The bearded man carefully places Hattie’s heart vial on the floor between his feet. Then he removes a marble from his pants pocket and throws it down in front of me. He starts chanting, and clouds of blue and purple smoke start rising from the ground.

I cover my face. Ugh, I will not be knocked unconscious twice.

I hold my breath for as long as I can, and when I feel myself getting light-headed, I sneak a peek between my fingers. The man is gone. And with him, the strange fog.

I take the opportunity to reach for Hattie’s heart, still on the ground in front of me. Thank Mago, the invisible bars are gone. I grab the vial with a triumphant grunt, only to break into a frown. The glass feels colder to the touch now. I’m not sure if I’m imagining it, but I think the heart is pumping slower than it was before, too.

I pick myself up and loop the black cord over my head. This isn’t good. We need to move faster. “Emmett! Where are you?”

I turn toward the elevator, prepared to search every floor of this temple if that’s what it’ll take to find my best friend. But as I’m moving, I see something out of the corner of my eye. I swivel around to find Emmett’s body curled up on the floor next to the detergent vending machine. Boris is there too, folded neatly next to him.

“Em!” I scream, and I run over and fall to my knees. His chest is moving up and down, and it doesn’t look like he’s bleeding or has broken any bones. But he remains unconscious. “Wake up, Em. Get up!”

His face is pale, his lips blue. He looks so little lying there, and suddenly I flash back to when we were in elementary school.

Emmett was way smaller than the other boys, and he got teased a lot for it. When we had parent visiting days, he would pretend his absent mom was a wildlife photographer on assignment in Africa, and kids would write LIAR on his locker. The worse the bullying got, the more he raised walls around himself and retreated within them. Sometimes I think he likes the fact that his dad is so strict. It’s easier to lay low when there are rules to hide behind.