“It’s okay. He’s come in peace. He’s helping us.”

Zora shakes her head. “Are you serious?”

“Listen, Zora. Carter’s mom was a Lake Baku prisoner too. She was one of the updated.”

She blinks several times, her gaze shifting between Carter and me, trying to figure out whether there’s some sort of trick. But she knows me better than that. There’s no way I would voluntarily side with Carter, not unless it was absolutely necessary.

“Zora, he thinks he knows how to reverse the update.”

He nods. “I do.”

“Can you trust him? What does he want in exchange for that information?” asks Zora, crossing her arms over her chest. My heart swells with love for her. She is the very best of friends—always looking out for me.

“I’m helping him fix his baku, which his dad destroyed. But come on. There’s no time to waste. We have to see if his theory works.”

I fumble with my keys, barely able to get the door open, I’m so nervous. Carter and Zora are both right on my heels. Once I manage it, Jinx streaks past me, the fastest of all of us.

Mom is in the kitchen, Petal fluttering around her head. We get to the kitchen just as Jinx is bounding up her leg. “What are you doing?” she cries out. “Get off me.”

But before she can protest too much, Jinx leashes up to her. It’s the first time he’s leashed to a person since I let him go at the cat park.

Zora, Carter, and I hold our collective breaths. Mom’s eyes go blank, her arms falling limp. Petal is frantically buzzing up against Jinx, trying to get at the leash. I capture the butterfly baku in the cup of my hands and pass her across to Zora.

“Mom?” I say, after a couple of seconds go by. Jinx, is it working?

>>I’m not sure.

I grip one of my mom’s hands, holding it in both of mine. Then, a second later, I feel her fingers squeeze mine back. Light returns to her eyes, and Jinx releases from the leash. “Lacey?” she says, turning to me. “Oh my darling girl, are you okay? Why are you crying?” She pulls me into a big hug.

I can’t help it. I’m sobbing now. My mom is back. Zora claps her hands together and fist pumps the air, while Carter slumps against the counter, relieved.

“You’re back, Mom, you’re back!” I say when I’m finally able to talk again.

“I feel so strange,” she replies. “Like I’ve had the strangest dream. Did I agree to work over Christmas? What was I thinking!”