Pillage

There's no doubt about it: Beck Phillips' life has taken a turn for the weird. Moving in with his filthy-rich uncle in Kingsplot might not be so bad-except his uncle is crazy, obsessed with dragons, and refuses to come out of the attic. As bad as things are, though, it's not as bad as the wandering lights Beck sees flickering in the darkened hallways, or the mysteriously buried basement, or even the bizarre new power he seems to have discovered-Beck can make things grow. It seems like a strange gift to have, until he discovers a forbidden conservatory in the woods. What he finds inside will test his newfound power and his courage to their limits. Pillage is a fast-paced adventure, revealing the tangled history of the Phillips family and a dangerous curse that only Beck can break. If it's not already too late. The plants are growing and the dragons have already taken wing . . .

Beck Phillips has spent his time since the dragon pillage of Kingsplot inflating a huge weather balloon inside a tiny building, exploring all the forbidden rooms in the manor, and showing his natural propensity to act first and think later. But, he is a Pillage and dragons are part of his heritage. Try as he might, he can't ignore their obvious lure. Confronted with conflicting stories from adults who claim to know what's best for him, Beck retrieves the last dragon egg in existence and takes it to a mountainside cave to hatch. Kate should be jealous when Beck becomes too attached to the dragon queen Lizzy, yet she too is irresistibly drawn in. When Lizzy starts her own rampage, Beck realizes he can't let the devastation happen again. Will he, once and for all, be able to change the course of events his family curse has destined for him? In this exhilarating sequel to Pillage, Beck must use his natural ingenuity to sort out who can be trusted and who can't, before it's too late.

What can happen on an innocent field trip to a museum? In the secure protection of a jail? Or on a simple bus ride? Plenty, if you are a member of the Pillage family and your name is Beck Phillips. No matter what strangeness is going on, Beck still manages to turn things on their head. When Beck's personality and behavior begin to change after he makes a fateful, life-altering decision involving, what else?, a dragon egg. There is no one around to stop him from fulfilling his family's destiny set out in The Grim Knot. And as life in Kingsplot moves unwittingly toward the brink of another dragon disaster, Beck finds himself living a life of deception as he hides information from the people who love and care about him the most. In this final episode of the Pillage series, with the destructive forces of his family heritage running strong and unhindered, Beck must now face the truth and rise to the challenge of stopping the madness or succumb to the draconic chaos he has helped create.