It looks like the bear is going to win. Am I really going to stand here and watch Emmi die?

The bear rears up once more, opening its mouth to reveal long, yellow fangs. It grabs Emmi with its paws. It might’ve been giving her a hug were it not for her screams. The bear lowers its jaws and I look away. I expect to hear another crunch of bone; instead, there’s a terrible silence and then an awful, wet tearing.

I peep between my fingers and watch in disbelief as the bear slumps to the ground. Wisps of shadow peel off its fur, evaporating into nothingness. Emmi remains standing, her arm greased to the shoulder with blood. She has the bear’s heart in her hand. Bleeding and clearly tired, she gently lays the heart in the snow, tears streaking her cheeks. The heart smokes for a moment before it, too, vanishes. My heart lurches as I feel the bear’s loss like a wound opening inside of me.

Emmi’s remorseful gaze meets mine. “You don’t understand, I’m doing the right thing. I only want to give back to nature what’s been stolen from it.”

“The only ones doing any stealing are you and the rest of your order, breaking into the vault on Svalbard and kidnapping kids!” I hurl back at her.

Emmi, still crying, turns to the grove. I have to do something. I can’t let her get the Sampo shard.

The trees shudder and shiver, branches snaking out to bat at Emmi’s legs and arms. She slashes at the boughs with her blade, and the scent of sap fills the clearing. Emmi steps up to the largest trunk, which has to be the hiisi. I think I just make out its face in the snow-caked branches. Emmi raises her dagger in one hand while grabbing for Hannah with the other.

Stop her, Taika! Voices ring inside my skull—not just Natalie’s, but Manami’s and Elijah’s, Peter’s, Risto’s, Qendresa’s! A chorus yelling at me to do something, anything.

I bound across the clearing, aiming straight for Emmi.

Emmi turns and sculpts a sigil in the air. She blows the spell like a kiss. The magic hurtles into me, knocking the breath from my lungs and my legs out from under me. The spell weaves around my limbs like rope. I’ve never felt magic like this. It hurts, it hurts so much more than I can take. For a panicked moment, I wonder if there are types of magic I might not be resistant to even as I count the seconds. After fifteen, the spell loses power.

After twenty, the burning eases and the magical bonds loosen on my limbs.

Suddenly, Morgan is here and pulling me to my feet.

“You okay?” he asks, breathless.