Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Agasp tears out of me before I'm even fully conscious. Cold air is moving over me. My cheek is pressed against something warm and solid.
Where am I? What’s happening?
The grounds of Arcana Academy blur past. Wylder is running, carrying me in his arms. He has one arm under my knees and one across my back, his jaw set and his gaze fixed.
We’re moving fast enough that the wind drags at my hair. "I've got you. Just keep breathing. I’m getting you help."
I try to tell him I'm fine, but my magic surges instead. It cracks out from my sternum like a whip, completely unprompted, and I gasp and clamp down on it with everything I have.
It’s wrong. It feels completely, catastrophically wrong. It’s feral in the same way it was when Laurel had me tortured in that warehouse basement and I lost control.
It’s tearing me apart to get out, ripping through me in search of any exit.
"Something's wrong with my…" Another surge burns through me, and I grit my teeth. "Wylder…”
His arms tighten. "I know. We all felt it when you collapsed. We’re going to figure it out.”
The forge building swells in front of us.
The moment we arrive, Mica opens the door and Wylder doesn’t slow until we're through the front room and he’s setting me down on the stone floor in front of the Concordance Mirror.
My knees don't work. I'm grateful for the floor.
The mirror is right there, the carved wooden frame dark and ancient, and I look up at it.
My reflection looks back.
A half-second later than it should. Then another half-second. Then another.
Except it's worse than that now. So much worse. The reflection isn't just lagging. It's stuttering, lurching, like a film reel losing its track.
Every time my chest heaves, my reflection heaves three beats after. When I blink, my reflection's eyes stay open, staring, and then slam shut twice in rapid succession to catch up.
My magic is visible in it, crackling at the edges of my outline in the reflection like chaos arcing out of my skin.
“What’s happening to me?”
Wylder steps behind me. "It’s like before, when your affinity was breaking through the blocks.”
"But it’s already free." My hands press flat to the stone floor. Something crackles along my palms. "I don't—I can't get a hold of it. Tharuzel was messing with my affinity and now it's totally unstable."
My magic surges again—hard—and the mirror ripples.
"Poppy." Wylder crouches beside me, a hand on my back. "Breathe. Find the center of it. You’ve got to rein it in. Use the sigils."
I try. I trace the calming sigil he taught me in the beginning, focusing on the meaning and intention of each stroke of circle and line.
But when I draw a deep breath and reach inside myself, all that meets me is chaos. Untethered magic is crashing around inside me.
It has no direction, no shape, nothing of me behind it. Tharuzel took control, and now my world is spinning out, and there's nothing solid to grab.
"I can't. It's not working."
Something sparks out of my left hand. A crack of pale light hits the stone wall and leaves a scorch mark.
Asher is suddenly there, crouching in front of me. His hands grip my shoulders, his eyes wide, but his voice purposefully even. "Okay. Hey. Hi. Look at me."
"Ash—"
"I brought Dr. Thorne. He’s going to help you.”
Dr. Thorne crosses the room in quick strides. When he drops to one knee in front of me, he takes my face in his pale blue hands, tilts it up, and looks directly into my eyes. “You Hallowind girls certainly keep me busy. All right, Poppy, let’s see what the problem is, shall we?”
Whatever he sees makes something shift in his expression—sharp and clinical and urgent all at once. "How long has she been like this?"
"Ten minutes. Maybe fifteen."
He looks from me to the Concordance Mirror and back to Asher. “Take us to the Summoning Hall, and bring the mirror.”
Wylder has the mirror off the wall at the same second Asher is portaling us across campus.
My stomach drops, and for one terrifying second, my magic has nothing to push against, and it lurches outward in every direction—
And then we materialize at the Summoning Hall.
“Straight into the Destiny Sphere, gentlemen. Hurry.”
Asher hops us into the round room and lays me on the intricate pattern etched into the floor. The domed ceiling of painted stars that don't quite hold still rise above us, and I lie back.
“It’s going to be all right now,” I say, unsure if I’m convincing him or myself. “Don’t look so worried, sweetie. I’m right where I need to be. We’ll figure out everything else after.”
“Hendrix, get your ass out here so he can help her.”
Asher swallows and squeezes my hand, his eyes much too watery for my liking. “I love you, Poppy.”
“I love you more. Now, go.”
He’s gone in a flash.
Dr. Thorne’s voice comes through the intercom. “We’re just going to seal the chamber, Poppy. You remember how this works, right?”
“Yeah, do your thing, Doc.”
Another pulse of magic rolls through my chest, and I press my fist against my sternum. My scream echoes off the dome and seems to hang in the air forever.
“I know you’re in crisis, Poppy. Please try to remain calm and very still.”
I draw a deep breath and give him a thumbs up. Because really, that’s all I have to offer right now.
Magic shifts the moment he seals the chamber and activates the room. The energy around me amplifies, and the hair on my body stands on end. Then, the etched pattern in the floor begins to glow.
Everything in me wants to know what happened, how we got here, what Tharuzel did to me, but this is not my first Destiny Sphere rodeo. His readings get muddled by magical feedback if I move.
“That’s it. Close your eyes and relax.” Dr. Thorne says. “You’re doing very well, Poppy.”
A faint hum vibrates from the activated runes on the floor. They’re seeking resonance with the chaos running wild through me. The magic inside me doesn't want to be soothed. It’s panicked, churning, restless, rolling through my chest, arms, and legs, searching for a way out.
Every few seconds a massive surge shoves against the inside of my ribs. My fingers curl and I clench my teeth. I want to pull it in, to wrestle with it, to do something—
But I keep my eyes closed and try to remain still.
“You’ve got this, baby girl. Happy thoughts. Cheeseburgers, and onesies, and Marvel movie marathons, and snuggling on a Sunday morning.”
As Asher recaps my list of favorite things, hot tears slide out of my closed eyes and drip down into my ears.
The chamber is doing what it’s supposed to do, and I know it works. I’ve been here before, both for myself and with Violet. I’m exactly where I need to be.
The runes beneath me hum in steady pulses, working their way up through my body. My magic lurches, disorganized and frantic.
“Breathe, Hallowind. Trace the sigils in your mind and breathe.”
I follow Wylder’s advice and focus on the sigils he taught me for calming my energy. I keep my eyes shut, my hands flat against the floor, and focus on box breathing.
In for the count of five. Hold for five. Out for five…
The warmth of the runes climbs my shoulders. My magic is still chaotic, but the room is drawing the excess outward, pulling the overflow away from my core like a tide going out.
I continue to breathe through it and stay still.
“That’s it, Poppy,” Dr. Thorne says. “Almost there.”
I continue to focus on breathing, envisioning the calming sigil in my mind, tracing the intricate lines and curves with my mind’s eye… until things quiet inside me.
"All right, Poppy. You're free to move."
I open my eyes and sit up.
The runes on the floor have gone dim again, leaving only their outlines carved into the stone. I flex my fingers and reach for my affinity.
It’s muted but still there.
Thank the Goddess. I’d worried that Tharuzel’s meddling had overloaded me so badly that my affinity would be burned up entirely.
The desperate drowning quality of it has eased, but the potential for chaos is still there.
The moment the seal of the chamber unlocks, Asher rushes in and helps me off the floor. Then, I’m locked in his arms and he’s squeezing the air out of me. “I’m sorry. I’m supposed to keep you safe, but I didn’t know how to stop that… or fix it… or how to help you.”
I squeeze him tight and then ease back. “You got me here, didn’t you? Wait. How did you get me here?”
He shrugged. “I portaled you and Wylder. I wasn’t sure I could do it, but I made it to the standing stones at the house and then Wylder got us through to Arcana.”
“Yeah, so quit hogging her.” Wylder is standing beside us, glaring at Asher. “You’re not the only one who was scared shitless.”
“Yep, sorry.” Asher turns me and gives me a nudge toward Wylder’s open arms.
Wylder’s hug isn’t anything like Asher’s. He’s gentle with me, tentative. “You gotta stop scaring us like that. I swear my heart was about to beat out of my chest.”
I give him a squeeze, breathe him in, and press my forehead to his. “I will try never to do that again, but since I have no idea how we got to this point or what happened, I can’t guarantee it.”
“Well, that can’t be right.” Dr. Thorne is frowning at his computer screen, murmuring to himself.
That can't be good.
The three of us exit the chamber and join him.
I peer over his shoulder, unable to make sense of the graphs and waves on the screen. “What can’t be right? What do you see?”
Wylder leans in to study whatever is on the screen, and the furrow of his brow tells me that he sees something I don’t.
Dr. Thorne turns and looks at me for the first time.
"What?" I ask. "Is it bad?"
“No. Not bad.” He turns my hands palm-up and studies the faint traces of light still visible beneath my skin. "It's actually quite incredible. You have a second affinity emerging."
The words land strangely in my mind. "A second affinity? Is that a thing?"
“Do you remember your first assessment, when the result came back provisional?”
I do. It was just another thing that set me apart from the others. Another question mark to loom over me.
"Well, along with your spirit affinity, there is something else. Whatever you just suffered…” He looks from me to the guys.
“Tharuzel possessed her and manipulated her power.” Wylder’s words are careful, and he doesn’t look at me.
Dr. Thorne nods, leaning forward to look into my eyes.
“And if you fought his influence the way I expect you did, that would be enough to trigger the emersion.
That is why you felt so catastrophically out of control.
Two affinities occupying the same space, neither able to settle, pushing against each other. "
"Two affinities." Wylder looks as confused as I feel.
"Two," Dr. Thorne confirms, already shifting his position, placing one hand between my shoulder blades and one at my sternum.
"I need you to relax now. I'm going to direct the flow of the second affinity and help it settle into place alongside your spirit magic. It will feel strange. Don't fight it."
"Define strange."
"Poppy." His voice is patient but firm. "Relax."
I drop my shoulders and breathe.
His magic builds carefully, not forceful the way Tharuzel's was—nothing like that—but deliberate, precise, like he’s rearranging something delicate inside me.
It’s a bit like he’s untying a knot, separating the threads of power. The spirit magic I know well. The shape of it is familiar, silvery-blue and cool.
The second affinity is different. Warmer. Rougher at the edges. It resists being moved at first, then slides into place beside the spirit magic.
The chaos quiets.
It’s not total silence or stillness… but it’s manageable. It feels ordered, like two vehicles finally driving in their own lanes, no longer cannibalizing each other or clashing for space.
I exhale, and the sound comes out longer than I expect it to.
"There." Dr. Thorne steps back. "Better?"
I press a hand to my sternum, and the electric scramble that's lived there since I woke in Wylder’s arms is gone. "Yeah. A lot better. Thank you."
I take a moment to breathe.
Then I make the mistake of reaching for it.
I just want to know what it is. The second affinity, sitting warm and unfamiliar next to everything I recognize. I reach toward it to test it, to brush it enough to feel the shape of it—
It explodes outward.
Every crystal panel in the room blazes white. The floor pattern ignites, every line at once, and the heat that rolls through me is enormous and instantaneous.
I don't even have time to make a sound before the light ignites and I’m swallowed again.