The trees sway, sending another wave of sap-scented air across the glade. Then a branch extends like a finger and grazes my cheek and the itch in my palms becomes a full-body tingle.

“You’re a Turunen,” the hiisi says. “For centuries, your family has been protecting that which is most sacred, that which is most powerful.”

“The Sampo?”

“Indeed. Your ancestors asked for our help, little one. Mervi understood what was at stake. We pledged our lives to protect the Sampo, to uphold the balance, to maintain order in the universe and defeat those who would upend it.” The hiisi’s voice creaks with such sorrow, I can’t help the tears prickling my eyes. “We never believed there’d come a time when we could fail.”

“How are you failing?” I get to my feet and take tentative steps toward the tree. The trunk, also a leg, is covered in several nasty gashes. The sap I’m smelling isn’t sap at all, but the hiisi’s blood. Some asswipe hurt it.

“We aren’t strong enough,” the hiisi says. “We can no longer defend ourselves from our enemies.”

“You mean the chaos mage?”

“There is more than one,” the hiisi says, and my chest draws tight, my stomach doing somersaults.

I can’t keep denying what’s becoming painfully obvious. The Order of Louhi—all this time I thought it was a thing of the past, but the Order must still be active, so there could be a dozen mages searching for the Sampo! And kidnapping magical kids? But how could snatching Natalie and the others help the Order in their hunt for the Sampo? Slowly, the puzzle pieces slot into place: the Svalbard break-in, the Sampo not being there—the Sampo being here, protected by hiidet beyond the tonttukivi, Natalie and the others kidnapped and taken to the stones.

I study the injury on the tree. A sigil part chaos star and part rune I’ve never seen before has been carved into the bark. Golden-pink sap leaks from the wound, running like tears down the hiisi’s leg.

“What does this mean?” I touch the sigil before removing my scarf and gently binding the cuts on the hiisi’s shin. If only I could do more.

“The darkest of spells,” the hiisi says. “A spell that cleaves and tears asunder. They will stop at nothing to get what they want.”

“Where is the Sampo? How do we stop them from getting it?” I ask.

“With our help, Mervi broke the Sampo. Eight shards hidden in eight sacred glades,” the hiisi says. “Once they have the shards, they will make it whole. It will be the end of everything.”

The end of everything. No more parents, no more school, no more Natalie or Morgan or even Finland. It doesn’t seem possible things could just—end.