Toivo argued and had his laptop taken too, so when Dad asked, I handed over my phone and didn’t say a word. This way at least I still have access to my downloaded playlists. I’ve been playing the one called Bad Day on repeat, turning up the volume on all the tracks by the Knock-Knock Jokes until it feels like Morgan’s drumsticks are battering my brain.

What sucks the most is not being able to message Morgan and explain why I can’t make it to Pilvitalo as agreed. Instead, I pour all my energy into studying the assortment of books I’ve got stashed under my bed and trying not to think about Natalie or the attempted kiss that messed up everything.

Half of the books I’m not even supposed to have as a ninth grader. Not that any of them have proven particularly helpful yet. None of the tomes on runelore contain anything close to what I glimpsed on Toivo’s wall. Makes sense. Chaos runes wouldn’t be in an eleventh-grade textbook.

So far, this is what I do know:

1. Chaos magic is entirely rune-based, using sigils that combine elemental runes (like what Morgan can do—I try not to think too hard about that connection).

2. Chaos magic is usually represented by a chaos star, a sigil of sorts with eight jagged points of differing lengths pointing in all different directions, but it’s entirely useless without knowing any of the base runes.

I wonder why the chaos star on Joakim’s book looked so different. Anyway…

3. Chaos magic has been used by sects or cults all over the world. In Finland, the most infamous of these is called the Order of Louhi. The Order’s emblem is a stylized chaos star with flame-like wings. The Order supposedly ceased to exist after the wars. But what if it just went dormant instead?

4. Louhi is a superpowerful witch-queen and the alleged daughter of Death itself, with all kinds of magical powers—like being able to shape-shift into the massive Kokko eagle with fire for wings. She has a serious obsession with the Sampo, which led to her having major beef with the legendary Väinämöinen.

5. The Sampo is the most powerful artifact in Finland—actually, in the whole world! No one can agree on precisely what the Sampo is. It seems to appear as different things to different people based on what they want to use it for. It’s been described as a tree, a coin, a treasure chest, a compass, an astrolabe—which was something used in the olden days to navigate by the stars—or a quern. I have no idea how a quern works, but apparently it can grind gold out of thin air. And that’s one of the Sampo’s less impressive qualities. All sources say it’s super powerful, super dangerous, and a good thing no one knows where it is.