Skylar Robbins: The Mystery of the Island Idol is due available now on Amazon and wherever ebooks are sold. Here’s a free chapter to let you know what teen sleuth Skylar Robbins has been investigating. Her new adventure put Skylar and her crew in more danger than they ever could have imagined…
Chapter 1
That Crazy Summer
If I had known what was going to happen that crazy summer, I would have thought twice about every decision I’d made. Had I paid closer attention to every clue, I might have realized the risky situation I was putting myself in. Again. But no one could have predicted what would happen to all of us: the brainy group of popular kids, athletes, and misfits with super high IQs who had made it into the Accelerated Courses and Experiments program, ACE. Most importantly, I really should have been better at figuring out who I could—or couldn’t—rely on in case of extreme danger.
Six Weeks Later
“Skylar,” Morgan whispered. “I have to get off this plane. Right now.”
“What?” I turned to look at her. Morgan’s forehead dripped sweat, and she was so pale she looked light green. I touched her hand, which was clenching the armrest. “Are you all right?”
“No. That big jet was bad enough. I feel like we’re going to die in this thing. I really need to get—”
The pilot sat down right in front of Bastiian, and looked at us over his shoulder. “I am your pilot, Phan Ho. Fasten seatbelts, please,” he said, starting the engine. “Seventy-minute flight. Keep belts on at all times. Next stop, Koma Island.” I’d flown before, but never in an airplane so small that the pilot introduced himself and that I could see the back of his head.
“Ready or not, here we go.” Bastiian shook his long hair around and laughed, but I noticed he was gripping the arms of his seat so hard his knuckles were shining.
Morgan unbuckled her seatbelt as the plane started to move. “This whole trip’s a mistake,” she muttered, standing up.
“It’s too late.” I grabbed her arm, pulling her back down. “We’re taking off. Put your seatbelt back on!” I wished so badly that my BFF, Alexa, was in the seat next to me instead of Morgan. I didn’t want to have to take care of anybody else on a strange, remote island. I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to take care of myself.
Devonna looked across the aisle at us as we started to taxi down the runway. “There’s a barf bag in there if you need one,” she told Morgan, pointing at the ripped seat pocket in the back of the seat in front of her.
Ophelia turned around, fixing her pale gray eyes on Devonna. “You’re not going to puke on me, are you?”
“I’m not,” Devonna said, nervously.
Morgan clamped her seatbelt back on, too scared to speak. She grabbed the armrests, her fingers like claws, and screwed her eyes shut. Her lips were moving. I figured she was praying.
The airplane rumbled and shuddered down the runway, picking up speed. The wood block chattered in its metal hoops and I could hear our carry-on items bouncing around in the vibrating compartment. I hoped my detective tools wouldn’t rattle into broken bits before we even got off the ground.
I heard Hannah gasp and Ophelia swear as we all spotted the end of the runway rushing toward us at the same moment. Right when it looked like we were going to run out of airstrip and smash into the trees, the pilot pulled the plane’s nose up off the blacktop.
It felt like we were suspended in midair, pointing at the sky, but just yards off the ground. Climbing too slowly. Like the old plane would fall backward and smash us into the earth at any second. But we kept climbing. Grinding upward. Higher and higher into thick gray clouds.
A spider crawled down the inside of the window next to me. I hoped Morgan wouldn’t notice it. She’d taken the barf bag out of the seat pocket in front of her and was breathing deeply into it. I watched the bag blow up, then shrink together and crinkle. Blow up, shrink together and crinkle. She was trying to get her panic under control. “It’s OK,” I whispered, touching her clammy arm.
She took the bag away from her face. “No. It’s not.”
The ride was getting bumpy. “Apologies,” Phan said. “Bit of turbulence.” The plane started to pass over some mountains and suddenly it took a big dip. “More turbulence coming,” he warned, his voice high and strained. “Tighten seatbelts!”
We hit another giant air pocket and dropped straight down through the atmosphere. I felt my rear end lift right off the seat and the seatbelt press into my stomach. The plane leveled out and flew fairly smoothly over the vast blue ocean, and past the Hawaiian Islands. And then we were turning, the little plane tilting, straightening out, and starting to descend.
Trees, bushes, and rocky cliffs whooshed up to meet us. Phan threaded the plane through and around them, and then a tiny dirt runway rushed toward us. It looked so small I couldn’t imagine landing on it. I was sure we were about to crash. Hannah screamed, Ophelia put her head between her knees, and Morgan threw up into her barf bag.
Seconds later we bounced down and landed with a jarring thud, then skittered down the short runway with the airplane’s brakes screaming. When the plane came to a complete stop, it creaked and popped like it felt fortunate to have survived the flight.
Phan looked over his shoulder at us and smiled thinly. “Welcome to Koma Island.”
Skylar Robbins: The Mystery of the Island Idol will be available for preorder soon. Please leave a comment and you will be entered in my contest to win a free autographed paperback! (U.S. only.)
