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Junu smiled sadly. “Thank you for that. But you’re not the only person I’ve wronged in this life. I’ve spent it shamefully and now I’m paying that price. It’s my price to pay.”

He held out the staff. “Grab ahold.”

Miyoung hesitated a moment before obeying.

“Now think about your bead. Think about the look of it and the shape of it. Make it solid in your mind.”

Miyoung squeezed her eyes shut.

At first nothing happened. And Junu wondered if he’d lost the ability to use the staff. Perhaps he didn’t deserve it after shunning it for most of his life. But then the staff seemed to warm. Like a low flow of energy moving through it. And the air beside Miyoung wavered.

It thickened, like a film being laid over the space. Then it congealed and shifted until it started to take shape.

“I thought it was small,” Somin whispered behind them. She’d spoken Junu’s own thoughts aloud. The bead should be thesize of a large pearl. Whatever was forming here was the size of a human, or a beast.

It formed a head and a body that slowly filled with color. Until it became almost whole. Until it became Yena.

“Daughter.” Her voice sounded like a thousand whispers emitted as one. “You did it. You’ve found me again.”

62

MIYOUNG’S LEGS SHOOKas she rose. She wanted to do so many things in this moment. Cry in rage, in fear, in joy. She wanted to wrap her arms around the thing with her mother’s face, even as she knew it wasn’t really her mother, not all of her at least.

“Eomma,” she said, her voice shaking. “I’m so sorry. You can’t stay.”

Yena’s beautiful brow furrowed. “What are you saying, Daughter?”

Miyoung shook her head. “You don’t belong here. Not anymore. And keeping you here is selfish.”

“What if I don’t want to go?”

“Be careful,” Junu murmured to Miyoung as he stood beside her.

Miyoung nodded and her face became set. “You can’t stay,” she told her mother. “You have to move on. You have to give me my bead back and leave.”

“Bead?” Yena said, and she opened her hands.

Miyoung could have sworn they’d been empty a second before, but now in her left palm lay a luminescent pearl.

“Is that it?” Somin breathed, staring at the bead. Like she’d never seen anything so powerful before. And of course, she hadn’t. It was a wondrous sight. The soul of a gumiho.

“Please give it back,” Miyoung said.

“No.” Yena closed her hand.

“What?” Miyoung asked.

“You shouldn’t have it,” Yena said, her frown deepening.

That slashed at Miyoung’s heart, because it was something she’d always feared, that her mother would not think her worthy of the title gumiho. “It’s mine, Mother. I need it.”

“No.” Yena stepped back.

“If you don’t give it to her, then something bad could happen to your daughter,” Junu said.

Yena’s eyes darted to his, sharp and angry. She growled and retreated another step.

“You are not my ally. You betrayed me.”