“Isaac, open your mouth.”

He tried, he really did, and then felt a cold liquid on his lips and he licked.

It hurt like nothing ever had before.

The pain shot from his mouth, down his throat, down through his whole body to his legs and then back. It was beyond pain—blinding, searing, hot and cold at once. His insides cramped, and he feared he would be sick and then all his muscles went rigid. He gasped, trying to suck in air, and sat bolt upright, eyes wide.

“Isaac?” said Amelie in a small frightened voice.

He saw her then, standing with a vial in one hand and the stopper in the other, her eyes full of concern, full of tears. He gasped, and then said hoarsely, “I think I’m going to live.”

When Amelie put down the vial and threw her arms around him, Isaac felt hot and cold and knew his face must be glowing red. “Um, thanks to you,” he said, looking at his hands. “Thank you.”

“Don’t ever do that again,” Ame said a little angrily. “You’re supposed to be the Guardian, not me.”

He reached down to the wound on his calf, surprised that it no longer hurt at all. “I heard you say something about instructions?”

Amelie took him by the hand and pulled him to the ledger. “Right here. Read it.”

In the ledger was the note from his father that Isaac hadn’t been able to finish reading the last time he was inside the Vault with Amelie. He started reading, out loud, from the beginning:

Isaac, if you have arrived here, you have already made great progress. This is the Vault, which holds magical artifacts. You’ve been led here by one of those artifacts, and they are both useful and dangerous. They must be guarded at all times, for there are some who would use them for terrible purposes, to win wars or even destroy the human race.

Your mother and I wish we could have trained you properly, but it was not to be. You must continue to piece this puzzle together.

You, Isaac, now hold the only key to the Vault.

Now that you are in Rookskill Castle, you should know that your next set of clues can be found in the library, in the volumes of Guardians’ diaries. They will tell you about the Vault and your team of Artifact Hunters.

Isaac looked up at Amelie. “That was Leo’s find,” he said.

“I want to be one,” Amelie said. “An Artifact Hunter.”

Isaac smiled and read on: