Lara nudged her with her boot, flipping Dani onto her back. Dani wheezed, “Are we done with the crazy supervillain monologue portion of the proceedings?”

Lara hissed and slapped Dani across the cheek, which stung, but then followed by holding her palm inches away from Dani’s face. A look of angry concentration twisted Lara’s features and Dani could feel her strength being sucked away, like water down a drain. She could see it being pulled out of her body in a thick golden thread, and into Lara’s hand.

“You’re not better than me. You don’t know what’s coming.”

Lara stopped the drain, shaking off her hand as if it burned. Dani panted, attempting to prop herself up on her elbow, only to flop back on the ground. “Oh, you’re right, you’re not even a supervilllain. I only warrant a half-competent minion to bump me off. I think that hurts my feelings.”

Lara growled and subjected Dani to another painful bleeding of her life’s energy. Dani sagged to the grass, rasping out a breath. Dani had never been subjected to anything like it. She could feel her will to live, her very soul, being sucked away. She didn’t even know it was possible. Was Lara going to use what she was taking from Dani to rip the rift even further? Was she going to weaponize Dani’s life force?

Panic turned Dani’s insides to ice. She couldn’t move to stop Lara as she gathered more and more from Dani’s body. Tears leaked out the corners of Dani’s eyes and onto the grass. Her whole body hurt, even her hair. She wasn’t going to make it out of this clearing. She would never see Zed again or tell him she was sorry and that of all the people she’d ever met, she loved him best. She wouldn’t get to say goodbye to her family or Jillian or Clarissa. She’d never get to apologize to Ivy Portenoy for suspecting her of murder.

And she was going to have to accept that very soon. Because Lara couldn’t take fuel from a dead battery.

If Dani had a hard time moving before, now, the effort to force air through her vocal cords to speak seemed Herculean. And yet, this bitch had fat shamed her, so it was worth it.

“Your work is shit,” Dani panted. “If it was any good, I wouldn’t have been able to fix it so quickly. You need to stop working so hard to be flashy and put some intent behind what you’re doing, you weak ass wannabe.”

“You shut your mouth.”