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“You’re free to leave,” Revna said. “Actually, I’d feel more comfortable if you weren’t here.”

“The feeling is mutual.” Blár rolled a cherry between his thumb and forefinger, then twisted the stem. “But if I leave, then Kolfinna will be taken to the underworld with the rest of your demon lackeys. She’s surprisingly gullible.”

Revna’s forehead creased and she tilted her head to the side in confusion, while a blush stained Kolfinna’s cheeks. Not that story about Gertrude being eaten by demons.

“You’re free to leave at any time,” Revna said. “In fact, why don’t you? You can explore the rest of the house and maybe have a seat in another room. Or maybe take a bath. Or”—she motioned to the pile of blankets in the corner of the room—“maybe you can take a nap?”

“Maybe you should,” Kolfinna added. “You look like you’re about to fall asleep anyway.”

He bit into the cherry and pulled it away, picked at the seed, and let it drop on his plate with aplinkbefore popping the rest of it in his mouth. He fixed her with a level gaze. “Maybe I will.”

“Humans are not to be trusted,” Revna said to Kolfinna under her breath, but by the way Blár was now glowering at Revna, Kolfinna surmised he had heard her. “I don’t know what you see in him.”

“He’s—” She swallowed, unable to form the words.

The chair screeched behind him as he rose to his feet. His nostrils flared and he loosened the collar of his uniform. Kolfinna forgot to breathe as his deep blue eyes shifted to a tightened, icy glare. But this time, it wasn’t aimed at her. He swept past them and went to his pile of blankets.

“Wake me up when you figure out how to get us out of here,” he called out to Kolfinna, sinking into the floor and wrapping himself up. It was hard to take him seriously as he flopped over, baring his back to them. “Or when we decide to kill this hag.”

Revna’s eyes narrowed to slits.

“B-Blár!” Kolfinna winced, a tingling sensation spreading from her chest, neck, and finally across her face. She turned to Revna, who was glaring at him like a hawk eyeing its prey. “He didn’t mean that! I’m so sorry. He’s just rude sometimes.”

“Don’t apologize to her,” he called from his position.

“Go to sleep!” Kolfinna hissed.

“Gladly.”

Minutes ticked by and he remained silent, so Kolfinna took that as her cue to return to training. She held the spoon higher, examining the glimmering runes. “So,” she said, “these runes don’t ever disappear?”

“They’ll eventually weaken with time since your mana won’t last forever.” Revna pointed to the runes. “You can also erase runes. Use your magic to overpower the rune and break it. You can only break it if your mana is more powerful than the rune magic. This is a simple rune and I only put a little bit of my power into it, so even you should be able to break it. Try it.”

How was she supposed to overpower it? The more Kolfinna stared, the more her stomach stirred nervously. Revna’s eyes darkened and she stopped moving, staring solely at the spoon in Kolfinna’s hand, but nothing happened.

When it became obvious that Kolfinna didn’t know what to do, Revna huffed and motioned to the spoon impatiently. “Look at the rune magic and imagine your mana circling around it, grasping it tightly, and then shattering it. Your mana must become a chain to squeeze and crumble the runes. Try it,dear.”

Kolfinna’s eyebrows came together and she stared intently at the spoon, willing the runes to disappear. The seconds blurred together and her fingers ached from clenching the handle too tightly. Finally, she shook her head. “It’s not working.”

“Use your imagination.”

“But I can’t even feel my mana.”

“It’s in there.” The lines around Revna’s mouth tightened. “Dig deep.”

“But—”

“Try.”

Kolfinna chewed her lower lip and squeezed her eyes shut, the spoon singeing her fingers with its heat. She had never had a teacher other than Katla, and even then, because Kolfinna’s magic had exceeded hers, Katla had only been able to show her the basics. Having someone breathing down her neck and watching her carefully made her skin prickle, as if a worm was crawling beneath her flesh.

She reached deep within herself for her mana but felt nothing. She tried again, reaching and reaching until she finally felt a tendril of it. She gripped that tendril and worked it toward her fingers like unrolling a ball of yarn.Slowly, it spread around her hand. It wasn’t the usual rush of mana she felt, but it was something.

She thrust the inkling of her mana over the runes. Slowly, she twisted it around the runes and then squeezed it tightly as if she were knitting over the words with her mana. Tighter. And then tighter. Until finally, the runes crumbled and dissipated into gold dust. In an instant, the spoon went from hot to cold.

“I-I did it!” Kolfinna wanted to show Blár how cold the metal suddenly was, but he was fast asleep in his heap of blankets, so she turned to Revna instead. She held the spoon proudly. “Look, I did it!”

“That you did.” Revna chuckled. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”