Hattie snorts. “Oh, you have so much to learn, young grasshopper. She’s a council elder. There’s no way she would help us if Eomma won’t. If we want to do this, we’re on our own.”

I frown so hard my eye twitches.

“If the tables were turned, would you do the same for me?” she asks.

“Without a doubt,” I respond immediately. “You know I would.”

“Then it’s settled,” she says, grinning. “We have ourselves an enchanted safe to crack.”

3: Even Witches Go to School

THE BUILDING NEXT DOOR TO THE H-Mart is a noraebang. Norae is Korean for song, and bang means room. So a noraebang is a song room—aka a private karaoke room. It’s where teenagers go to hang out with their friends and sing their favorite pop hits at the top of their lungs. It also happens to be another secret entrance, this time to Saturday School.

“OMG, can you believe the news about the Horangi?” Jennie Byun, with her manicured nails and Ralph Lauren Polo dress, says in her annoyingly loud voice as we walk up to the doors of Gangnam Style Karaoke. Everything from her invisible braces to her perfect designer handbag irks me. “My mom told me our Samjogo elder received a vision this morning when he touched the fried chicken counter. And get this: The excommunicated Horangi elder—Ms. Kwon—was trying to break into the temple. Freaky, right?”

There are about twenty of us walking to class, and a good three quarters of them hang on to Jennie’s every word as if their lives depend on it.

“No wayyy,” a few of them exclaim.

“You have all the good goss,” someone else says.

Jennie smirks. “Yes way. You guys know our clan is basically the most powerful one, right? I mean, there’s a reason the chairperson of the council is always a seer.”

Hattie and I groan in unison. Jennie Byun—the most obnoxious human in the three realms—is a seeing witch. The Samjogo clan can get visions of truth simply by touching an item. They also have premonitions in their dreams, and the most powerful Samjogo can even see across space and time, which I’ll admit is pretty cool. But the inside joke is that their clan motto should be Power and Ego, not Leadership and Wisdom. Appa says they’re so full of hot air, it’s a wonder they still have their feet on the ground.

“And you know what else I heard?” Jennie continues. “All those plans to reopen the gifted library are a lie. The council has never figured out how to reactivate the library since the scholars got banished. And now, with the potential threat of the Horangi coming back, the elders have all the strongest protectors guarding the entrance. Right, Noah?”