WE ARE BRISKLY USHERED AWAY from the crowd and into a shed by the lake that’s full of kayaks and life jackets. Before Austin can even close the door, I jump into my eomma’s and appa’s arms and bury my head in their shoulders. Their eyes are bloodshot and they look terrible—like they haven’t slept since Hattie’s initiation ceremony. Their familiar scents remind me of home, and I sob inconsolably. I have missed them so much.

“I can’t believe you’re here. You’re really here,” I cry.

Appa kisses the top of my head. “Thank Mago you’re okay.”

“We were so worried about you…” Eomma whispers, stroking my back with trembling hands.

“I’m so sorry,” I splutter between snotty tears. “I made a huge mistake, and now, Hattie is…She is…She—”

“Shh, we know, sweetheart,” Appa says, stroking my hair. “Emmett filled us in on everything when we got here.”

I look at Emmett gratefully.

“How did you know where we were?” I ask my parents.

“We hired a Samjogo seer to locate you,” Eomma responds. “The Horangi firewall made it a challenge, but she managed to find you in the end.”

“How dare you come here?” Sora demands, interrupting our family reunion.

“You kidnap our child and then have the gall to ask why we’re here?” Eomma retorts. “You’re lucky we didn’t bring reinforcements.”

Emmett is sending death glares at Auntie Okja after what his mom said through the gwisin halmeoni, and Taeyo and Austin are standing staunchly with Sora. Judging from the way Taeyo keeps glancing at his water bottle, I’m half expecting a water snake to burst out of there if things go south. It’s not a great reunion by any means.

Sora scoffs. “You stole her from us thirteen years ago! She should have been raised with us, not the people who killed her parents.”

“We did not kill her parents,” Auntie Okja clarifies. She’s standing near the door, keeping her distance.

“What lies have you told our daughter?” Appa jabs his finger in Sora’s face. “How did you deceive her to join your cursed clan? And what is the purpose of all this?”

“No one forced me to do anything. Least of all Sora,” I interrupt, trying to pull myself together. “I made a conscious choice.” Appa’s accusation makes me feel protective of the Horangi clan, and it surprises me. “It’s all a huge misunderstanding.”

Eomma’s and Appa’s grips on my shoulders momentarily tighten. It’s clear they have no idea that the Horangi clan was framed by the council. I steal a glance at Auntie Okja. But she is putting on an innocent face, and something inside me kindles with frustration. How can she pretend she knows none of this when she is responsible for so many deaths—including those of my own birth parents? How could she have betrayed me all these years?

Eomma spins me around and holds my face in her hands. “You chose to initiate into the Horangi clan? Why would you do such a thing?” Deep lines are etched into her face, and I have to avert my eyes.

“I did it for Hattie.” I reach into the neck of my top and pull out the heart vial. The whole room gasps and my blood curls at the sight. The decaying must be speeding up, because over half the organ is black rot now. “And I did it for all of us. To stop the prophecy.”

“But why didn’t you come to us?” Appa asks, his face pained. “We’re your family, and families tackle things together. As a team. You know that.”

“I know…” I say, looking at my feet. But how do I explain all the complicated feelings I have? That I love them and yet hate the fact that they kept my roots hidden from me. That I wanted to show them and the council I was more than what they said I was, and prove I could be a Gom, too. How do I admit that maybe I was too scared to tell the truth because once they heard it they might not want me anymore…?

“But it doesn’t matter,” I say, running my finger along the bump on my wrist. “What’s done is done, and now the scholars are going to help us find the last artifact so we can save Hattie and destroy the star. Then all of this will be over.”

“No thanks to you,” Emmett finally blurts out at Auntie Okja, who has been unusually quiet this whole time. Sora, Austin, and Taeyo all glare at her, too. If eyes could scream, Auntie Okja would be deaf by now.

“What is Emmett talking about, Okja?” Eomma asks. Her eyebrows are knit together.

Auntie Okja frowns but stays silent, which fires up Emmett even more.

“Go on, Auntie Okja,” he eggs. “Tell them. Tell them how you were the one working with the council to steal the seventh artifact for your own use, and you framed the scholars. Tell them how you wanted my mom’s position as elder and how that got her killed.”

“I did what?” Auntie Okja looks stunned.

Eomma and Appa shake their heads, clearly thinking this is some kind of sick joke.

“He’s right,” I say, backing up Emmett. My heart is beating in triple time, but I try to speak calmly. “The prophecy says:

‘When the blood moon and black sun appear to the gaze

To mark the start of the end of all days,

In the one last divine, a weapon shall rise;

Unless the gold-destroyer ends the soul who lies.’

“I’ve been thinking a lot about the last line, and I’m starting to wonder if it’s talking about you, Auntie O. The way I see it, it’s saying the end of all days is coming because of the last artifact, unless we stop the soul who lies. Are you the liar?”

Everyone stares at her expectantly, but she remains speechless.

“Well? What do you have to say for yourself?” Sora asks in a steely voice.

Austin bristles. “Do you know how many of our people died because of your actions?” There’s so much pain in his voice it makes me shudder.

After a moment, Auntie Okja moves. Austin starts rubbing his wrist in preparation for an attack, but she just grabs a nearby wooden crate. She smooths out her skirt in one long movement before sitting on it. “When Sookhee died, I was so grief-stricken over having lost my best friend that I believed what the council told me. That the Horangi were responsible. It was easier that way—to have someone to blame.”

Sora and Austin growl.

Auntie Okja gives them a guilty look, massages her temples, and continues. “But the truth is, I always thought something was off. The pieces didn’t add up. It was too convenient that the scholars were there at the wrong place at the wrong time when they were the keepers of the artifact in the first place. But it wasn’t until things went sour at Hattie’s initiation that I started digging. And no matter where I looked, the same answer kept coming up. It all centered around one person who was adamant about keeping the scholars in the community’s disfavor.”

We all lean in. “Who?” I demand. “Who was it?”

“Bongjoon Pyo. The Samjogo elder. The chairperson of the LA council.”

I let out a yelp, and then feel a weird sense of relief wash over me. I want so badly to believe Auntie Okja. “So it wasn’t you?” I ask. “You weren’t the one who wanted the sunstone ax? You’re innocent?”

She hangs her head. “I’m far from innocent. I should have spoken up about my doubts a long, long time ago.” She looks at Emmett and the three scholars. “And that’s a burden I will forever carry on my shoulders. But I swear on my life, I didn’t want Sookhee’s position, and I never wanted the sunstone ax.”

“Why do you think it’s him?” Emmett asks dubiously. “What proof do you have?”

Auntie Okja’s forehead crinkles in concentration. “He claimed that as chairperson of the council, only he had the authority to report illegal interactions with the Horangi clan to the Godrealm. But it was odd, considering that council elders always communicate collectively with the goddesses. Plus, he’s always been dead set against my attempts to bring more diversity and inclusion into the community. I thought he was just old-fashioned, but after Hattie’s ceremony, when I tried to reason with him, I saw a different side of him. A darker side.” Her eyes crease with concern. “And then, the other day, when he told the council about his vision of Sora breaking into and entering the temple—”

“I never did such a thing!” Sora interrupts. “I tried to meet with Gumiho Elder Kim to warn her about the prophecy, but she wasn’t willing to talk to me, so I left it at that.”

Auntie Okja nods. “I know, I know. And that’s what I figured out. Elder Pyo claimed to have seen you breaking in, but the next time he described the vision, the details were different. Each time he told us the story, it changed. That’s how I knew he was making it all up.”

“So why come clean now?” Sora asks, her face somber.

Auntie Okja looks at me and Emmett, and then Hattie’s dying heart. “Because if these young people can be brave, then so can I. I believe Elder Pyo has been after the artifacts the whole time. He’s the one responsible for all the deception, encouraging Sookhee Harrison to steal the ax, the deaths, and the banishment of the Horangi clan.” The three scholars tense, and I see Austin clenching his fists. “Furthermore, I believe he is on the hunt for the last artifact as we speak. And we need to stop him before he finds it.”

Austin puts his hand on Sora’s shoulder and whispers a few words. He must not be sure about Auntie Okja’s testimony, and I can’t say I blame him. Not after everything they’ve suffered.

But Sora shakes her head. “If the end of days really is coming, and the last artifact will bring it on, then we need to find it before anyone else does.”

She looks at Auntie Okja, her eyes like pinpricks. “I don’t trust you, Okja, but I do believe you. So let’s go find this monster of a human and stop him before he destroys the world.”