We’re both bent over our knees, pale and shaking. I don’t know what’s happening. I’ve never felt so out of control of my magic. It feels like it’s fighting itself. Like it’s fighting me.

Static crackles as I stand upright. The room begins to shake. Doug maneuvers closer to his staff.

“Are you insane?” His eyes jump to the ceiling, where the brass candelabra is starting to sway. “Stop it, before you kill everyone in this place, including your friends!”

He stumbles as the ground heaves.

My heart slams against my ribs, the rising pressure inside me too wild to control. “I can’t. Something’s wrong.”

Magic swells inside me. It’s like there’s suddenly too much. I can’t wrap my arms around it. I breathe deep, reaching out with my mind, following the hot, electrified ends of it. I try to take hold of them, but they’re flailing. Fighting me. Digging deeper into the earth.

A map in a thick glass frame lurches off the wall. Leather-bound books wobble off the ends of their shelves. The scythe slides from its corner and smacks against the carpet. Lightbulbs pop and the room goes dark.

“Get this under control, Fleur!”

There’s a violent rattle behind me. Glass shatters as something heavy hits the floor. I shield my eyes from a flare of light. Like a swarm of angry fireflies, Gaia’s magic is loose.

Wind hurls papers, blowing books open and whipping broken glass around the room. Doug swears as the magic begins to organize into a funnel, raining plaster on our heads.

Our eyes catch under it. He shoves me, throwing me backward into the bookcase and positioning himself between me and the magic. His head tips back as if he’s drawing a breath.

“No!” I scrabble upright and kick out the backs of his knees. My only chance of getting free is to beat him to the magic.

Doug pushes onto all fours, reaching for the head of his staff. His fingers catch the sash, the knot coming loose as he pulls it closer.

The blunt handle of the staff sings through the air, striking me across the chest. The force of it sends me flying. Doug kneels over me, pinning my arms at my sides with his knees, his hand pressed to my mouth, the lights swirling behind him.

“It’s mine,” he says. “All of it.”

I can’t breathe. Can’t open my mouth to warn him that he’s making a mistake. Doug throws his head back and his lips part. I thrash as the magic descends toward him. My throat stings with the heat of a thousand suns as he breathes in the sparks. I cry out into his hand, certain we’re both dying, as he takes the magic completely inside him.