The magnesium bubbles as I siphon it into tiny circular molds. Dev swiped a few magical bases from Hado HQ when he drove down to New York City this weekend to visit Meena.

“They’re from the Hado lab, so you know they’re going to be powerful,” he’d told me.

“This is a spatula.”

Dev’s features scrunched into a sheepish look. “Uh- okay, yeah, that’s a spatula, but there’s definitely some other stuff in the bag.”

He turned out to be right. I never would have been able to obtain these Tiger’s Eyes on my own, let alone ones with such a silky brown lustre like these. These will make great bullets for the guns I’m 3D-printing.

Hopefully Windsong Prep never finds out I still have a key to the lab. I would probably lose my only thread of sanity.

I would also probably end up in jail, given that I’m illegally using their scientific equipment to create weapons.

But hey. Who else would be here at 11 PM on a Tuesday night during summer break? They should be proud I’m taking initiative.

My cell phone shrilly rings, causing me to jolt in place and almost knock over the tray of bullet molds. Cursing, I check the Caller ID.

Jin Kim.

I stow my phone back in my pocket. I don’t want to talk right now.

Not even 30 seconds pass before Jin calls me again.

“Jin, stop,” I mutter under my breath. All my friends have gotten exceptionally paranoid after I got put on suicide watch. If I don’t respond to them within a few hours, they immediately assume the worst. Although I appreciate them immensely, it’s embarrassing and a little exasperating. I swallow my guilt and continue working.

When my phone rings again, I pick up.

“Jin, I promise I’m alive-,” I say.

“Where are you right now?” a low, terse voice asks.

My body freezes. For a moment I almost drop my phone.

“Why?” I utter.

“I’m coming to pick you up,” Taehyung breathes. For once, he doesn’t sound stoned. His tone is brusque, abrasive..

“No,” I say.

“I’m not ing around,” he hisses in a voice so aggressive I involuntarily recoil. “Something really bad happened- are you at home? I’m heading there right now-,”

“No, I’m in the Windsong lab,” I blurt out. The more he speaks, the more I realize that Taehyung isn’t angry.

No, he’s scared.

My stomach plummets to the ground.

“What happened?” I quietly ask.

“I’m ten minutes away- I’ll tell you when I pick you up-,”

“Tell me now.”

“Namjoon’s dad is dead.”

My eyebrows furrow. After a slight pause, I say, “Uh... that’s really sad, but what does that have to do with me-,”

“He was murdered, Joo,” Taehyung breathes. I hear the distant sound of a honk! in the background. “By a magical creature. There’s a killer on the loose.”

For a moment, fear- the blood-curdling, heart-stopping kind I haven’t felt in months- grips my body. I scramble up from my lab desk, frantically stowing away lab equipment as quickly as I can. My hands are trembling so hard I can barely hold my bag- I clumsily let a strap slide off my shoulder-

My parang slides out, its black steel glistening under the harsh fluorescent lights of the Windsong lab.

I blink, staring down at my weapon.

Then I reach down and grip it.

“Just stay inside the building,” Taehyung says urgently. “Walk to the South entrance. I’ll you to my car-,”

“Don’t worry about me,” I tell him. “I can defend myself. Go to Dev’s.”

“Wha- you think now that you know how to fight, you can hold your on against this thing?” Taehyung shouts. “This thing took out Namjoon’s dad. He’s on Kado division council. If he couldn’t win, you can’t either-,”

“I’m not saying I’ll win.” I walk down the pitch-black hallways of my old high school, my blade at the ready. “I’m saying I’m in a better position than Dev. He’s terrible at combat and he lives with his parents.”

“Then I’ll tell Jin to protect him!” I hear Taehyung slam his hand against his driver’s wheel. “Why are you always so difficult?”

I can’t walk around on the phone; I need to stay on guard. “I’m going to hang up,” I tell him. “Thank you for the heads up. Seriously.”

I press the red “End Call” button mid-tirade.

, I really should’ve picked up when Jin called me.

Every one of my senses is on high alert as I stalk through the empty corridors, poised for a potential attack. When I reach one of the main halls, the moonlight shining through the floor-to-ceiling windows illuminates the row of classrooms in front of me.

It is utterly still. Doubt begins to creep in my mind; maybe I’m overreacting, what’s really the probability the killer will be in Windsong Prep?

Then I hear a slight thud! behind me. I instantly whirl around, whipping a handful of marble-sized gel beads in the space behind me. The orbs explode upon being exposed to the air, sending shards of chi and magical residue everywhere. I take advantage of the distraction and jump through the light- my sword arcs above my head, coming down on the figure standing amidst the chaos-

A pair of black nunchucks clangs against my sword, sending sparks of chi flying up in air.

“Not bad, Joo,” Lucy grins.

I stagger back, my jaw agape. My eyes are as wide as saucers as I stare at the girl in front of me. There’s no way. All the magic in the air is ing with me.

“You need to stop appearing everywhere,” I say, my hand shaking as I raise my parang. “I told you last time. I know you’re not real.”

Lucy’s eyebrows shoot up. As I continue staring at her, I know with even more certainty that she is not real. This Lucy looks emaciated; her skin is translucent, stretched out over her muscles and bones so tightly that I can see every ridge and dip in her body. She is glowing- not in the way that a healthy person does in the sun, but in a way that makes her look like she’s swallowed a jumbo pack of glowsticks.

And the Lucy I know isn’t this powerful. Pure magical essence is undulating off her body, its force so powerful it sends waves of nausea through me.

The ground lurches below me. I tumble to the floor, every nerve in my body on overdrive. There’s so much magic in the air- the creature isn’t even doing anything and I can barely move against the pure force it contains-

“You’re hallucinating me? That’s kind of weird,” real-not-real Lucy remarks. “Have you tried Clozapine?”

With difficulty, I pull my body upright to stare at her.

“Who are you?” I croak.

She lets out a high, exhilarant laugh. Her stare is sharp and piercing, but something in her eyes is glassy.

“It's me. No hallucination or anything. I’m back,” Lucy responds.

I simply gape at her. There's no way. It’s funny; there are a million things I know I logically should do. But every thought has suddenly deserted my mind.

A few moments pass; I blink rapidly. She's still there.

And that's when it finally dawns on me that this Lucy is actually real.

“Did you kill Namjoon's dad?” I finally whisper.

“Yeah,” Lucy replies, like I’ve just asked her if she’s done the Calc homework.

“Why?”

“Because he was on the Kado council that voted to kill Meena and I.” She shrugs. “Pretty straightforward. I’m sure he knew I was coming. Especially after I killed that lady in Philly.”

She’s speaking about murder so casually- I’m appalled. Lucy snorts at the look on my face.

“Oh, I got rid of this other guy in Boston, too. This isn’t my first rodeo, Joo. Killing people is honestly kind of easy.”

“Honestly, I really wish I was hallucinating right now,” I tell her frankly.

Lucy laughs. “What, you’re not excited to see your best friend again?”

And then all of a sudden there’s a blast of freezing cold air. My hair whips up around me as electric-blue chi encircles the hallway, bits of ice and snow whizzing past my face. The sheer pressure in the room causes the floor-to-ceiling windows to implode. I duck my head under my bag as a million shards of glass rain on me, piercing my back and legs and arms and any other exposed area of skin. My common sense and logic- which are currently cowering in the recesses of my brain- remind me that that’s gonna hurt tomorrow.

“Lucy,” Taehyung growls. His eyes are alight with blue flames. I watch as he raises his hands, which are pulsing with intoxicating energy. The presence of his chi, unfortunately, does nothing to dim Lucy’s suffocating power. How is Taehyung even able to stand right now?

“Get up,” someone murmurs. A cane slams down next to my face, and the next things I know, Jungkook is trying to pull me upright. He is staring at Lucy in trepidation like he can’t even believe what he’s seeing.

“How did you-,” I begin to say.

“Jin told me,” Jungkook tells me. “He’s with Dev and Tom right now. I ran into Taehyung by the auditorium.”

“Oh. Well. Thanks for coming... I guess.”

“Nice to see you two again,” Lucy grins. “What’s with the cane?”

“You pulverized me, so I can’t walk anymore,” Jungkook shrugs. “No big deal.”

“Yikes. My bad.”

“I have no idea how you got powers,” Taehyung says in a low, fierce voice. “But you killed all those Kado council members?”

Lucy throws Jungkook and I an exasperated look. “Oh my god. So they still don’t know who I am?”

Taehyung looks bewildered. His expression grows even more confused when he sees Jungkook and I exchange uncomfortable glances.

“What is she talking about?” he asks Jungkook. “Who is she?”

“They don’t have their memories back,” I ruefully tell Lucy.

She rolls her eyes. “Come on. Okay, well, I’m not really trying to fight any of you. I just wanted to say hi to Joo.”

“Shut up,” Taehyung spits. "You're coming with me."

“I don't think so. I still need to destroy everyone who ruined my life, kay?”

“Ruined your life? What are you talking about?”

“I’m over this conversation.” Lucy snaps her fingers and the ceiling comes crashing down on Taehyung. He leaps out of the way of the massive wood-and-concrete explosion- but a chunk of material lands on his leg, pinning him down to the ground. Taehyung aims his chi at the concrete, grimacing- but Lucy capitalizes on his distracted state and holds up a teleportation crystal.

“See you around,” she winks at me.

All the energy vanishes in the air. I sit up, gasping frantically for air. The oppressive tension of the chi is gone and I can finally breathe. For several moments, the three of us are silent, processing what the hell just happened.

Then Taehyung stalks over to me and Jungkook.

“Come on,” he breathes. "We're leaving."