Pain.
The burn. The blow. The way his body tenses as he takes it all.
Horror hits—sharp, cold, and absolute. I didn’t just lose control.
Ihurt him.
I let go.
The storm collapses inward, swallowed by the Elements like it was never there. The air falls eerily still. My magics retreats—silent. Immediate.
I stumble, breathless.
My body trembles from the force that just tore through me. Steam rises in ghostly tendrils from the scorched ground. The training field is wrecked—deep scars carved through the earth, embers still smoldering in the cracks where my power split it open.
And Thane is still standing.Barely.
His shirt is singed. His hair ruffled. Skin streaked with soot and sweat. A blackened scorch mark blazes across his forearm where my magics broke through. A thin line of blood trails from a cut along his ribs. His chest rises and falls in heavy, measured breaths. His fists are clenched tight at his sides.
The warding magics around him flicker—glitching,overtaxed, never meant to withstand power likethis.
And then—finally—his eyes meet mine.
Something inside me cracks open. Now that I’ve seen what I’m capable of—what it did to him—I can’t breathe.
I take a step forward, instinct screaming to go to him, to check if he’s okay, todo something.
But I freeze. Hands shaking. Chest tight. I didn’t mean to hurt him.
I never meant to.
“I—I didn’t mean—” But the words collapse in my throat. My voice wavers. My hands curl uselessly at my sides.
Thane doesn’t move. Not at first. When he finally speaks, his voice is quiet. Steady. But frayed at the edges.
“Don’t.”
One word. Firm. Final.
“This is what you’re capable of,” he says, breath shallow. “And probably more—once we train you to control it. You needed to see it.”
He takes another strained breath, wincing. “I’ll be okay.”
But he’s not. Not really.
The training wards around us flicker again, light pulsing erratically. Magics struggling to stabilize. Too much power came on too fast.
And then I vomit.
It comes fast and sudden. Maybe it’s the hangover. Maybe it’s the adrenaline draining after merging my Elemental magics. It doesn’t matter.
A hand lifts my braid. Another steadies my back.
I brace my hands on my knees and retch—again and again.
A shout echoes across the field—distant, alarmed. Footsteps follow. Heavy. Rushing.
Witnesses.
