“They’re mostly green. This sort of show is pretty rare.” I’ve witnessed the aurora before, but never like this. It’s mesmerizing.

“Well, that’s one thing I can check off my bucket list.” He mimes a check mark with his mittened finger. “What do you call them in Finnish?”

“Revontulet.” I repeat the word a few times until Morgan can say it properly. “It means fox’s fire.”

“Why?” He doesn’t take his gaze off the sky.

“Some people believe the northern lights are caused by a fox’s tail whipping—no, that’s not the right word…” I have to think for a moment, running a search in my mental Finnish-English dictionary. “Whisking? Is that a word?”

“Sure, like when you whisk eggs.”

“Yes, like that,” I say. “So people used to believe the lights were caused by a fox’s tail whisking up the snow.”

“That’s kinda awesome.”

“In some Sámi cultures though, they think the lights are the blood of the dead spilling across the sky.” Yeah, great. Really didn’t need to bring that up right now.

Morgan looks at me, eyebrows drawn together. “Let’s hope not.”

With the northern lights glimmering above us, we continue along the pathway until it opens into a glade like the one in Kuusikylä, complete with glowing tonttukivi. Except this time, we aren’t the only ones who’ve found it.

21

Toivo and Aoife stand arguing beside the stones. These ones glow shades of red instead of blue, casting a ruby halo on the snow. Our siblings are both wrapped up against the cold, shouting through their scarves at one another.

Toivo. It can’t be him. He’s nowhere near a tietäjä yet, but here he is, yelling at Aoife. And…

He had the book on chaos magic.

He knew things about the Sampo.

He’s a terrible brother.

So yeah, it has to be him. I’m only a little surprised and mildly disappointed. Mostly I’m relieved it’s Toivo and not Mom or Emmi or someone I actually like.

“Let me do it,” he says.

“And then what?” Aoife puts her hands on her hips. “What if… I can’t do this alone.”

“I know, but one of us has.” Toivo takes a step forward.

“Get away from her!” I stomp into the glade with Morgan at my side.

He grips my hand, fingers squeezing tight as he pulls me back a little.

“Taika?” Toivo spins around. “What the hell? Where have you been?”

“We’ve come to stop you,” I say, knowing full well I won’t be able to do a damn thing if my brother is the evil tietäjä. Can it really be Toivo? He’s powerful, but not O’Connor powerful, and he’s not even a straight A student. It can’t be him.