Page 128 of Into the Isle

I knocked on her door, and when she opened, I blew by her into the room. “I’m sorry to bug you like this.”

“Whoa, babe, you look frazzled and dazzled.”

I nodded, biting my lip so hard I thought it would bleed. “I am. Your girl is both frazzled and dazzled.”

“What’s up? I’m guessing the runeshaping test.”

“Bingo.” My eyes implored her. I was ready to go on my knees to beg. “Have you heard any intel about what we’re up against? I need to be able to prepare.”

“Actually, I have.”

A glimmer of hope shot through me. I hurried to her, taking her hands in mine. I assumed I looked like a manic maniac when I looked at her, based on how she widened her eyes at me like I’d lost the plot.

Randi took her hands away, went to her desk—which was much cuter than mine and plastered with stickers—and pulled out a piece of paper from her bag. She grabbed a pencil and started drawing lines on it.

I watched her drawing intently, and when she was finished, I asked, “What am I looking at?”

“The grounds for the test,” she said. “At least, um, according to my brother.”

It was bullshit I couldn’t go to my brother for help with something like this. He was content with letting me sink or swim on my own. Eirik was too much of a stickler for the rules to potentially get in trouble by helping me.

Randi, though? She was a rebel at heart. Down for the cause.

My eyes glittered when I looked at the crude drawing. It looked like a hallway, with two circles on either end.

She tapped the circles. “One of these is where the initiate will stand. At the end of the hall, lifted from some kind of stone or something like that, will be a torch. You aren’t allowed to move from your position on the other side of the room. And you have to put out the fire without touching it.”

I inhaled sharply. It was very specific directions. I had no idea how to accomplish such a feat.

“That’s the test,” she added, then grimaced guiltily. “Unless they changed it since last year.”

“Shit.”

“That’s all I got, Ravin.” She gave me her most hopeful shrug.

“No, no, you did great,” I said, patting her on the back. “Thank you, Ran. I feel like I can work with this.”

Her weave bobbed on her shoulders when she lurched. “You can? Uh, because the only way I see to pass this test is to whip some water at it, toss an icicle, or blow wind strong enough that it puts the fire out. All of those require runeshaping, babe.”

I nodded slowly. Furrowed my brow, thinking hard. “You said we can’t move, and we can’t touch the flame?”

“Correct.”

I let out a hum. Turning from the page, I started pacing her room, in front of her messy bed. I absentmindedly noticed a three-pack of condoms on her nightstand, and when she saw my eyes fall on them, she let out a little squeal.

“Shit!” she cried out, and hurried over to block my view, as if I had stumbled upon her watching hardcore porn. “You weren’t supposed to see those. I didn’t expect you to barge in like that.”

“Randi—”

“It’s not Ulf!” she interjected, completing her word vomit.

I settled my hands on her shoulders. “Girl. Babe. Bestie. I don’t care. I’m not your mom. Just because I don’t like a guy doesn’t mean you have to dislike him too. We’re in supernatural college. I think we’re all allowed to get a little weird. I mean, if you knew half the stuff I was getting into . . .”

Randi’s eyes bulged. “Wait, what?”

“Never mind.”

“No way!”

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