“It was sigil based.” As a tietäjä, Mom’s power comes from knowing the synty—the cause or origin—of something. If a tietäjä knows the synty of a thing, they can control it.

“Maybe I can come up with a counterspell,” Aysha says.

“You really think you can outspell my mom?”

“Worth a shot.” Aysha shrugs then closes her eyes, starting to hum.

I chew on my nails, already bitten to the quick, wondering if this is yet another disastrously bad decision. Mom asked me not to make more trouble. Morgan, Hannah, Natalie—they could all die, and I absolutely don’t want to be the reason they do because I distracted my mom from her efforts to save them. Mom was right, I’ll only get in the way and make things worse.

“Wait, we shouldn’t do this.”

“Urgh, what now?” Ekaterina rolls her eyes.

“My parents are handling this. We should let them do what they need to and not get in their way.”

Useless, worthless, pathetic—yup, that’s me.

“Are you serious?” Aysha glares.

“We stayed home once before and look how that turned out,” Ekaterina says. “We’re not going to sit back anymore, so if you want to stay, fine. We’re going.”

“Not without Taika,” Aysha says.

“Why?” A dozen different emotions fizz inside me. “It’s not like I can do anything anyway.”

“Are you kidding?” Aysha stares. “You figured out how to summon Natalie. You spoke to her. You found the stones and spoke to the hiisi and then the forest and—”

“And you really must be dense if you think all of that is nothing,” Ekaterina chips in, her words harsh but her mouth pulling up into an actual grin this time.

What is happening? Am I dreaming? I give myself a pinch to be sure, but I’m definitely awake and these two aren’t being awful to me.

I’m waiting for the voice in my head to chime in, but it stays silent and in the quiet, new thoughts begin to form. As much as it sucks to admit, I think Aysha and Ekaterina might actually be right.

I spoke to the liekkiö and Natalie asked for my help. I did come up with the summoning spell and it was me who spoke to the hiisi and the trees. And more than that, that time with the bogle and when Morgan healed Aoife, I was the one who came up with helpful rune suggestions.

So, I might not be able to cast spells or put any power into sigils, but that doesn’t mean I’ve got nothing to contribute. Maybe I’m not Taika the Talentless all the time.

“But if you’re too afraid to actually do something when you can, then you can stay here,” Ekaterina says.