I scan the ground, careful where I put each foot. No marks or anything obvious. I walk a little farther and spot a glowing box. It’s small and metal. I step closer and am warmed in a gust of heat radiating off it. I stuff the tracker away and squat, an odd sensation wrapping around me. Something isn’t right.

I fire streams of magic at the box to see if it’s armed. But it just glows brighter.

“Perdch yee’me.” The destroy spell shoots from my fingertips and I brace for the shatter, but the box doesn’t even crack. What kind of sorcery is this? My arms are boiling, but I lock my elbows and say the spell again, more forcefully this time. My magic, a string of light, fizzes between me and the curious box like a tether.

“Rue?” Bri’s voice is muffled, and I tell myself to turn around, but the orange box captivates. I can’t tear my eyes away.

“Go back,” I say in my head, but my lips don’t move. I’m drawn to it like a magnet. Everything is heavy and thick, and sounds are dull. I blink, but my body moves in a wave like I’m underwater.

Look away. My neck stiffens. I can’t. Look away!

The light.

The box.

It’s all I see.

Closer. I step or am pulled or something. Light crackles from my fingertips, streaming to its metal edge. I’m close, so close. Warmer than before. Touch it. I lick my lips in anticipation.

Take it.

Hold it.

Desire whispers to me and my fingers brush its lid and tingle. Words are a haze. A muffled voice behind me speaks.

A tickling sensation coats my hand and skitters up my arm. Sound reason breaks through the spell. Move away, Rue! My feet don’t answer.

I’m fixated, stuck, frozen, when a gush of something washes over me. My wrists teeter from hot to cold, like my magic is short-circuiting. Everything’s woozy and panic flutters through me, my knees feeling wobbly. I try to shout but my lips won’t open, like I’m in a nightmare I’m desperately trying to wake from.

I try to tug my magic away, but it’s leashed to the box, siphoning inside it in a funnel. My knees buckle completely. I hit the ground hard, pain shooting up my legs. I try to lift my arm, to scurry myself away, but everything is heavy, so heavy. I burn all over and spot the edge of my cuff peeling away from my skin.

This box is sucking the… life… no, the magic… out of me.