Elliot and the Last Underworld War (Underworld Chronicles 3)

Elliot's ears perked up. "What sort of creatures?" As king of the Brownies, he had to guard very carefully against anyone learning of the existence of mythological creatures. Th

e Brownies were very sensitive about that.

"Oh, you'd love it! I just finished a model of a Goblin. He's tiny, and I painted him light pink. He's so cute!"

Elliot rolled his eyes. Goblins were not tiny or any shade of pink, and they definitely were not cute! If their leader, Grissel, ever saw the model, he'd blow it up. And probably Cami's house along with it.

Seeing that Elliot was not impressed, Cami frowned and said, "I thought if you saw how cool this model was, you'd want to make some paper-mache creatures with me sometime."

"Um, no," Elliot said. Which was a very ordinary thing to say considering the very extraordinary thing that happened next.

Exactly when Elliot's watch turned to 11:14, the sunlight dimmed. It had been high in the sky when they started this game not too long ago.

Elliot forgot the flag in his hand and dropped it on the ground. It was as if night had suddenly decided to come all at once, even though it was still the middle of the day. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Oh, I forgot!" Cami rummaged through a bag slung over her shoulder. "There's a total eclipse of the sun today! I made a pinhole viewer so that we could watch it. Now, where--ah!" She pulled the pinhole viewer from her bag and showed it to Tubs and Elliot. "This is the only safe way to watch a solar eclipse."

As far as Elliot was concerned, there was nothing safe about a solar eclipse. Or at least, not this solar eclipse. Because as soon as the moon fully crossed in front of the sun, Kovol would be free.

Kovol had promised to destroy Earth once he escaped the gripping mud. Part of Elliot hoped that Kovol might have changed his mind while he was stuck in the mud. Maybe instead of getting revenge on Elliot, Kovol would celebrate his release by ordering some pizza. But the rest of Elliot understood that probably wouldn't happen. At least he couldn't think of any pizza places that delivered to the Underworld.

The eclipse created a strange light in the air. It wasn't true darkness, but more like everything had fallen into shadow. And with Elliot's mind on Kovol, the unusual light became even eerier.

A moment later the sun and moon had passed each other, and everything became normal again. It would've been an exciting moment if Elliot hadn't understood exactly what was now happening in the Underworld.

"Where are you going?" Cami asked him. "If you leave, we're gonna lose the game!"

"Mr. Beary-Boo will be so happy when I tell him we won!" Tubs said.

Elliot didn't care about the game or what Mr. Beary-Boo thought about anything. He was already sprinting home as fast as his long legs would carry him.

Kovol was free. And about to seek his revenge.

The door to Elliot's home banged open as he ran through it. His sixteen-year-old brother, Reed, and fifteen-year-old sister, Wendy, were sitting with their eyes glued to the television. (They weren't actually glued, of course, because think of how painful that would be! They were just watching it very carefully.)

"You were supposed to tell me if a solar eclipse was coming," Elliot said to them. "You promised to warn me!"

Wendy turned to him. "Sorry, I forgot."

Sorry? Wendy would be plenty sorry when the entire world was destroyed.

Reed shrugged. "So you missed the eclipse. I missed free popcorn day at the zoo once. But you don't hear me complaining."

"That's not even close to the same thing!" Elliot said.

"You can see the next one," Wendy said. "It's no big deal."

"It is a big deal," Elliot insisted. "It happens to be about the biggest deal ever. Like the kind of big deal that means you won't cook dinner ever again!"

"It just so happens that I don't mind cooking anymore," Wendy said. "I haven't burned a single dinner in eight days."

"You burned the chicken nuggets last night," Reed said.

"I meant the eight days before last night," Wendy said. "My cooking is getting better lately."

This was mostly true. Her dinners still tasted like they were made of cornstarch and glue. But except for last night, at least it was unburned cornstarch and glue.

"Anyway, there's a much bigger deal than your missing the eclipse." Reed pointed to the television. "Look! About five minutes after the eclipse, this happened!"