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Back My Name Is Magic Save as PDF
Chapters (32)
  1. Author’s Note
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. 9
  11. 10
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32

A moment later, the front door slams. I slide to the floor and pull my knees to my chest, hugging myself tight as fresh sobs rock my body.

25

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Blasting the Knock-Knock Jokes does nothing to drown out the little voice screaming at the back of my mind. It sounds an awful lot like Mom now.

Useless!

Worthless!

Taika the Talentless! Taika the Vulnerable, Taika who only gets in the way and makes things worse for everyone.

On and on and on it goes as I pace back and forth across my bedroom, gnawing on my fingernails when I’m not bashing my fists against my head in time with Morgan’s bass drum.

So, I can’t do magic—but I have to do something. I stop pacing and grab a pen, writing out the names.

MacCrone

Kaneda

Aleksi

Joakim

Emmi

MacCrone’s the only person I can scratch off the list since the hiisi said it was a tietäjä. That leaves everyone else. Aleksi and Miss Kaneda might’ve slipped away from the Kekri buck building long enough to take Hannah on Friday night, but I’ve seen Aleksi’s arms—his sleeves were rolled up while he worked on the buck—and he doesn’t have any tattoos. It can’t be him. I put a line through his name.

Joakim. Kaneda. Emmi.

Surely a chaos mage would at least try to be a little less disorderly in their daily life? Or would they make it super obvious so no one would suspect them? I hesitate, not quite ready to eliminate Joakim.

Kaneda or Emmi then?

Kaneda. It has to be. A disgraced almost-tietäjä, bitter about never graduating maybe, wanting to get back at my mom somehow. It sort of makes sense, especially since Dad said this all has something to do with Mom’s position on the UCMW.

I fish Morgan’s dead phone out of my pocket. If I could charge it, I could call—am I really about to call Sini & Co.? Not like I have a lot of other options. I try plugging it in to charge, but of course Morgan’s phone is fancy, and my old charger won’t fit!

I fling the phone onto my bed and release the scream that’s been building up inside me. This is pointless. Even if I miraculously manage to figure out who the chaos mage is, I have no way to share my discovery. I am utterly useless here, but out there, in the forest and beyond the tonttukivi—things were different.

I’m deep into a staring contest with my mirror, wondering if I can will myself into being less pathetic, when the doorbell shrills.

The bell keeps ringing until whoever’s outside simply holds down the button. I hurry down the stairs to the front door.

Siinä paha missä mainitaan.