Branson Garcia is a good kid. He’s proud of his straight A’s and popular best friends who love to surf almost as much as he does.
Gina Penny knows all about bullies. Born with a tendency to talk too much and a quick temper, she carries the sallow title of town pest everywhere she goes.
They live on the same street.
They couldn’t be further apart.
When Branson’s friends dare Gina to sneak inside the local lighthouse, she disappears. Branson follows and meets the lighthouse keeper, a reclusive fisherman who possesses the ability to charter souls between worlds. Worse, the lighthouse keeper keeps talking about pirates, plundering, and North Stars and is intent on sending Branson and Gina away.
Now, trapped inside the sea-faring world of Sceros, Branson and Gina ally with the crew of the Heretic—a pirate ship captained by the elusive Edward Antaeus. Navigating colorful jungles, sirens of magic and mystery, and sea monsters under the control of greedy captains, Branson and Gina must learn to trust the sea and each other if they are to return home.
Branson’s journey to find the Red Terror has come to an end, but not without a price. He’s trapped in Sceros, learning the ways of piracy alongside the crew of the Heretic as he searches for a way home. When Branson is convicted of a crime he did not commit, he’s given ten days to seek out the legendary talisman of Jitu—a quest that will send him spiraling even further away from the distant shores of Swanford.
After reappearing back home alone, Gina will stop at nothing to return to Sceros—even if it means dragging Branson’s irritating friend, Cole, into the lighthouse with her. But the seas have grown restless, and the Sceros she returns to isn’t the same world she left behind. Whispers of spirits rattling the chains of the dead echo in the wake of ships, and Gina isn’t sure which to be more afraid of—the unruly magic of Sceros, or the fact that Branson looks right at home alongside his ragtag crew of thieving pirates.
Facing off against greedy bandits, deadly sea monsters, and ancient curses, Branson and Gina must find Jitu’s talisman and clear Branson’s name before the Wretched Hunt—and the ebbing tide of mutiny—separates them from their home world forever.