“My older brother has an enchanted safe in his room, too,” Noah Noh says, pushing his on-trend round glasses up the bridge of his nose. The Miru normally have a certain athletic look about them, but Noah’s style is more hipster than jock. “I’m pretty sure he cuts off a lock of his hair, burns it outside the safe door, and then chants his password three times. Not that I spy on him or anything.” He quickly glances at Hattie and his face goes a little pink. “I’m just observant.”

Cosette giggles and flicks her hair at Noah even though nothing he said was remotely funny. Hattie goes unusually still, and I’m momentarily confused why there’s a weird vibe between the three of them.

I would normally pester Hattie for details, but right now I’m too distracted by other matters. As I wait to see Professor Ryu’s reaction, I pinch Hattie’s thigh in excitement.

“You’re absolutely right, Noah,” Professor Ryu confirms, clapping. “A two-step enchanted safe lock involves the burning of hair and a password repeated three times.” She leans forward and motions for us to come closer.

She lowers her voice as if she’s about to tell us a juicy secret. “But if you want to be extra safety-conscious, some witches go one step further. They have a two-step lock and also require that a few gifted tears be dropped on the hair before it’s burned. Then, voilà, they have themselves a three-step lock. Isn’t that fascinating?”

I throw Hattie a nervous look. Gifted tears?

Our eomma is so meticulous, she would definitely use a three-step lock. That means we need to take a chunk of Eomma’s hair, which I guess is doable. And considering I know all her laptop passwords, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out the one for her safe. But we’re never going to get our hands on Eomma’s tears. No way.

My heart drops, and I shove my hand into my pocket to fiddle with my teardrop stone. I knew this was a bad idea. I knew getting my hopes up was a sure way to get hurt. I shake my head in disappointment. I can’t believe I let Hattie talk me into this.

“Don’t worry,” Hattie whispers, as if reading my mind. “We just need to brainstorm a little. We’ve got this.” She sounds so certain, and I desperately want to believe her.

“Fine,” I whisper back, getting out my phone. “I’ll invite Emmett over.”

“Good idea.” She nods in approval. “We could use his smarts.”