Again she made ley line energy overflow my chi. My skin warmed, the bruise from where Algaliarept slapped me throbbing. The amperage, if you will, was a touch more than usual, and I thought that it was Ceri’s not-so-subtle encouragement to get it right this time.

“Tulpa,” I whispered, hearing it in my mind as well as my ear. The word choice wasn’t important. It was building the association between the word and the actions that were. Latin was generally used, as it was unlikely that I would say it accidentally, triggering the spell by mistake. The process was identical to when I had learned to make an instant circle. The word tulpa wasn’t Latin—it hardly qualified as English—but how often was it used in conversation?

Faster this time, the energy from the line found my enclosure and filled it. I pulled my gaze to Ceri and nodded for more. Green eyes serious in the dim light from the heat lamp on my desk, she returned it. My breath seeped out and my focus blurred when Ceri upped the level and a flash of warmth tingled over my skin. “Tulpa,” I whispered, pulse quickening.

The new force found the first. My spherical protection circle within my unconsciousness expanded to take it in. Again my focus cleared, and I nodded to Ceri. She blinked when I gestured for more, but I wasn’t going to let Al knock me out with an overload of force. “I’m fine,” I said, then stiffened when the bruised skin around my eye throbbed, burning with the sensation of a sunburn even through the pain amulet. “Tulpa,” I said, slumping as the heat vanished. See, I told my frazzled brain. It’s an illusion. I’m not really on fire.

“That’s enough,” Ceri said uncomfortably, and I pulled my chin up from my chest. The fire was gone from my veins, but I was exhausted and my fingers were trembling.

“I don’t want to sleep tonight until I can hold what he pushed into me,” I replied.

“But, Rachel …” she protested, and I raised a hand slowly in denial.

“He’s going to come back,” I said. “I can’t fight him if I’m convulsing in pain.”

Face pale, she bobbed her head, and I jerked as she forced more into me. “Oh God,” I whispered, then said my trigger word before Ceri could stop. This time I felt the energy flow like acid through me, following new channels, pulled by my word rather than finding its way to my bubble by accident. My head jerked up. Eyes wide, I stared at Ceri as the pain vanished.

“You did it,” she said, looking almost frightened as she sat cross-legged before me.

Swallowing, I pulled my legs under me so she wouldn’t see my knees tremble. “Yeah.”

Unblinking, she held her cup in her lap. “Let it go. You need to recenter yourself.”

I found my arms were wrapped around myself. Forcing them down, I exhaled. Letting go of the energy spindled in my head sounded easier than it was. I had enough force in me to throw Ivy into the next county. If it didn’t flow back to my chi and then the line using the gently seared channels that Ceri had been burning through my nervous system, it was really going to hurt.