For Ages
8 to 12

Empire of Bones (Ashtown Burials #3) is a part of the Ashtown Burials collection.

Fans of both Percy Jackson and Indiana Jones will be captivated by the lost civilizations, ancient secrets, and buried treasure found in the third book of the Ashtown Burials series, an action-packed adventure by the author of 100 Cupboards.
 
Cyrus and Antigone Smith have thwarted Dr. Phoenix’s plans—for the moment. They’ve uncovered a new threat from the transmortals and managed to escape with their lives. Their next adventure will take them deep into the caves below Ashtown, where they will look for help from those imprisoned in one of Ashtown’s oldest tombs.
 
“An extraordinary new series.”—SLJ, Starred

An Excerpt fromEmpire of Bones (Ashtown Burials #3)

One
POOL PARTY
People wear places like they wear shoes. A place shifts around you, and you shift inside it, growing blisters and then calluses, becoming used to each other. But shoelaces tatter. Soles grow thin. Every day spent in a place frays the carpets, compresses the dirt, scuffs the sidewalks, or kills the grass just a little bit more. Floors creak, stairs bounce, trees, moss, weeds, and mildew grow, walls sag, pipes chatter and finally leak. Every breath changes the paint in a room, or the growth of green things beside you; every switch of the lights sends lightning rivers racing through secret grooves in hidden copper wires.
No place is ever the same tomorrow.
Take off your shoes and leave them in the tall grass for a year. Return and slip them on if you can. Disturb the ants and centipedes and beetles that now live inside. Wiggle your toes. You have changed.
No place is yours forever.
The evening sun dragged its light sideways across a lake, across miles of hills and barns and highways until it found…