddie was still waiting under the other skull eye, where CJ had first climbed up the rock ladder. CJ searched frantically for a ladder on her side, but the stones beneath her were flat and slick.
She had two choices: to swing back across those hooks or to dive into the water.
Both options made her heart skitter.
When she looked down again, Freddie was already rowing the boat toward her. “Jump!” she called out to CJ.
CJ’s whole body was seized by fear. Even though the tide had risen, making it a shorter drop, the idea of plunging into that water when she didn’t know how to swim was paralyzing.
“I can’t!” she shouted to Freddie.
“Yes, you can!” Freddie shouted back. “I’ll be right here with the boat to get you.”
CJ peered down again into the water.
“C’mon,” Freddie coaxed her. “I won’t let you drown.”
CJ held her breath, closed her eyes, and leapt.
A moment later she felt the sting of the ice-cold water hit her everywhere. She started to flail, just like she had in the Enchanted Lake. But this time, when she tried to put her feet down, there was no floor. The water was too deep, and she started to sink, her heavy pirate coat weighing her down.
She opened her mouth to cry for help, but the sound never came out, because just then she felt herself being tugged upward. Freddie let out a grunt as she pulled CJ into the boat, collapsing breathlessly onto the bench.
Then Freddie looked at CJ and screamed.
CJ felt somewhat offended by the reaction. She knew she must look pretty shredded up from her hook-swinging and dallying with crocodiles and high-diving into the water, but she couldn’t have looked that bad.
“What’s happened to your hand?” Freddie cried, her voice shaking as she glared at CJ’s left wrist.
That was when CJ realized she was still holding the hook. She laughed and dropped it to the ground, revealing her hand hidden beneath her sleeve.
Freddie clutched her chest. “Oh, thank the swampy bayou! I thought you’d really taken after your father.”
CJ grimaced at the memory of all those crocodiles snapping and biting at her. “I nearly did.”
Freddie looked her up and down, her face falling into a disappointed frown. “No treasure?” she asked.
“Actually,” CJ said, “there was.”
She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out the object she’d found inside the treasure chest.
It was a gold compass—her father’s gold compass. The one that had been confiscated the day he was sent to the Isle of the Lost.
CJ had known it had to be his the moment she’d opened the chest—not because she’d ever seen it before, but because her father had described it so many times in such great detail. The solid-gold construction. The single flawless diamond set in the center. The swirling design etched around the border.
It was the very same one.
Freddie frowned at it. “That’s it? We came all this way for that?”
CJ laughed. She’d had the very same reaction when she first saw it lying inside the chest. But now that she’d had some time to think about it, she realized that even though it might not have been the treasure of her dreams and the chest might not have been overflowing with precious jewels and coins of solid gold, somehow this was better.
When her father’s compass had been taken away, it was as though his pirate spirit had been taken away. That compass was his guide, his token, his symbol of power.
And now it belonged to CJ.
“You don’t understand,” CJ told Freddie. “A compass is a pirate’s source of information, her way of navigating through the world. Sure, it’s not Mal’s spell book, or Evie’s magic mirror, or your shadow cards, but it’s what I’ve got.”
“It’s also probably worth a fortune,” Freddie said, taking it from CJ’s hand and running her fingers over the smooth edges. “I mean, this looks like solid gold.”
“Yeah,” CJ replied somewhat absentmindedly. �
��And the diamond is as pure as they come. If I sold it, it would be more than enough to buy me a ship.”
“So?” Freddie prompted her. “Are you going to sell it?”
CJ shrugged. “I don’t know.”
CJ had always believed that it was the ship that made the pirate. That was what she’d been basing her entire life plan on.
But what if it was something else? Something smaller?
Something like this?
Freddie turned the compass over in her hand, her eyes widening. “Look!” she exclaimed, holding it out for CJ to see.
CJ leaned in and stared, openmouthed, at the back of her father’s most valuable possession. She hadn’t even noticed it before, but there, engraved in the gold, were three letters:
CJH
“Captain James Hook,” CJ said aloud.
“Hmmm.” Freddie pondered. “I don’t think that’s what it stands for.”
CJ shot her an impatient look. “Of course that’s what it stands for. What else could it stand for? It was my father’s compass.”
“Not anymore,” Freddie said, her eyes twinkling.
CJ took the compass and held it in her palm, staring at the letters again.
CJH.
Captain James Hook.
Or, she thought suddenly as a shiver ran down her arms, CJ Hook.
So long, buckaroos.
It’s time for Freddie to drop anchor and for me to set sail.
CJ had spent so many hours sneaking around the campus of Auradon Prep she probably knew it better than the Fairy Godmother herself. Or at least she knew all the best places to hide there.
That was why sneaking back into the school was a breeze. CJ and Freddie rowed back to the bayou, stuffed their faces with one last plate of sugary beignets, and hitched a ride on another delivery truck bound for Auradon City. Then they waited until the sun had set and the students had all retired to their rooms before they crept across the campus and crawled through the first-floor window of Freddie’s dorm room.
They both landed ungracefully in a heap on the floor.
“Ow!” Freddie cried. “Get your elbow off my hand!”
“Get your hand off my face!” CJ cried back.
“My hand isn’t on your face!” Freddie replied. “That’s my foot.”
After they’d disentangled themselves and brushed the dirt from their already filthy outfits, they stood up and found they were not, in fact, alone.
Mal and Evie stood in the room, glaring at them with their arms crossed.
“Heeey, guys!” Freddie said, trying to sound innocent. “What’s up? How’s it going? So nice of you to wait up for us, but I am sooo tired.” She fake yawned. “So if we could just chat tomorrow…”
The two VKs didn’t move.
“We know you left the school without permission,” Mal said, taking a step forward. “Audrey’s been telling everyone she saw you in Briar’s Hollow.”
CJ saw the panic that flashed over Freddie’s face. “Is Fairy Godmother going to expel me?”
Mal opened her mouth to say something, but CJ stepped in. “It was my fault. Freddie didn’t do anything wrong. I…I…” she stammered, searching for a good excuse that would clear her friend of any trouble. “I kidnapped her.”
“You what?” Evie asked, perking up.
“I kidnapped her,” CJ repeated, sounding more confident in her lie the second time. “I took her hostage. Family habits die hard.”
“Is that true?” Mal asked Freddie.
Freddie glanced at CJ, who shot her a warning look. “Yes,” Freddie finally replied. “She did. I told her I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to break the rules. But she…she…”
“I tied her up,” CJ finished, sensing her friend was struggling to keep up the charade, “and taped her mouth shut. The whole pirate kit and caboodle. It was a hoot.”
“No wonder your hair looks so horrendous!” Evie cried. She ran to Freddie and tried to fix her hair, but Freddie groaned and moved out of reach.
Mal, on the other hand, was much less quick to buy their story.
CJ watched Mal’s reaction carefully. It was easy to fool the AKs—and apparently Evie, as well—but Mal was a different story. Back on the Isle of the Lost, she was pretty much the queen trickster. She could sniff out a lie just as easily as CJ could.
Mal stared at CJ like she was trying to shake her down with just a look.
She finally spoke. “I don’t trust you, CJ.”
“Aww. Thanks!” CJ said, flattered. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, Malsy.”
The scowl on Mal’s face never faltered. “I don’t know what you’ve been up to, but I really hope you’re not planning on sticking around here.”
CJ feigned disappointment. “Unfortunately, I can’t. I have other plans. I was just stopping by to return my little hostage here.” CJ patted Freddie’s hair.
“Why is everyone trying to touch my head?” Freddie asked, moving away again.
CJ flashed Mal a cunning smile. “Will you be a dear and tell Fairy Godmother I’m sorry for taking one of her students hostage? And also make sure she doesn’t expel our little friend? Especially since she had nothing to do with it. That would be extremely un–fairy godmother of her.”
Mal opened her mouth to say something, but she never got the chance.
“Thanks!” CJ cooed in an overly bubbly voice. “You’re the worstest!” She looked from Mal to Evie and finally to Freddie. “Well, I’d love to stay and enjoy this slumber party—I’m sure you’ll all have a jolly good time braiding each other’s hair and talking about cute boys—but I have to run.”
CJ turned and headed back to the window, stopping long enough to wave and call out, “Toodles!” before slipping into the night.
She smiled to herself as she strolled casually away from the building. But she didn’t make it far before she heard someone hiss, “Psst!” behind her.
CJ turned to see Freddie’s face in the dorm room window. She hurried back.
“Thanks for doing that,” Freddie said, “for covering for me.”
“Hey,” CJ said with a coy wink, “what are partners for?”
CJ reached into her pocket and pulled out the matchbook Freddie had given her at Skull Rock, the one with the logo for the Bass Notes and Beignets jazz club on the front. “Thanks again for saving me.” She tossed the matches to Freddie, who caught them adeptly with one hand. “I expect to see you on that stage next time I’m in the bayou.”
Freddie grinned. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay? I bet we could convince King Ben to let you enroll. He is a bit of a pushover.”
CJ laughed. “Thanks, but I don’t think I’m really cut out for the whole prep school life. Too many rules.”
She dug her hand into the other pocket of her coat and ran her fingers over the compass—her treasure. It was heavy and solid and certain. It felt like a promise of something—something she’d dreamed about since she was a little girl: a journey she had a feeling was just beginning.
“Besides,” she said to Freddie, squeezing the gold token that would be the key to her future one way or another, “my next adventure awaits me.”
Then, with a mischievous smile, CJ turned and sailed off into the unknown.
Just before she rounded the corner, she heard Freddie whisper, “And so does mine.”
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FREDDIE’S SHADOW CARDS
CJ's Treasure Chase Page 10
