Page 31 of Shinji Takahashi: Into the Heart of the Storm

“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:

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