I haven’t really thought about it much, but he’s right. I am lucky. I know there are kids like me who end up getting kicked out of home for being their true selves. It’s hard to imagine what I would’ve done had my parents refused to see me as they instead of she. Maybe I should cut Mom and Dad a little more slack.

“You think your parents would react…differently?” I ask.

His fingers tighten around the bundle in his hand and a muscle ticks along his clenched jaw. “You could say that. They have really set ideas about who you should be as an O’Connor, and they don’t like me not fitting that mold.”

I’m about to say how much that sucks and ask if that’s what he meant about not wanting to do magic when Sini & Co. show up.

“So, when are we going to make our move?” Aysha asks.

“There’s a hot chocolate break at seven thirty,” I say. “They’re sending the Pebbles to bed after that.”

“We could volunteer to walk Hannah and the others back and then sneak off,” Morgan suggests.

“Sounds like a plan,” Aysha says. “We’ll be ready.”

***

At seven twenty-six, Aleksi blows the whistle. Everyone tosses aside their bundles of twigs and stampedes toward the trolleys bearing thermoses of hot chocolate and platters of cookies.

Seventeen excruciating minutes later, Emmi finally announces it’s time for the Pebbles to head to bed. We all volunteer to chaperone the younger students back to Kivitalo, and Emmi gives us encouraging nods as if this one group activity suddenly makes us BFFs.

Together, we usher the first to fifth graders out of the gym and down the first-floor corridor until we reach the doors leading outside.

Hannah clings to Morgan’s hand, looking up at him with enormous eyes like a real-life anime character when he pauses at the doors. “Night, Hannah.”

“You’re not coming?” she asks, and guilt needles my gut.

“We’re going to wait here and make sure there aren’t any stragglers. You’ll be fine,” Morgan says. “You just follow Cludd. You’ll be fine. Remember how you kicked that bogle’s butt? Nothing out there can hurt you.” He offers her his fist to bump, and she gives him a megawatt smile.

“That was easy,” Aysha says as we peel away from the group and head for the stairs.

“The next part might not be,” I say.

“Why are you even coming?” Ekaterina asks in a harsh whisper. “Not like you can do anything.”

“Hey, this was Taika’s idea,” Morgan says. “So, unless you have a better one, they’re in charge.”

Once more I’m caught between feeling grateful Morgan doesn’t see me as Taika the Talentless and ashamed that I’ve failed to stick up for myself yet again.