Page 79

“We have a special connection to the magic of Ix Chel,” Suki explained. “The three of us together. But what’s here is powerful. It gives off a strong . . . vibe. Sorry, that’s the best word I know to describe it.”
“Whoa,” Lucas whispered.
“Show us,” Director Wright said.
The three of them walked in lockstep with each other. It didn’t take long to reach the right corridor. The presence of dark magic gave off a strong, intense feeling. As soon as Suki saw the obsidian mirror on the wall, she felt fear snaking through her.
“It’s bad magic,” Jane Louise whispered.
Sarina nodded. “It’s evil.”
“What’s evil?” Director Wright said. “I don’t understand.”
“That,” Suki said, pointing to an obsidian mirror mounted to a wooden frame on the wall. Then she noticed the glyph in the corner, glowing with kem äm. It was an invisibility glyph, like the one she’d seen on the Dresden Codex. “Oh, you can’t see it.” The frame looked really old, like it had been hanging there a long time. Maybe Calakmul had added the glyph before departing through it so his trail would be hidden.
“I see it,” Brillante said. “That’s pretty sus.”
Suki invoked the magic of her ring and the bracelet, and the glyph vanished. “Now can you see it?”
Director Wright stared in surprise. The mirror on the wall had been invisible to him before, but he could obviously see it now. “That’s been hanging in this corridor for years. Didn’t think about it being missing until now.”
“That’s how Jacob Calakmul got in here,” Sarina explained. “It’s called a smoking mirror, and it’s part of the magic of the god Huracán. He’s the founder of the Order of the Jaguar Priests.”
Suki’s stomach churned with fear. The obsidian mirror was issuing plumes of black smoke. Its magic had been activated. But not by them.
“They’re coming,” Suki warned.
“Who’s coming?” Director Wright asked.
Lund drew his weapon. “You can take down their shields?”
Suki felt her mom squeeze her hand. She, her mom, and Jane Louise exchanged looks and then shifted their attention to the obsidian disk. The power of Ix Chel rose within Suki, and the image of a glyph came to her mind.
“Raqinik,” she said forcefully.
At the command, she felt a surge inside her chest, amplified by the combined strength of her mom and Jane Louise. A loud cracking noise filled the air, and the obsidian mirror and its wooden frame broke into pieces and fell onto the carpet. The noise was earsplitting and frightening.
The plumes of dark smoke wafted away and vanished.
Director Wright had his hands over his ears but let them fall away as the noise stopped.
“That’s how he got in,” Suki said. “It’s a portal. Someone was about to come through to our side. They were probably watching us.”
“Whoa,” Brillante murmured. “You stopped them!”
“The mirror is broken. They can’t use it again,” Sarina said.
“Could we have used the portal to get inside their hideout?” Lund asked. He edged forward, looking at the obsidian shards on the carpet.
“Only the followers of Huracán can use them,” Sarina said. “Not even Ix Chel knows their secret.”
“Are there any more in the building?” Director Wright asked. “Or was this the only one?”
Suki could no longer feel the dark magic. “That was it.”
“Dark magic or not,” Lund said angrily, “I wish I could’ve used it to get Mr. Roth back. We’re clearly at a disadvantage here.”
“I’ll let the CIA director know about the mirrors,” Wright said. “I’m presuming there are mirrors like this in London and Berlin.”