A map.

  Lucy gasped, and Roux’s eyes widened as Oliver held it up. “This is the real treasure,” he said triumphantly. “Too bad Hightower was in such a hurry and missed this little beauty. Let’s see where it leads, shall we?”

  Unrolling the parchment, he spread it out on the table. Everyone crowded around. It was the map of an island, as far as Shinji could tell—an irregular landmass in the center of the ocean. A dotted line led from one edge of the island to a point in the very center and was marked with a faded but very recognizable red X.

  “X marks the spot,” Oliver said with a thoughtful nod. “Pretty classic.”

  Shinji drew in a sharp breath. The map, and the red X, suddenly seemed to rush up at him, filling his vision. He saw an island with sandy beaches, thick rain forests, and a green mountain rising up from the center. He was speeding over the beach, then through the tangled vines and leaves of the rain forest, seeing flashes of color and movement

  from the corner of his eyes. He saw the remains of a village, thatched huts and wooden benches lying abandoned in the trees. He continued to speed through the rain forest, ducking vines and zipping between trunks, until he came to the base of the mountain that soared toward the clouds. A stone door was carved into the side of the cliff, flanked by huge pillars and covered in moss. Through the vines and vegetation, Shinji could see the carving on the stone was the head of an enormous boar, deadly tusks curving up to frame its entire face.

  Shinji blinked, and the vision faded. He was back in Mano’s quarters, with the map still lying on the table and Oliver’s voice echoing in his ears. Nobody seemed to notice anything had happened, but he could still see the abandoned village, the stone door, and those angry blue eyes staring out at him. For a moment, he wondered if he should say anything, but then he spotted Phoebe, beaming with excitement on the other side of the table. If he mentioned anything about a mysterious door on the island, she would never leave him alone. He’d told them about the shark because he felt he had to. Admitting he was having visions of volcanoes and hearing angry voices was another story.

  “How far away is this island, Mano?” Oliver was asking. “You know all there is to know about the Polynesian Triangle. How long will it take us to get there?”

  Mano didn’t answer. He was gazing down at the map, still lying in the center of the table. His brow furrowed, and

  he turned the map sideways, then upside down, as if trying to figure something out.

  “Uh, Mano?” Oliver prodded. “You okay there?”

  The big man shook his head. “This island,” he muttered, tracing the edge of the map with a thumb. “These coordinates…it doesn’t make sense. There’s nothing there.”

  Shinji glanced over at Lucy, who stared back, clearly intrigued.

  Now Oliver frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  Mano tapped the map, where several numbers had been scribbled in the corner. “These are the coordinates to the island,” he began. “But I know that stretch of ocean. There’s no land there. There’s nothing but open water, for miles, in every direction. There is no island.”

  “Well.” Oliver peered over at the map with a faint smile. “According to this, there is.”

  Mano sighed. “I can get us there,” he said. “Looking at these coordinates, it’ll just take a day or two. Once we arrive, we can see if there’s an island there or not.”

  “A mysterious island.” Phoebe clapped her hands. “Oh, I cannot wait. This is going to be so exciting.”

  The journey to the mysterious, possibly invisible island took two days. During that time, Shinji tried to stay busy, hanging out in the cargo hold with Lucy and the various scientists aboard, or in his room with his laptop. All this activity was mostly to avoid Phoebe, who seemed to lurk around every corner waiting to pounce and ask him a ton of

  questions about the shark, its voice, and whether any other sea life had tried to contact him. But it was also to keep his mind occupied, because the closer they got to the supposed location of the island, the weirder Shinji felt. It was as if something knew he was coming, and was both impatient for him to get there and furious at everything else.

  Lucy and Roux squabbled often. It was never a full-blown fight, especially if they were in the presence of any of the adults, but Shinji began to get tired of their constant jabs and pokes at each other. One evening, he was lying on his cot flipping through a comic book, when his door flew open and Lucy strode into the room.

  “Roux! Where is it?”

  Shinji jumped, banging his head on the low ceiling above his mattress. “Ow, Lucy!” he exclaimed, rubbing his skull as he swung his legs off the cot. “You know, there’s this thing called knocking that’s really popular nowadays. What do you want?”

  “Where is he?”

  “Who? Roux?”

  “Yes, Roux.” Lucy gave him an exasperated look. “Who else would I be talking about? I certainly didn’t come in here looking for Oliver.”

  “Why do you want him? What’s he done this time?”

  She glowered. “My book on mythological creatures from around the world is missing,” she said. “I was going to flip through it tonight, to see if there was anything about sharks

  and hidden islands, but it’s disappeared. I know you didn’t take it,” she went on. “And there’s only one thief on this ship, so…”

  “You assumed it was Roux.”

  “Who else would it be?” Lucy demanded. “None of the adults would come into my room—my locked room—and take my stuff without telling me. Why are you always on his side?”

  “What? I’m not!” Shinji glared at her, stung. “I just…I get where he’s coming from, that’s all. I know what it’s like to be on your own. I know how much it sucks to feel that you can’t trust anyone. I’ve seen how stupid and ugly and unfair the world can be, and how sometimes it feels like it’s you against everyone else. You wouldn’t see that, because…”

  He trailed off, but it was too late. Lucy went very still, her voice dropping into the subzero range.

  “Because I’m a Hightower,” she said flatly. “Because my family is rich, and I never had to worry about those kind of things. Right?”

  Shinji shrugged. Which was definitely not a good move. Lucy’s demeanor went even colder, her expression shutting into that frosty, impersonal mask Shinji had seen on her father, Gideon Frost.

  “I see. Well, forget I said anything, then. Guess I’ll find it myself.”

  She turned and walked away without looking back, slamming the door behind her.

  Shinji groaned, running his hands down his face. Lucy was mad at him again, and he wasn’t entirely sure why. It wasn’t like he was the one swiping her stuff. Maybe he would find Roux and ask if he had seen Lucy’s book.

  Sticking his phone in his pocket, he went looking for him.

  After asking around, Shinji found Roux in the library, where Phoebe had attempted to “help” Shinji with his magic earlier. Roux was lounging in a chair with both legs dangling off the armrest, a large book propped against his knees. He didn’t look up as Shinji approached, though one hand rose in a casual wave to let him know he’d seen him.

  “Hey,” he greeted, eyes still on the book. A very familiar book, Shinji suddenly realized. Mythologies from Around the World, it read on the cover.

  “Hey,” Shinji repeated. “Isn’t that Lucy’s book?”

  “What? Oh yeah.” Roux glanced up at him and shrugged. “With all this weird stuff about invisible islands and time bombs and talking sharks, I thought I’d better read up on some of this stuff. It’s pretty crazy, actually. I didn’t know you could keep fairies away with salt.”

  “She’s looking for it,” Shinji went on, feeling a stab of annoyance because Lucy had been right about Roux taking the book. “You didn’t ask if you could take it.”

  Roux shifted in his seat. “You think Snowflake would let me borrow it if I asked? Knowing her, she’d probably say something like ‘What, you actually know how to read?’ ” He

  snorted, settling himself farther into the chair. “Don’t worry, I’m just borrowing it. I’ll put it back when I’m done.”

  “No,” Shinji said firmly, making Roux look up with a frown. “Look, I get it; you don’t want to ask for anything because you don’t think people will actually help you. But you can’t break into people’s rooms and just take their stuff; that’s stealing.”

  Roux gave him a lazy, unfriendly smile. “News flash to Shinji: I’m a thief. That’s what I do.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s wrong.” Shinji didn’t back down. “Stealing is wrong. That’s what Hightower does; they take stuff that doesn’t belong to them, and they use it for their own gain.”

  “So what?” Roux shrugged. “Isn’t Little Miss Perfect a Hightower herself?”

  “That’s different. She isn’t like the rest of them.”

  “You sure about that?” Roux gave Shinji a pointed look. “I saw her with those Hightower people. I know about wanting stuff, and believe me, she wanted whatever it was they were offering.”

  Shinji clenched his jaw. He didn’t want to think of Lucy like that, but he couldn’t help it now. Lucy had told him she missed Hightower. She missed her workshop. He wondered if she missed her dad, horrible as he was.

  Should he be worried about Lucy’s loyalty, since even Roux had noticed?

  “Just give me the book,” he said at last. “I’ll take it back to Lucy.”

  “All yours.” Roux set the book on an armrest and stood, stretching lazily. “I was done with it, anyway. Tell Snowflake thanks for letting me borrow it.”

  Shinji bristled, but he knew the other boy was just trying to needle him, so he forced himself to stay calm. “Maybe if you asked nicely, she’d let you borrow it for real.”

  “And maybe if I stick my head in a shark’s mouth, I won’t get it bitten off,” Roux said, rolling his eyes. “Not holding my breath on that one.” He sauntered out the door, leaving Shinji alone with the book in the library.

  Shinji sighed. Walking over to the chair, he gazed down at the large tome lying innocently on the armrest. Like many of Lucy’s books, it was huge and thick. It still didn’t look particularly interesting to him; there was no picture on the cover, just a weird shield symbol with the title above it: Mythologies from Around the World. But maybe Roux had a point. Maybe he should be more interested in this stuff. Since he was probably one of the very few living people who had actually met a mythological creature.

  Reaching out, he flipped the book open to a random page. The black-and-white picture of a dragon, wings spread wide and jaws breathing fire, was the first thing he saw. No surprise there. Dragons were the subjects of one of the most common myths around the world. Shinji thought they were insanely cool, but he already knew a lot about the creatures.

  He kept flipping pages, past gryphons—also cool—unicorns, Pegasus, and the Minotaur, until he came to a page with a picture of a large serpent with great feathery wings, outstretched as it reared back in an S shape.

  Shinji paused, feeling a ripple of irritation. “Well, there you are,” he said, not really knowing if the Coatl was listening, if it could hear him at all. “Should I keep reading, or is everything we know about Coatls wrong? I bet this book isn’t going to say anything about guardians and fonts.”

  Shinji paused and listened as hard as he could for something, anything, that could guide or help him. As usual, there was no answer. Annoyed, he started to close the book but paused. What had Phoebe said? Something about his own emotions blocking the way to his power? Whenever he’d tried calling on his magic or talking to the Coatl, he’d been frustrated or angry. And when his emotions were at their strongest, that’s when his magic started to go haywire.

  Clear your mind, Phoebe had urged. To master your power, you must first master your emotions.

  He shrugged, then took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Might as well give it a shot. This time, he didn’t try to reach for his magic or draw it out. He just concentrated on being calm, being empty. If the spirit of the Coatl still lived on somewhere inside him, he would let it appear on its own.…

  His skin wriggled. Shinji jerked and glanced down at his arm, seeing the winged serpent tattoo ruffle its wings and look up at him.

  His heart nearly stopped. The Coatl. After weeks of nothing, of silence, of wondering if the guardian of the font was still with him, it had finally—finally—decided to show itself.

  His breath came out in a relieved puff. “About time you showed up,” he whispered, though he was so happy to see it he wasn’t even angry. He wished Lucy were here, but was very glad that Phoebe was not. The Coatl flicked its tongue at him. As he watched, the winged serpent slithered down his arm and seemed to spill onto the pages of the book, turning to ink as it melted into the paper. Spreading its wings, the drawing of the Coatl looked back at him, then glided to the edge of the page and disappeared, vanishing further into the book.

  “Hey, wait a second.” Shinji quickly turned the page, seeing the Coatl slither across the paper and then vanish at the edges again. He kept flipping pages, chasing the Coatl as it zipped past words and pictures of mythological creatures, faster than he could keep up.

  “What are you doing?” Shinji wondered, turning another page, only to see the Coatl wasn’t moving anymore. It sat in the center of the paper, staring up at him, then deliberately turned and wriggled up the centerfold until it came to the picture at the top of the page.

  Shinji blinked. It wasn’t a large picture, not like the others, some of which took up an entire page. This simple

  drawing portrayed a pig, a wild boar, with bolts of lightning that crackled and snapped around it. He felt a chill go through his stomach as he stared at the picture. The glowing eyes. The huge tusks, reaching up to frame its entire face. There wasn’t much information, barely any at all, to go with the image. The text below it read:

  storm/tempest boar. thought to be revered by an extinct culture that existed somewhere in the polynesian triangle. perhaps worshiped as a god of rain and wind, the storm boar was believed to be volatile and bad-tempered, its anger the cause of many hurricanes in the south pacific.

  That was all the information the article gave, but the chill Shinji felt slithered all the way down his spine. The Storm Boar. The lightning-shrouded beast that roared at him in his dreams; it had to be the same creature.

  “What are you doing?”

  Shinji jumped at the sound of Lucy’s voice, turning to find her standing a few feet behind him. He was so focused on the book and the Storm Boar, he hadn’t even heard her enter the library. Tinker peered down at him from her shoulder as Lucy’s eyes drifted to the book on the armrest, then narrowed sharply.

  “Is that my book?”

  “Um, yeah.” Shinji glanced down at the open tome, but the Coatl was no longer in the corner of the page. “Roux had it. Guess you were right.”

  “I knew it,” Lucy muttered. “I’m going to have to talk to Mano about changing the locks on my doors.”

  “He’ll just pick them again,” Shinji pointed out. “Besides, he said he was going to give it back.”

  Lucy just gave him a cold glare, clearly unimpressed. She closed the book with a thump, losing the page with the Storm Boar without even seeing it. She picked up the book, cradled it to her chest, then turned and exited the room without saying anything more, leaving Shinji standing there by himself. For a second, he wondered if he should track her down and apologize, but he didn’t know what he’d be apologizing for.

  Glancing down, he saw the Coatl tattoo was back on his arm, lifeless and unmoving once again. If Shinji hadn’t seen so many strange and bizarre events by now, he might’ve thought he had imagined the whole thing.

  “What are you trying to tell me?” he whispered. “What is the Storm Boar? Why is it calling to me? What does it want me to do?”

  Apparently, one could only receive a single hint from enigmatic guardian spirits per day, because even though Shinji spent another hour in the library trying to communicate with his Coatl tattoo, it didn’t answer him.

  The journey across the ocean continued as they followed the coordinates on the strange map, trusting Mano and Oliver to know the directions at sea. Lucy eventually started talking to Shinji again but remained frosty to Roux, who never apologized for taking her book without asking. He didn’t, as far as Shinji could tell, break into any more rooms, so maybe he’d taken Shinji’s “stealing is bad” lecture to heart. Or maybe he just hadn’t let Shinji know he was doing it.

  On the morning of the third day, the skies started to darken. Black clouds formed on the horizon, looming and ominous, and the sea grew choppy, tossing the boat and

  causing Shinji to stumble several times as the floor beneath him rocked and pitched.

  Wandering down the hall with Roux, he met Lucy at the end of the corridor. “Where’s Oliver and everyone else?” he asked as, behind him, Roux grabbed a post to keep himself steady. He was, Shinji saw nervously, looking a little green. He hoped the other boy wouldn’t lose his breakfast all over the carpet.

  “Up on deck,” Lucy replied. She looked nervous as well and braced herself against the wall as the ship rocked beneath them. “I think they went to check out the storm. From what I can see, it’s a bad one.”

  Shinji remembered his dream, and the angry pig appearing in the roiling clouds, lightning crackling around it. It couldn’t be the same storm, could it? “I want to see it,” he said, stepping past Lucy. “Be right back.”

  “Shinji, wait up,” Lucy called. “We’re coming, too.”

  A growl of thunder went through the air as Shinji stepped onto the deck, seeing Mano, Phoebe, and Oliver at the railings. Glancing at the sky, he saw the sun was still shining directly overhead, but over the horizon, lightning flickered through an ominous wall of clouds, and a sharp gust of wind tossed Shinji’s hair like it was trying to yank it out.