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“Girls? It’s almost noon. I’m going to head to the store, call me if you need anything.”

Erica’s mom’s voice is familiar but feels far away, distant, like she’s underwater. A warm beam of sunlight is bathing my face, and I roll over, clutching my sleeping bag tighter.

Somewhere near my feet, Jenn groans as she zips herself back into her own bag, hiding from the sun.

“Can we not do anything today?” Erica asks sleepily.

“I vote yes,” Jenn says.

A lazy Sunday sounds perfect. There’s something about this sleepover I’m forgetting, but I can deal with it when I wake up for real. Getting up in the middle of the night to take Kat home was worth it, but I’m exhausted—

The shriek from downstairs instantly jolts me awake.

“ERICA HUANG LIU!”

Erica bolts out of bed and darts out of the room. “Yes, Mama!”

Jenn and I exchange nervous looks as we follow her to the garage. The door is open and Mrs. Liu gestures frantically inside. Fancy pauses from her grooming routine and looks up at us, blinking expectantly at her empty bucket.

“Everything’s okay, Fancy’s fine, she just…”

Erica’s dad strolls into the hallway, smiling bemusedly at us. “I made some scallion pancakes if you want any—whoa!”

“Morning, Uncle,” I say cheerfully. “So yesterday due to some accidental magic, Fancy got embiggened…”

The Lius took the news that their cat had grown to the size of a minivan rather well, considering the number of other unexplainable things that had happened in the last twenty-four hours.

The dragon is all over the news, and all of Los Angeles is on high alert, people buying toilet paper and groceries in a strange panic, rumors and conspiracy theories running wild on every forum and social media platform.

We dip youtiao into fresh soy milk and devour all the crispy scallion pancakes as a skeptical reporter delivers the news in an even, although shocked, tone.

“Multiple eyewitnesses claim a massive creature flying over the I-10 freeway yesterday was the cause of various vehicular accidents and destruction of personal property. One could only describe it as a creature of legend—a winged reptilian beast known as a dragon.” The reporter laughs.

“While many are dismissing this event as a hoax, with the amount of photo and video evidence, and at least eighty eyewitness accounts and counting as people come forward to share their experience, all Angelenos want to know now is—where did the dragon come from? And where did it go?”

“So the Order didn’t get to memory wipe everyone,” I say. “Maybe they’re not that all-powerful.”

“Or maybe this was too big to control,” Jenn says. She frowns.

I can tell Erica’s parents have more questions about the Order and the two worlds, but we’ve shared everything we know. Erica waves us off, telling us she’s going to try to calm their anxiety, so Jenn takes me home.

I didn’t realize Ana crawled into my backpack until I toss the contents onto my bed and she crawls out, sniffing curiously at my room. She gives me a dismissive look and flies to my shoulder, curling around me protectively.

“I guess there’s nothing shiny in here worthy of you,” I say, petting her head.

Ana trills in agreement.

“Is that a dragon ?”

Well, at least this will make it easy to start the conversation with everyone. “Yes, and do not post anything on Insta or TikTok about it,” I say firmly to Stacey.

“Oh my god, you and your nerdiness are at the center of everything ridiculous going on, aren’t you?” Stacey shakes her head. “Come on, this is, like, the biggest news of the century! Why aren’t you sharing all about it? If I had a dragon—”

“First, I do not have a dragon, Ana is her own being; she’s here because she wants to be,” I say. “And second, there are people out there looking for her, and they’re dangerous. We have to protect her. Where’s Má?”

Stacey shrugs. “It’s Sunday, at the nail salon probably. Unless she’s still at Costco fighting all the other Asian aunties for end-of-the-world supplies.”

After everything that’s happened, I want nothing more than the comforting smile of my mom. I want to tell her how excited I am about Kat, and I want to talk about how worried I am about the Order and the Ritual and everything. She always knows what to say to help me feel better.

Uncle Thu offers to take me to the nail salon, and Jimmy tags along, insistent on learning more about Ana, and of course Stacey follows us right into the car as well. I can’t help but smile as I answer their questions about Kat’s world.

“This dragon is incredible,” Uncle Thu muses. “A wonderful sign of prosperity, that she’s chosen our family.”

“I like that she’s long and windy,” Jimmy announces, stroking Ana’s scales as he runs his hands along her serpentine body.

During the car ride, Ana’s wings disappeared in a soft iridescent shimmer, so quickly I hardly noticed it, her body changing as Uncle Thu talked about Vietnamese mythology.

I remember how Ana’s voice felt in my mind during the spell, how her kind have been here since the beginning of time, and I wonder how many forms she can take.

“So these Order guys were keeping this huge other world secret as they smuggled Pokémon cards,” Stacey says.

“And spells to our world,” I say. “I guess there’s a black market here for people to do basic levitation and stuff.”

“I wanna know more about Kat!” Jimmy says. “Are you going to get married? Is she your one true love?”

I laugh, but a warm flutter of affection flits through me. I’ve never figured romance into any of the Plan. I guess I thought I would be too busy. Now, Kat’s smile looms in my mind, and even though I don’t know what’s going to happen next, I only feel excitement about what’s to come.

Má sweeps me into a hug as soon as we get to the nail salon, and then coos over Ana while setting up a cozy den of pillows for her on one of the chairs.

Má puts Stacey to work at the register and sets up Jimmy with a puzzle, and Uncle Thu is sent to unload supplies in the back.

It’s slow today, with only a few customers, so Má ushers me to a cushy chair and I tell her everything.

She takes my hands and dips them in a vitamin solution, and slowly pushing my cuticles back, she cleans and shapes my nails one by one. It’s methodical and comforting, just like when I was a kid sitting in her lap fascinated by all the bottles glistening like gems.

My mom listens intently during my explanation about my overnight stay in the other world, which is almost worse than the lecture I expected. Instead, she does a base coat on my nails in quiet judgment.

“I’m sorry,” I blurt out.

“Thank you for telling me,” she says. “I know you didn’t lie on purpose, because there wasn’t a way to communicate between the dimension things, but don’t do it again.”

“Never,” I say, lowering my head. “I really am sorry, you know. For all of it. I know I should be working hard, like even though school is almost over, I still have responsibilities, and—”

“Con, have I ever told you that you have to do all these things?” Má asks softly.

“No, but I want to make you proud. And I haven’t been focusing on my work recently, I’ve just been caught up—”

“In a new romance,” she says with a small smile.

I bite my lip. “I know I need to take advantage of every opportunity I can, because now is the best time to do it. And I shouldn’t be distracted.”

Má sighs. “Of course I want you to do your best, but I worry. I see you always running around with your club things and always doing homework. But these past few weeks I’ve seen you smile for no reason and actually just spend time with your friends and be a kid.

” She smoothly brushes a top coat with deft precision on each of my nails.

“So it’s okay?”

“There’s always a balance, and I think you’re finding it,” Má says. “Now tell me more about Kat.”

Má smiles appreciatively as I share about how we met, her passion for crafting spells, the difficulties in her world, and how much I enjoy spending time with her. She gently teases me as I blush. “She sounds like she really encourages you to enjoy the moment,” Má says approvingly.

“You’re not worried? About us being in two different universes?”

“Con, you can do anything you put your mind to. I bet the answer will come soon enough.”

Next to us, Ana is chittering happily as she stacks and organizes nail polish into piles, her tail curled up around a pile of glittering bottles in every hue. I thought Má would be upset about Ana messing up the display, but I think she’s really taken with her.

“Do you think she would like a bath?” Má asks curiously.

I don’t know anything about dragon care, but from the way Ana is shaking her head indignantly I’m guessing the answer is no.

“Maybe cleaning her scales with oil?” I ask.

Ana nods with satisfaction as she leaves her polish hoard to clamber onto Má’s shoulders. She settles in, laying her head down and nuzzling into Má’s neck, to her great delight.

Auntie Van clucks as she changes the channel on the TV to a soap opera. “Dragons, toxic birds, what’s next?”

Toxic what? “Wait, go back!”

The reporter shakes their head in concern as they wrap up their report.

“These creatures exude volatile substances that are highly toxic. Twelve injured at the Grove today have been rushed to Cedars-Sinai and are currently in stable condition; however, the exact nature of their injuries and the prognosis of their recovery is unknown, given the unknown origin of these creatures.”

“They have wranglers in Kat’s world,” I say as the news goes back to traffic. “People who can get these creatures to a wildlife reserve or something.”

Má frowns. “So this isn’t normal for them, either. But why are they here?”

I scratch Ana’s head, watching her intelligent eyes blink and take in the news, my mom, everyone in the nail salon. I wish I could hear what she’s thinking again. I wonder if she would know what to do.