I clutch at my chest. “No, that’s not possible.” I think of what Jennie’s halmeoni gwisin said—that Emmett’s mom had become a vengeful gwisin stuck on Earth, too overcome by the wrongs done to her in life. She was no longer the woman she used to be, and she wasn’t willing to talk to Emmett. Then what is she doing here now?

Emmett kneels down in front of Hattie. His whole body is trembling. “Mom, is that really you?”

Hattie’s eyes blink once, and then, in a blur, everything changes. She is no longer limp on the ground, cradled in my eomma’s arms. She now stands, her body in an unnatural position, like that of a marionette, her arms outstretched. She walks rigidly toward the goddess.

“You!” she shrieks, pointing at the goddess’s face. “You did this. You used me. You made me steal the artifact, and then you made me kill all those innocent people. I was wronged!”

The goddess shrugs her off. “Tsk-tsk, you insolent gwisin. You have the audacity to return from the dead to accuse me of such a petty crime? Don’t you know who I am?” She turns to me and shakes her head. “Can you believe the gall of this ghost? Or should I say, the ghoul of this ghost?” She chuckles and winks at me.

I realize with a jolt that the goddess still thinks I’m on her side.

Emmett hasn’t taken his eyes off Sookhee/Hattie, and now he nears her again, fidgeting with his silver ring. “Mom, what happened to you? You didn’t want to talk to me before. How come you’re here now?”

Sookhee turns around stiffly and focuses on Emmett’s face. Her sunken eyes are still midnight black, but now they shed fat tears. “Oh, my sweet, sweet boy. I was lost in my anger for so many years. But when I found out you were searching for me, I fought the fog with all my might. And when it cleared, I remembered everything. I remembered what it was all for. You helped me find my way back to you.”

I nervously glance over at the goddess, but she isn’t even listening. She has wandered over to the Gi cauldron and is running her finger along the lip of its mouth. She’s whistling the tune to “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” while casually looking around as if she’s sightseeing. I blink twice. Is it my imagination, or is the goddess getting taller…?