Leaving the Spirit Realm turned out to be a lot less complicated than entering it had been.

I filled in Zhong and Miv on what had happened when my spirit left my body and how I’d been tricked into breaking the first seal on Xov’s prison. I described how I’d paid him back by using the lightning ax—now an innocent-looking dragon comb over my right ear—to destroy his spear.

Zhong looked dubious, as if she thought I was making up the story. I couldn’t blame her—it was pretty crazy.

After some emergency mango first aid from Nplooj to heal my ankle, Zhong’s face, and various other injuries, we returned to the nearby town to try to contact Spike again. I was eager to get back home. Hopefully, my brother had woken up by now, but I wouldn’t be able to relax until I saw him for myself.

Suab Nag was especially put out to be woken up in the middle of the night, but to our surprise, Spike was already there, waiting. She even still had my cloak and backpack.

“I meant to return for you,” she explained as I hung my backpack from her saddle alongside Zhong’s. “But Suab Nag has had me filling out paperwork all evening for the unusual trip.”

“That miserable donkey,” Zhong muttered, which made Spike whinny-laugh. Suab Nag had gladly seen us out the door and then locked it with a grumpy Harrumph.

“I’m glad everything worked out,” Spike said. She stood still as I climbed clumsily onto her back, settling behind Zhong. “The tree spirits don’t usually let outsiders use their pathways to travel. They must have really liked you.”

I winced. It was more that they liked the gift I gave them, but it had gotten us where we needed to go. I swore never to travel by tree again, though. Not enough legroom. Or arm-room. Or existing-room. Speaking of being squished, Miv was smooshed between me and Zhong, but he didn’t complain this time.

“Thanks again for the ride,” I said to the spirit horse. “I hope it doesn’t mean more paperwork.” I held on to Zhong’s waist as Spike stomped her hooves and then leaped into a full-out gallop. My eyes widened, and my stomach felt like it’d been left behind.

“I don’t mind,” Spike called. Wind spirits dashed around us in hazy shapes. “You need to get back to your brother, after all, and this is the quickest way.”

Not having to wait in Crossroads traffic was a relief, as was not having to agonize about what would happen if the eagle demon spotted us again.

With the help of the wind spirits, we ascended ever higher into the sky. We flew above even the crab cloud.

When Spike heard me whisper “Wow,” she slowed her breakneck pace so that we could observe the shifting stars without worrying about being ripped from the saddle. The constellations waved to us as we passed. Far in the distance, I thought I saw a team of white birds carrying a palanquin that bore a shining silver lantern.

“I get to be the first to congratulate you,” I said to Zhong. “For completing your quest.”

“Technically, you did most of the work at the end there.” Fortunately, she didn’t sound too upset about it. “But it had to be that way.”

“You could have defeated the ghost girl just as well,” I said.

“Yeah, I could have defeated her. But you’re the only one who could have saved her.”

I opened my mouth and then closed it again, not sure what to say to that. Feeling embarrassed, I asked, “Will you let me know when you get the guardian spirit’s blessing back at school?”

Zhong beamed and nodded, putting to rest my uncertainty that she wouldn’t want to stay friends after this. “We’ll exchange contact info. Don’t forget.”

“Also, um—”

When I hesitated, Zhong jabbed me with her elbow and said, “What?”

“I still need to restore the ivory gates, and I don’t know how.” I’d majorly messed up. This mistake couldn’t be fixed as easily as the damage I’d done to the trees in Nyom’s forest, but hopefully it wouldn’t be impossible, either. One fight with Xov had assured me that he couldn’t be allowed to go free.

“I’ll do some research,” Zhong said, “and ask the shaman masters about it. I’m sure they’ll have some ideas.”

“Thanks,” I said, relieved. Zhong’s school would have information and resources I couldn’t possibly get on my own.

I did, however, have an expert on Xov sitting right in my lap. When our eyes met, Miv understood that it was time to talk. Now that the wind wasn’t trying to yank him off the horse, he climbed onto my shoulder. He pushed his head against the side of my neck, and I sighed with contentment.

“Miv,” I began, keeping my eyes on the stars. It helped to pretend that we were just having a normal conversation. “If you’re the son of a god, then why are you a kitten?”

Zhong’s head snapped up from where she’d begun fiddling with the pins on her jacket. “What?” she demanded.

Miv ignored her. “Because when I escaped my post as my father’s prison guard, the gods put a curse on me.”

If Zhong could have jumped to her feet, she would have. Instead, her ears flushed with color. “You’re Xov’s son?! I knew it! I knew we couldn’t trust you from the moment we first met!”

“Calm down,” I told her.

“Less moving around back there, please!” called Spike as her hooves dusted the tops of clouds.

Zhong’s shoulders relaxed, but I was sure she still wanted to strangle the cat spirit.

“Will you tell me your real name, at least?” I asked him.

He hesitated, then finally said, “My mother was a leopard spirit. She left me at the doors to my father’s palace when I was a child. Xov called me Mos, which means soft. It’s not a name I think about fondly. I’ll stick with Miv, if you don’t mind.”

I shook my head, quietly glad he preferred the foolish name I’d given him. “Are you going to be stuck as a kitten forever?”

“For as long as the gods see fit to punish me, I guess.”

If the Sky Father ever dropped into another of my dreams, I promised myself I would put in a good word for Miv.

“So, are you the one who freed Shee Yee’s spirit from the Tree of Souls?” Zhong demanded, trying to glare back at him.

I could tell Miv didn’t want to answer her, but I nudged him, and he sighed. “Yes. Xov commanded me to do it, because only the ‘victor’s hand’ could free him. Being forced into this form robbed me of much of my former power, and freeing Shee Yee took every last bit of what I had left.” He looked down at his small paws. “I never really recovered. After that, it was years before I located you in the mortal realm.”

“How did you even find me?”

“I pulled some favors and had someone seek out Shao.”

My eyes narrowed. “Is that why Shao tried roasting me to make sure I wasn’t an evil spirit?”

He cringed. “It might have been…. But Shao has always been unreliable, especially when it comes to Shee Yee.”

A trace of my annoyance with Shao returned, and I poked Miv’s cheek for playing a small part in what had happened.

“Unbelievable,” Zhong muttered, her knuckles white around Spike’s mane. “I should have trusted my gut about you.”

“Give him a chance,” I said. Then, before Zhong could explode at me, I quickly asked Miv, “Xov said you should have taken me to him when I was younger. Why didn’t you?”

“Because you surprised me.” He flopped onto his stomach, his small body draped over my shoulder. I rested my hand over his back, afraid the wind would snatch him away. “I initially sided with my father because I wanted his approval. I thought that by helping him escape his prison I would finally earn his love. But the more time I spent with you and your family—in the beginning, with your dad, and then after, seeing the way your mom worked so hard to support you and Matt, and the way you always took care of your brother—the more I understood what love really is. I couldn’t let my father destroy you the way he destroyed everything else.”

As the cat spirit spoke, I ran my fingers through his soft fur. The last remnants of my anger with him melted away. Even Zhong looked less angry when she glanced over her shoulder at us.

“And then everything with the bridge spirit happened,” Miv went on, “and I knew that the demons coming after you were sent by my father. I figured if you got the lightning ax, you would at least have protection from him. But then he kidnapped me in order to set a trap for you, and…I’m sorry, Pahua. You have to believe me when I say I never meant for any of this to happen.”

“I do believe you,” I said, and I felt him relax against me. My gloves grew warm, indicating that we were crossing between realms. “But no more secrets, okay?”

He nodded. “Promise.”

The threads of my gloves were frayed, and the seams were coming apart. Four fingers had holes in them. I wasn’t sure how much longer they’d last. Strangely, I was okay with that. It meant I’d have to rely on my own spiritual energy from now on, which I would learn to control as soon as I saw that Matt was safe. I’d have to get him a protection charm as well.

Gradually, the sky changed from black to the dusky blue of the mortal realm. The sun was just setting, a lazy orb on the horizon, and none of the clouds were shaped like enormous crabs.

Familiar buildings took shape below as Spike descended. I directed her to the hospital, and she dropped us off right outside the main doors. Just like when we’d emerged from the elephant statue, no one noticed our arrival on a magical flying horse.

As I wiped off my clothes—I was still coated in dust from being in the tunnels, and there was a tear in my leggings—Spike and Zhong said their good-byes. I wasn’t sure how it was that Spike was visible to Zhong in the mortal realm. Maybe it had something to do with their contract. Then, with a blast of wind, the horse was gone.

We found a restroom first to ensure that my appearance wouldn’t alarm my mom too much. Thanks to the tree spirits, all my injuries had healed, at least. I splashed my face with water and tried to use the dragon comb to tame my wind-tangled hair.

As Zhong watched me in the bathroom mirror, she cleared her throat and said, “I’ve been thinking. You should consider coming with me. To the school, I mean. Not right now, but, like…later. Once you’ve thought about it. The shaman masters can help you with Xov’s seal, and in the meantime, you’ll be assigned a mentor who can teach you how to control your powers. And I’ll help, too, like I said.”

The suggestion came as a surprise. Me, join Zhong in her shaman-warrior community? A few days ago, it would’ve seemed like an impossible idea. But after nearly being turned to stone, almost drowning in frog backwash, getting pelted by books, and surviving an encounter with an angry god…shaman school sounded pretty cool. And with Zhong, I would even have a real friend there.

“I’ll definitely think about it,” I said with a smile. First, I had to make sure my brother was safe.

Zhong tugged at her jean jacket to scan the pins on her front pocket. She gently removed one that looked like a rice stalk and handed it to me. “In the meantime, here’s your first pin.”

“What does it mean? I eat rice?”

She rolled her eyes. “The school didn’t give me this one. My mom did. She said it’s a symbol of growth.”

“Thank you,” I said. “Are you sure you want to give it up?”

“It’s fine. I’m making space for all the marks of achievement they’ll give me once I get back,” she said, admiring her reflection. I laughed as Miv rolled his eyes.

Out in the lobby, the clock showed that even though we’d been in the Spirit Realm for two days, we’d only been gone from the mortal realm for a little over six hours. That was great news, because I hadn’t wanted to worry my mom. But my heart still hammered as we made our way through the hospital to Matt’s room.

“I’ll wait here,” Zhong said, leaning against the wall outside the door.

I flashed her a grateful smile for sticking around a little longer, and then, with Miv tucked against my neck, I pushed open the door.

Inside, Matt was sitting up in bed, stuffing a spoonful of rice porridge into his mouth. At the sight of me, his eyes lit up. My own began to burn as I rushed across the room to his bedside.

“You’re awake!” I said, pushing away the retractable tray and bowl so I could pull him into a hug.

“Hey!” he said grumpily, even though he hugged me back. “I was eating that. I’m hungry.”

Miv jumped off my shoulder and onto the top of Matt’s head, settling into the mess of his hair. I blinked the tears from my eyes and drew back so I could brush my fingers over his forehead. His skin was cool, and I felt nothing unusual inside him. His spirit was back, safe and sound, and the connection to the ghost girl was gone. Relief made my limbs so weak, I had to sit down on his mattress.

Matt reached for his tray and rice porridge again, and then paused. After a moment, he stroked my hand. “Mom says you were worried.”

“Of course I was. Where is she, anyway?”

Just then the bathroom door opened, and my mom stepped out. “Pahua! I thought I heard your voice.”

As I’d expected, she looked like she hadn’t left Matt’s side since I’d seen them last. Her clothes were rumpled, and her hair was still messily tied back. But she looked happy, too, now that Matt’s mysterious “illness” had passed.

“They want to keep him here for observation while they run more tests, but otherwise, he seems to be completely recovered,” she said as she gave me a hug. Matt smiled as he proceeded to shovel more rice porridge into his mouth.

I nodded, my throat tight, and pressed my face into her shirt. I was happy that my brother was safe, but there was so much more I needed to do to ensure that he stayed that way. I had to make myself stronger so I could protect him and Mom. I had to repair the ivory gates. Lord Xiav would probably come for me again, and Xov had said this wasn’t over. I needed to be ready.

But first, there was something I was dying to know.

“Mom, I have to ask you something,” I said once she’d released me.

I moved aside so she could sit on the edge of Matt’s bed in my place and smooth down his hair. It was sticking up in the back where he’d been lying on it. Miv jumped from his head to the tray and then onto the bed before settling into the blanket.

“Sure,” she said, smiling faintly as she watched Matt eat.

“Do you remember that old pin Aunt Kalia gave you?”

Her smile wilted at once, and a guardedness crept behind her eyes. I frowned at her reaction. She was probably going to try to lie to me, but I was tired of being kept in the dark. Which meant I would have to be truthful as well about everything I’d learned over the last few days.

But not right now. Not in a hospital room with Matt next to us, an apartment in need of cleaning up, and my shaman-warrior friend still waiting in the hallway.

“Why are you talking about that all of a sudden?” she asked, her voice lowered.

“Because I…I had a dream about it. So I want to know what the pin means.” It was just a little lie, and I’d clear things up later, when we were back home. My mom had once said that the Hmong believe that spirits sometimes try to tell us things in dreams. Miv’s head popped up from the blankets; he was also curious about my mom’s answer.

Matt seemed to sense the tension in the air, because he stopped eating and glanced between the two of us. Mom didn’t notice, though. She sighed and fidgeted with the small red charm pouch that hung around her neck.

“The pin was…It was from a shaman school your aunt used to attend when she was around your age. She had to leave the school, and she never got over it. It was a painful memory for her, so she gave me the pin, along with all her old student supplies.”

“Did…Did Aunt Kalia want me to go to that school as well?” I asked.

Mom’s eyes grew wide. “How did you… ?” Then her shoulders slumped a bit, and she admitted, “Yes. We used to fight about it, but it wasn’t a decision that either of us could make for you. I wasn’t even sure if you…if you could go to the school, but Kalia insisted that she’d divined from the spirits some great future waiting for you.” She shook her head, rubbing her eyes. “It’s not that I don’t think you’re meant for great things. But I wanted to wait until you were older so I could ask you if it’s something you’d even want to do.”

Some of the anxiety tying my stomach into knots eased a little. “I think…I do want that.”

“We’ll talk about it more once we get Matt home, okay?” Mom said.

“Promise?”

She reached out and cupped my cheek. “I promise.”

I nodded. It was amazing how much better I felt just knowing that she was willing to talk about something she’d always kept secret. Maybe I could even convince her to talk about why Dad left. Someday.

She lifted the collar of her T-shirt and gave it a sniff. “Do you think you could go home and get me a change of clothes? I’m feeling kind of gross.”

I nodded before leaning over the bed to hug Matt again. “Love you,” I said before planting a kiss on his cheek.

He laughed, relaxing now that the tension had passed, and said, “Love you, too, dummy.”

Those were the sweetest words I’d heard in days. Miv jumped onto my shoulder, and I gave Matt one more glance before heading into the hallway. He was happily digging into a cup of Jell-O.

When I bounced over to her, Zhong straightened off the wall. “Everything good?” she asked.

I smiled. “Yeah, I think so. For now, anyway. Thanks for waiting. Could you, maybe, help me clean up my apartment? It’s probably still a wreck.”

Zhong’s nose wrinkled. “I should have escaped while I had the chance.” Then she smiled and pointed at my shirt. “Did your mom give you that?”

I looked down and was surprised to find a small flower tucked behind the pin Zhong had given me. It was a single jasmine blossom. Bemused, I removed the flower and twirled it between my fingers. The scent of jasmine teased my nose.

I smiled as well. “Yeah. She did.” I wondered if I would ever meet Gao Pa, even if it was only in a dream. I hoped so.

But I wasn’t in a hurry to meet any more celestial relatives. For the first time in ages, I didn’t feel like pretending I was a shaman-warrior princess. For now, I was more than okay with just being me.