Then I start to feel warmth. Not from the exertion, but an internal glow.
It starts in my chest, a gentle heat that spreads through my ribs. At first, I ignore it.
But it grows…and grows.
The warmth intensifies, spreading from my chest to my shoulders, down my arms. My skin prickles. The air around me shifts, and not from my own manipulation.
Something is wrong.
I try to maintain the routine, continuing my spin, but the heat is becoming uncomfortable. My voice wavers for just a moment before I steady it with another thread of magic.
What is happening?
A beam of light explodes from me… No, not away from me but…into me.
It’s bright, almost blinding. I’m spinning on the silks, so I can’t see where it’s coming from.
But I can feel it.
It’s pulling something from me. My magic is being pulled out of me, dragged through that beam of light toward…toward…
I almost fall.
My hands slip on the silks. I scramble to catch myself, wrapping my legs tighter, gripping with every ounce of strength I have. The spin stops abruptly, jerking me to a halt. The silks twist around my body in a tangle.
The heat is unbearable now.
I groan, clenching my teeth.
I try to hold on, but my magic is failing. No. It’s not failing. It’s being taken. It’s being pulled out of me.
It hurts.
I slide down the silks. My hands burn from the friction, but I can barely feel it over the searing heat in my veins. My feet lose their grip. I’m falling, tumbling through the air in a tangle of crimson fabric.
A loop of silk catches me around the waist, stopping my fall with a jarring impact that knocks the breath from my lungs. I dangle there, suspended above the ground, unable to breathe, unable to think.
The pain is too excruciating.
It feels like my body has been doused in flames. Like my skin is melting, like my bones are turning to ash. The light is still pouring from my chest, so bright I can see it even through my closed eyelids.
Someone is screaming.
The sound is primal and filled with agony.
Then I’m screaming too. I can’t help it.
I want to turn, to see who or what is pulling this from me, but I can’t move. The pain is too much. It holds me frozen, suspended in that moment of pure, white-hot agony.
The crowd is shouting now. Their voices blend together into a roar of confusion and alarm.
“What’s happening?”
“Look at her!”
“The light!”
Their words wash over me, meaningless. All I can feel is the burning. All I can hear is my own screaming.
