Aysha glares at me as she drops onto her haunches. It’s hardly my fault she’s wearing white pants. The back pocket has a skull on it, stitched in black sequins.

“You sure you know what you’re doing, druid?” Ekaterina crouches down, clearly less concerned about the mud showing on her all-black attire.

“If you don’t want to be here, don’t be.” Morgan starts gouging the requisite runes into the ground with a stick.

Again, I help make sure the geometry is correct, eyeballing the angles. When that’s done, I place the containment jar and the woolen threads in the center of our circle.

“Wait, are those… You think the liekkiö is Natalie?” Ekaterina asks, gazing wide-eyed at Aysha and Sini.

“Hope not.” I don’t want to think about Natalie being a ghost, about Natalie being anything other than absolutely fine. “But if it is, this might help.”

“She’s not—she can’t be.” Sini shakes her head.

“Hey, it’ll be okay.” Aysha pulls Sini into an awkward hug. “This is just in case, right?” She glares at me, and I nod.

“It certainly can’t hurt,” Morgan adds. “Helps to focus our energy, that’s all.”

And with that we take up our positions at the five terminal points, ready for what comes next.

“But like, you do know how to do a summoning, right?” Ekaterina asks, her brow furrowed with concern.

“I just need you to channel the energy. I’ll direct it where it needs to go.” Morgan takes off his fingerless mittens and rolls up his sleeves. It’s the first time I’ve seen his tattoos. Matching Celtic knotwork in blue-black ink form thick bands around each wrist. It must’ve been so painful having those done.

The others peel off their gloves and I do the same.

“I’m scared,” Sini says. “What if we summon something we’re not supposed to?”

“I’ll zap it.” Ekaterina sends a bolt of lightning zipping into the ground.

This seemed like a good idea at first, an easy way to get information, but now I’m not so sure. What if Sini’s right and we call up something worse than a bogle? What if I’m right and what we summon is the ghost of Natalie? I’m so not ready for Natalie to be…to be—

“Don’t waste energy on the light,” Morgan says, and Aysha stops humming. The lights fizzle out, leaving us in sticky-thick darkness.

He closes his eyes and presses his hands into the wet earth beneath his knees, burying them up to the ink. The others hold their hands up as if they’re cupping water; sparks dance wildly between Ekaterina’s fingers.

Morgan begins the incantation and Aysha adds a quiet hum to the chant. I know the words of the summoning and lip sync along with Morgan.