The thrill and wonder of exploring the Hado HQ cause winter break to fly by. I discover the vast library, filled from floor-to-ceiling with tomes of complex magical histories and sciences. When I’m not cozied up in a brightly-lit nook, magical primer in hand, I’m pestering the Hado scientists on the Lab floor. Captain Cardozo gave me full clearance to the scientific facilities, so I’ve been observing the different experiments the researchers are running. Chi is such a powerful instrument of change; the more I learn, the more I’m amazed by how much it defies everything I’ve learned in school.

My mom and hometown friends were pissed I didn’t come back home for winter break (I lied that I got a prestigious internship at the last minute). My guilt is overshadowed by the sheer excitement I feel, though.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come?” I ask Lucy, peeking through her room door.

She nods listlessly, still buried in her sheets. “I’ll see you at dinner.”

“Luce- you can’t be inside all the time. Come on, this place is so cool! I’m watching a dissection of an imp today! You promised you’d come out with me today.”

“I’m just really tired,” Lucy murmurs. “Sorry. I know I’ve been really... reclusive for the last few weeks.”

“Don’t apologize! To be fair, all of this is a huge shock.”

“A shock. That’s an understatement.”

As I’m walking out of the lab, pulling my gloves and goggles off my body, I vaguely think to myself that I should be more concerned about Lucy. She’s always quiet and reserved, but she’s been even more so since we arrived at Hado HQ. Guilt twinges at me- discovering that your life is a lie is a massive shock- but Lucy said she didn’t want to talk about it. I’m not sure how to handle the entire situation-

The sound of familiar laughter echoes from a side hallway. I turn into a wing of Hado HQ I’ve never visited. The black square sign hanging from the ceiling reads, Recreation Hall.

“-looks like it was made by a 3rd grader,” a high-pitched voice snorts. “I told you to be light on the paint.”

“This is the paintbrush’s fault!” someone shouts back. “And you didn’t tell me the paint would blend together like that! This is so stupid. I’m going to stick to computers.”

Dev, Tom, Meena, and- my heart skips a beat- Sofia are sitting in a bright, airy room, using a medley of bright acrylic colors to paint on easels. While Meena’s depiction of a sunset looks pleasant and Sofia’s impressionist-style portrait of New York City looks professionally done, Dev’s canvas is a glob of grey circles and random yellow stars.

“I think it looks good,” Tom says tentatively.

Dev shoots him a narrow-eyed glare. “ up to me isn’t going to make me forgive- ow!” He reproachfully rubs his head after Meena whacks him upside the head. “What was that for?”

“Can you stop being a ? He saved my life!” she exclaims.

“He lied to all of us about being a sorcerer!”

“Yeah, because he was undercover. He was protecting us all for years!”

“Okay, well, you didn’t have to hit me-,”

“Hey, look at my painting, you two!” Tom says, trying to distract the siblings from their bickering. “I painted Windsong-,”

“Shut up!” Meena and Dev shout at the same time.

Sofia is watching her friends and giggling hysterically. Her face looks lighter and more open than I’ve ever seen; it’s like she’s been transformed into a younger, happier version of herself.

“I could hear you all from the laboratories,” I say, walking in.

“Joo!” Sofia gasps, running to me. She flings her arms around me and my eyes widen in surprise; my mentor usually gives me snide remarks and y glares, not big hugs. There’s a completely genuine smile on her face when she tells me, “It’s so nice to see you.”

“It’s nice to see you, too,” I say, awkwardly patting her on the back. “When did you get here?”

“Just yesterday night. This place is insane.” She puts her hands on her hips. “So. I guess the secret’s out. Magic is real.”

I roll my eyes. “Isn’t a mentor supposed to warn her mentee about this kind of stuff?”

Sofia gives me a rueful look. “The less you know, the safer you are. Besides, I had no idea you were constructing magical objects. No wonder you were in the Windsong lab all the time.”

“Thank god you’re here,” Tom mutters, coming to my side. “Maybe Dev will listen to you. Tell him to stop attacking me.”

Dev glowers at him. “Hey! First of all, the last person I’d ever listen to is Joo-,”

“Wha- why?” I sputter.

“Second of all, I’m going to be mad at you for the rest of my life.”

“He’ll get over it,” Meena whispers to Tom. “What a drama queen.”

“I am not a drama queen-,”

“Anyway, I meant to ask you,” Sofia says. “Are you going back to Windsong after winter break?”

Her question causes all squabbling to immediately cease. I look at her with wide eyes.

“Are you?”

“Of course. I have a semester left. If I survived for 2 and a half years, I can survive for 6 more months.”

“But all the sorcerers- it’s not safe-,”

“I have Jin and Tom. And Dev will be there.”

I look at Dev. “You’re going back?”

“Yeah, I mean, I can’t exactly convince my parents to move,” he grumbles. “What am I going to say? The scary magic monsters are gonna eat us?”

I snort. “Fair enough.”

“So how about you?” Sofia prods.

“I- I thought I had no choice but to go back to Lindsborg,” I say hesitantly. “Because of... Jimin and Taehyung-,”

“I may have something for that situation,” Tom cuts in. “The question is, though- do you want to return?”

Oh, . Do I want to return?

I shouldn’t. I’ve been itching to return to Kansas ever since I landed in New York. The pretentious teenagers, the terrifying magical creatures, the string of traumatizing incidents I’ve faced, from the selkies at Hoseok’s boat party to the banshees at the lacrosse game to that chilling fury that radiates from Taehyung after I piss him off...

But holy , magic.

Being at Hado HQ has opened up a whole new realm of possibilities to me. I’ve learned more in these last few weeks than I have in years. And above it all, I wouldn’t be entering into the lion’s den alone. I would have systematic protection in the form of the Hado.

There’s still so much I have to explore.

“Yeah. I do.” I murmur.

Dev, Sofia, and Tom’s faces light up. “Hell yeah,” Dev whoops, pumping his fist in the air.

“That’s wonderful to hear,” Tom says.

“Wait- you still haven’t told me how we’re going to stay alive there! Jimin said that he was going to tell everyone we know about sorcerers.”

“Call Lucy down to Command,” Tom says. There’s a nervous, almost melancholy look on his face. “I have something to show all of you. And Meena... you should probably sit this one out.”

“So... what’s going on?” Lucy mumbles. Her mussed-up hair and bleary eyes show that she must have rolled out of bed mid-nap.

I shrug, scooting over so she can sit in the chair next to me. “Tom says he has some way to let us go back to Windsong.”

“Uh... okay.”

“I’ve been working on this for the last few weeks,” Tom tells us as he places his iPhone on speakerphone. Rings echo through the air. “Something interesting happened-,”

Suddenly, the ringing stops. “Hello?” a familiar voice says.

“Jin?” I gasp.

“Joo? Are you with Tom right now?”

“Yeah, we’re all here,” Dev says, leaning closer into the phone. “Hey, dude. It’s nice talking to you again.”

“Yeah, no kidding.”

“I’m here, too,” Sofia calls out.

“Sofia! You’re with the Hado? How-,”

“Okay, okay, you can all catch up later,” Tom says, glancing at the impatient look on Captain Cardozo’s face. She’s been sitting at the table in Command with us, silently waiting for Tom to show us whatever he’s discovered. “Jin, I’m telling them about Jimin and Lucy.”

“Oh.”

“What? What about us?” Lucy asks, her face scrunching up in confusion.

“So I told Jin that you were a part of the Kado, right?” Tom tells Lucy. “But he didn’t remember you being in it at all.”

“I still don’t,” Jin says. “I wouldn’t have believed it if Tom hadn’t sent over files the Hado had on you.”

“Anyway, I remembered what Joo said about Jimin- how he’d said something weird about Lucy. On a total hunch, I started looking into him. Jin helped me search the Kado database.”

“I searched for days,” Jin says. “Every time we had a party or a hangout or practice at Jimin’s, I’d sneak into his library and look through the entire place. And then I finally found something. Show them the pictures, Tom.”

Tom hurries to the closest monitor and accesses a local drive. After swiping his thumbprint on the monitor and entering a password, a folder pops up on the screen. It is filled with image files.

“Open them,” he tells us.

Dev clicks on the first picture- and jerks back in shock.

“Holy ,” I breathe.

A picture of Lucy laughing with her arms around Jungkook and Namjoon’s shoulders is displayed on the screen. I whip my head around to look at Lucy. She is frozen in utter astonishment.

“Are these photoshopped?” Sofia utters. She clicks through images of Lucy giving a grumpy-looking Yoongi a noogie, riding on Jin’s back, cracking goofy grins at the camera with Laila, Taehyung, and Hoseok in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“Look at the pictures,” Jin tells her. “I took them on my phone. They were from an album locked away in Jimin’s safe- you have no idea how long it took me to decode those runes.”

Lucy’s fingers ghost over an image of her, a man, and a woman standing in front of a sign that reads, Junior Training Seminar. All three of them are happily beaming at the camera.

“Are those my parents?” she breathes.

“Chunhua and Shuonan Chen of the Kado’s North American Division. They’re prominent Kado researchers.” Captain Cardozo says. Her normally placid demeanor is mired in a look of surprise.

Lucy blankly looks up at her.

“Where are they?” she asks quietly.

Captain Cardozo uncomfortably looks away.

“I’m not sure,” she responds. “They were relatively innocuous, so we don’t keep extensive intel on them.”

Lucy simply blinks.

“Are there any pictures of Lucy and Jimin in there?” I ask curiously.

“Get this,” Jin tells me. “Out of all the pictures I found, I only found one image of the two of them together. Check image 068.”

I pull up the picture he is talking about. Unlike the other pictures, in which Lucy and the other people in the image looked like they were having the time of their lives, Jimin and Lucy are both stiffly facing the camera, their hands behind their backs. A gold banner that reads, Kado Recognition Banquet, hangs behind them. I can sense the tension between them even through the still image.

“You look like you’re about to throttle each other,” Dev snorts to a stunned Lucy.

“Anyway, after Jin found those pictures, he sent them to me,” Tom says. “I anonymously sent them to Jimin attached to a note that basically said that if he reported you for knowing about magic, I’d expose him for lying and hiding the truth from everyone. I received his sworn word that he wouldn’t report you three.”

“Does he know that we were contacted by the Hado?”

“Maybe. I’m not sure. But you all are good to come back for now.”

Dev, Sofia, and I are looking at each other in astonishment, like this is too good to be true.

“Holy ,” Sofia whistles. “You two really pulled through.”

“You’re welcome,” Jin chuckles.

“Lucy,” I say, turning to my friend. Her countenance is utterly blank. The way her eyes have shuttered cause my nerves to jitter.

She abruptly walks to the computer and takes the mouse from Tom. Minutes pass as she simply sits at the computer, scrolling through the hundreds of images of herself with various members of the Kado.

“Come back to Windsong, Lucy,” Jin says after a heavy silence. “I know this is a lot to take in. I’m really shocked myself. But... it doesn’t matter. Because even though we can’t remember being friends in the past, we’re friends now. And we’re here for you.”

Lucy’s eyes slowly slide over to Tom’s phone. She stares blankly into space for what seems like an eternity as Tom, Dev, Sofia, and I watch her with bated breath.

“I’ll let you know,” she finally replies in an impossibly quiet voice.

“Okay, definitely,” Jin says. “Let me know if-,”

Suddenly, he pauses. After a moment, he whispers, “Someone’s coming. I have to go.”

“Thanks, Jin. We’ll talk to you later.” Tom hangs up.

“I’m impressed,” Captain Cardozo says, not pleasantly. “I’ve never seen two members of the Hado and Kado work together like this.”

Tom reddens. “I’m sorry, Captain, but Jin can be trusted- he doesn’t like the Kado, and he’s a friend-,”

“You already collaborated with him, so there’s no point in admonishing you. But in the future, you’d be well-advised not to do something like this again.”

Tom lowers his head. “Yes, Captain.”