Dim lights flicked on overhead, casting shadows against the chipped blue stone walls.

The air smelled like old cigars and dark chocolate. Rosie stalked next to me, sniffing and leaving trails of smoke.

The whispers seemed to lessen with each step we took down the winding hall. A minute later, the space opened into a massive tri-level room with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves encased in glass.

The domed ceiling reminded me of a church, except this one’s stained-glass windows were melded with shimmering gold. At the center of the room was a 3-D holographic orb, glowing blue as it spun in midair.

“This is amazing!” I walked past rows of roughly hewn wooden tables to get a better look.

“Kinda gives me the creeps.” Brooks rubbed her arms vigorously. “All these books and pages and…” She paused before adding, “Dead writers.”

“Did you have to put it that way?” I asked, still taking it all in. When I’d gone to regular school, the library was always my favorite place. It smelled good and had too many stories to count. But this library blew the doors off anything I’d ever seen. “It feels like a cathedral for books.” My voice echoed across the chamber.

“Or a mausoleum,” Hondo said as he entered from another doorway, a steaming paper cup in one hand and a small book in the other. He was sporting his regular jeans and a SHIHOM tee embroidered with his name: HORRENDOUS HONDO, STAFF.

Ren was right behind him, cupping what smelled like cocoa. “You guys, there’s a hot chocolate machine back there,” she said. “Actually, it’s an anything chocolate machine. You just tell it what you want, and presto”—she snapped her fingers—“it spits it out. And it’s the best-tasting chocolate you’ve ever had. I bet it’s Ixkakaw’s recipe.”

Hondo bit back a laugh. “You can even try one of your own candy bars, Diablo.”

Rosie licked her chops and whined like just the word chocolate made her crave a snake head or two.

Brooks said, “I could use a chocolate iced donut. Zane?”

I nodded as she called Rosie over and headed out of view.

“Dogs can’t have chocolate!” I shouted.

“She’s a hellhound!” Brooks hollered back. “She can have whatever she wants.”

“And check this out.” Ren pointed to the globe, hurrying over to it. She reached out a finger, and the second she touched it, the glowing blue orb zipped away to a corner of the library.

“I said no touching,” a woman’s voice said.

What the…?

Ren said, “Sorry. I forgot. You’re just so cool.”

“Is that thing alive?” I asked.

“Did you call me a thing?!” the globe asked, spinning back to the center of the room.

“Not a thing,” I said, trying to erase my mistake. I mean, who wants to get on the wrong side of a talking globe? “I meant…” I fumbled for the right words as I went over to get a better look without touching the orb.

“You meant that I am a highly advanced achievement,” the globe said. “With access to more knowledge than your puny brain could ever hope to contain.”

“Exactly what he meant, Saás,” Hondo said, sipping his coffee like he was enjoying this exchange.

“Her name is Sauce?” I asked.

“S-A-A-S. Mayan for light,” Brooks said, with a dropping tone on the last a as she came back with a pile of chocolate donuts. She tossed one into the air for Rosie to snatch up.

“Watch this.” Ren’s smile lit up her whole face as she leaned close to the orb. “Saás, what is Jupiter?”

“Why do you waste my talent with such simple-minded questions?”

A holographic image of the planet appeared above the globe along with a bunch of text about Jupiter being the fifth planet from the sun, how much it weighs, et cetera et cetera.

“Cool, we’ve got an Alexa globe,” Brooks said, handing me a donut. “Now can we look for the information we came for?”

“My name is not Alexa,” the globe said. “So insulting. Alexa wishes she were as erudite as I am. She is a mere knockoff. Of course, many of the Maya inventions were copied and our advancements were never…Oh, never mind.”

Hondo held back a smile. “I’ve got a better question, Saás. Who is the greatest wrestler of all time?”

“I will not be tricked,” Saás said in a more annoyed voice. “Which standards are we using to measure? Career highlights? Look? Marketability? In-ring ability?”

I munched on my donut. The chocolate icing was glossy and as smooth as velvet. But it was the way it melted on my tongue and the nutty dark sweet flavors burst in my mouth that stole a breath. Literally.

“Whoa! This is…”

“Crazy delicious?” Brooks said, polishing off hers and licking her fingers clean. “Now can we get back to why we’re here?”

Hondo said, “The first thing we have to do is find out if one of Ix-tub-tun’s stones is missing.”

Ren nodded. “If it is, Adrik and Alana may have…may have had a stolen stone. Unless Ix-tub-tun gave it away.”

“Which makes no sense if the twins’ dad was, you know…” Brooks peered at us through dark curls that had fallen over her left eye. “If their dad was with Ixtab.”

Hondo raised his eyebrows and nodded appreciatively. “Wow, Capitán. I love how your mind works. It reminds me of—” He stopped himself before he said Quinn. “Er, reminds me how smart and calculating you are and—”

“Hey, Saás,” I said. “Where can we find information on Ix-tub-tun’s stones?”

Saás sighed. “This again?”

“We already tried that.” Ren sipped her cocoa. “She could only confirm that Ix-tub-tun spat out a lot of magic stones.”

Right. Nudging my chin toward Saás, I mouthed, Is she recording us?

Hondo said, “That’s what I want to know. She could be blasting our convo all over the galaxy.”

“As if anyone would care,” Saás said. “All of you are insignificant. Except, maybe, the dragon.”

“Dragon?” I echoed.

“Only one with the power of the dragon can unlock the knowledge in this sacred place,” Saás said.

I thought the globe was malfunctioning until I remembered something Itzamna had told me that night in Cabo: All the writers I deem worthy have the power of the dragon.

Saás sighed and added, “Zane Obispo, surely you know that Itzamna deemed you worthy many moons ago.”

“Zane has the power of the dragon?” Brooks said in a tone that bordered on impressed.

“So cool,” Ren uttered.

I screwed up my face and cocked my head. “No, I did not know. If he did…I didn’t agree to it.”

“You should be honored,” Saás said. “It isn’t every decade or even century that this power is bestowed, so get a better attitude.”

I rubbed my right temple in slow circles. “What does it even mean?”

“The truth contained within this temple is highly valuable to our history, our origins. It cannot be seen by just anyone, not even the gods. Only those with the magic of the dragon can call up the words and share them with others. Those who came before you were much more appreciative of the honor.”

Hondo, Ren, and Brooks stared at me expectantly. “Okay, fine,” I said. “How do I do call up the words?”

“Just ask.” Then Saás, with a sizzling pop, vanished in a single beam of light.

“W-wait!” I stammered.

“Technogics can be moody,” Brooks said with a light shrug. “And before you ask, technogics is a combo of magic and technology.” She looked around. “Hey, maybe you’ll find a chapat here.”

“Chapat?” Hondo asked.

After I told him and Ren about the Fire Keeper’s message and the warning from Ixkik’, Hondo stroked his chin like a professor, considering something super deep. “‘Are your eyes wide open?’” he repeated. “That isn’t creepy at all.”

“Weird,” Ren said as a small rabbit shadow-hopped around her. “I had a bad dream, too. An alien took me to a magical metal shop and asked which materials were best for a spaceship, because she had to get to a cave of teeth. Or was it crystals? It was definitely crystals.” She shook her head. “The strangest part? The alien had my mom’s voice.”

Brooks said, “Maybe those tree houses mess with godborn brains.”

That was a seriously disturbing thought. “Come on, let’s stay focused on the stone.” I looked around. There were no signs defining the sections. “There are thousands of books here, and categories. Where do we even begin?”

“S for stone?” Ren suggested. “Or I for Ix-tub-tun?”

“Or Z for Zotz the loser?” Hondo said with a sneer.

“Maybe there’s a catalog of stones,” Brooks said. “Look for a really, really fat book.”

Yep. That definitely narrowed it down. As far as I could tell, all the books looked fatter than double-stuffed encyclopedias. But at least encyclopedias have numbers and letters on the spines. These books only had worn symbols that were hard to make out because the bindings were so old and tattered. Almost as ancient as the scrolls lodged in the cubbies that were scattered between shelves.

Brooks raised her eyebrows. “Well? Go ahead, Zane. Call up the words.”

I felt stupid. Stupider than stupid. “Hey!” I brightened. “Maybe I can just summon the right book.”

Hondo folded his arms over his chest. “Now would be good.”

I leaned against Fuego, tracing the dragon head with my thumb. “Er…” I said to the air. “I’m looking for a book on a magical stone spat out by Ix-tub-tun. Are you here?”

Only the sounds of our breathing and Rosie’s snorting could be heard.

Ren glanced around, then looked back at me. “Maybe just tell the words to appear for us?”

“Maybe Saás was wrong,” I said, feeling flustered. “I mean, don’t you think Itzamna would’ve told me, ‘Hey, I gifted you the power of the dragon, which doesn’t mean you can fly or do anything cool, but you’ll be able to read the books in the library’?”

“Magic comes in many varieties,” Brooks said. “And it’s all about the specific variety you need in the moment. Right now, we need to be able to read these words.”

Fine. Fine. Fine. But a flying kind of magic would have been cooler. “Words,” I commanded, “show yourselves.”

The three-story-high glass cases slid open with what sounded like a deep and eerie breath.

“Whoa!” Hondo said.

“Power of the dragon,” Ren whispered. “Awesome.”

“That’s it?” I asked, disappointed. “No hand delivery of the right book? Pretty weak, Itzamna, if you ask me.” I thought of all the searching we still had to do and groaned.

Brooks, Ren, and Rosie headed up the open staircase to the upper floors while Hondo and I stayed on the first level. We tugged book after book off the shelves and flipped through pages written in languages I had never seen before. Just when I was beginning to think this was hopeless, I opened a book wide and, to my amazement, the words floated an inch off the page. When the text settled back down on the spread, it was in English.

“Whoa! Did you see that?” I asked Hondo, skimming the words. “It’s about a war….”

“Right,” Hondo said, unimpressed. “But how can you trust words that just float off the page and change like that? Keep looking.”

I set down the book and opened another. This one had illustrations of dragons, bloodlettings, and diagrams of weapons like blowguns and throwing stars. Fortunately, none of them came to life. “We must be in the battle-slash-murder section,” I mumbled.

Hondo opened another libro, and incoherent whispers came out. He slammed it shut and threw it on the ground, silencing the voice. “What the hell was that?”

“Maybe it’s some kind of magical audiobook?”

Hondo stepped back with his hands in the air. “I am not opening those páginas otra vez. ¡No gracias! ¡Qué scary!”

The guy would jump into killer sludge for a magical stone, but he wouldn’t touch a book that whispered?

Ren was talking to Rosie upstairs while Brooks stomped loudly on the third floor.

“Finding anything?” I yelled up to them.

“Early history of medicine,” Ren called down from a balcony. “Astrophysics, poisonous plants…So far, nothing on a magical stone.”

Brooks grunted. “Anyone want to read the same old boring creation myths in which the gods glorify themselves? Ooh, here’s something!”

“WHAT?” we all shouted at the same time.

She leaned over a railing, peering down at us. “Sorry, I meant…it’s not what we’re looking for.” Brooks held up a thick leather-bound book. “It’s all about how to psych out your opponent—mind and spirit stuff. Hondo, you’d love this!” she said before she went back to the hunt.

Just then, there was a shuffling and a bump. I lifted Fuego, prepared to turn it into a spear, as Brooks turned into a hawk and swept down to the first floor in 0.3 seconds. Hondo and I turned to see Adrik and Alana enter. Dark circles bloomed beneath their brown eyes. There was a long moment of astonishment in which no one knew what to say or do. Like, should I ask about Ixtab? The stone? How they slept?

Brooks assumed her human shape. “Did you follow us?”

“I share a tree house with Ren,” Alana said, tugging on her sunglass strap. “When I heard her get up—”

“Oh, sorry,” Ren said, descending the staircase with Rosie. “I tried super hard to be quiet.”

Adrik came over to me like a guy on a mission. “Next time you haul me into a dream, Zane, how about no classrooms,” he said. “I mean, come on, man! That queen was wee-ee-ird.”

Everyone’s eyes zoomed in on me. “Uh, I…I didn’t haul you into my dream. You were just there,” I said. Then I added, “Which means you heard Ixkik’, too?”

“Yeah, man,” he said, shuddering dramatically.

Alana ran her hand along the edge of a table. “The Sparkstriker said Adrik’s power is dream walking, but he’s in big-time denial. He thinks it should be something cooler, like mind controlling or lightning throwing or something like that.”

“Did I say that?” Adrik grunted. “I just have this feeling it’s more, okay?”

“Lightning throwing?” Hondo sipped his coffee. “Is that a thing?”

Did that mean Adrik was the one who had gotten the dominant power?

“What are you doing in here?” Alana asked.

“Trying to find out more about your stone,” said Brooks. She gestured at the three levels of bookshelves. “But it would be a lot easier if you just came clean.”

“Yeah,” I said. “How about you tell us what the stone does exactly?”

The twins exchanged glances.

Finally, Adrik said miserably, “What does it matter? It’s gone now. We failed.”

Alana touched her brother’s arm. Her eyes flicked from face to face. “Okay, we’ll tell you.”