Free Unleashed: The Deepest Fears Lie Within (Secrets of the Makai) by Toni Kerr

intending to get in the right spirit of things. “Go for it.”
    “In that case, piece of cake! Tristan, this is Talak. Talak, Tristan.”
    Tristan waved as all six rings shrunk and began spinning on their own. Victor’s tomato flew through the first, returned for the second, then third. The sixth ring became a sort of stretchable paddle that caught the tomato and flung it against the wall with splattering thump. Talak plucked a rose made of black glass from a display case of prizes.
    “Nah,” Victor said, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Save it.”
    “I’d bet your little lady friend would think it sweet of you.”
    “Quite right.” Victor grinned. “I happily accept.”
    “How ‘bout your friend there?” The man looked at Tristan and placed a perfect red tomato on the pedestal. “It would give me the opportunity to make up for that...unfortunate incident.”
    Tristan shook his head and took a step back. “That’s okay, really.”
    The man bowed slightly as a small group of waiting kids rushed forward. The rings stopped spinning and grew to twice the size they’d been for Victor.
    Cheers erupted from the center stage and people shifted as one in that direction. “Go ahead,” Victor encouraged. “I need to find Alvi.”
    Before Tristan could open his mouth, Victor disappeared into the crowd.
    Tristan headed toward the stage, eager to see what drew everyone’s attention, surprised to find a huge transparent tank of water. Dolphins raced along the perimeter.
    He made his way to the tank itself and put a hand on the thick glass, utterly amazed by how something so large could just…appear. With living animals inside.
    The dolphins sped by, making a wave that crested the top of the tank.
    To his right, someone was distributing bright green rain jackets to whoever wanted them in the stands.
    A sound like fingernails on a chalkboard brought his attention back to the tank, to a faint crack in the glass.
    His pulse quickened.
    Just as he was about to look for someone to tell, the growing crack changed direction and curved upward. It almost made a letter U shape, but continued until it changed direction again, arching down to the left.
    “Hey! You!”
    Tristan tore his eyes away from the scratch marks and spotted a guy in a wetsuit jogging toward him, weaving through the people still looking for seats.
    “What are you doing?” the man called.
    “Me?” Tristan asked, horrified that he might be suspected for damaging the glass. “Nothing! There’s a—” He glanced back and saw that both dolphins had come to investigate.
    Inside the cracked lines, eerily shaped like a knife, the glass began etching itself where the blade would be. Water began seeping through, beading at the outline.
    “There’s a crack,” Tristan finally said, taking another step back. The nose of a dolphin barely touched the scratched design and a loud series of sickening snaps, followed by a creaking groan, silenced the people within earshot.
    As if keeping itself together until the last possible moment, the fractured glass expanded like a swelling blister, then exploded in a wave of water, dolphins included.
    People screamed.
    Tristan turned to escape, tripping over a redheaded boy. He covered the child with his body to protect him from the wave of water and glass fragments and waited.
    Nothing happened.
    When he glanced over his shoulder, the glass wall was solid again. The ground was dry and there were no beached dolphins flopping around.
    The man in the wetsuit looked furious.
    “I don’t get it,” Tristan said. He got off the child, who ran away, and stared at the glass, lightly speckled with drops of water. “I saw it crack.”
    “What happened?” Landon asked, half-jogging into the staging area.
    “It’s about time you got here,” the man said to Landon, still glaring at Tristan. “I’d say you’ve got your hands full with this one. Get him out of here.”
    “Me?” Tristan asked again, standing with his mouth