He clenches his jaw. “This Sora person says that they’re keeping the seventh artifact hidden. But why would they write down what it is when the note could fall into the wrong hands?”

I shake my head, feeling despondent. “I wish I knew. Maybe it wasn’t Sora who wrote that stuff on the back.”

He pauses. “Do you think the artifacts have something to do with what we’re looking for?”

It’s my turn to pause. I study the list and read the words eighth artifact: unknown—a celestial object? over and over again. “Well, a star is a celestial object. So the eighth artifact could be the Godrealm’s last fallen star, couldn’t it?”

Back at Santa Monica Pier, the goddess had told us that the fallen piece of her world could grant divine power here in the Mortalrealm, and it had driven humans mad with greed, leaving only destruction and despair in its wake. She had called it evil. Maybe the sunstone ax had the same effect on people, and the power-hungry Horangi had been keeping it for themselves. Then the council discovered their secret….

I shake my head again, too confused to articulate my thoughts. “I’m not sure yet, Em. But something tells me we’ve stumbled across something big. Something much bigger than us.” I fold the letter and put it in my pocket. “And we’re gonna have to get to the bottom of it if we want to save Hattie.”

I hear a weird clonk, as if something small and hard has fallen on the ground. I look down to see a cloud of smoky purples and midnight blues mushrooming from a tiny round stone.

“What the…?”

Fear creeps into my bones. Did the new guard figure out we were in here?

The weird fog keeps growing until it has swallowed me up to my chest. I try to cover my mouth and nose, but my head is starting to feel a bit woozy.

“Em!” I manage to cry out. “Don’t breathe the—”

Emmett drops to the ground like a rag doll.

My body suddenly feels so heavy, like it’s tied to an anchor. And the next thing I know, everything goes dark.

13: Where Does the Bearded Man Buy His Suits?

ONCE CONSCIOUSNESS RETURNS to me, I realize I’m lying on a cold stone floor. I turn my head to the left and right, looking for Emmett. Where is he? Is he okay?

Groaning loudly, I try to get up, but I can only manage a sitting position. My head feels like it was removed and then surgically reattached by Mong’s fluffy paws. What was in that weird blue-and-purple fog?