"Bond surge!" another voice cried. "He's going critical!"
"No," Lucien whispered, his face pale. "That's not a surge. That's a siphon."
I looked closely. The magic wasn't just exploding out—it was beingpulled. Dragged out of him by an invisible force. The boy’s face was grey, his eyes rolling back in his head. He was seizing.
"He's dying," I realized. "His core is being drained."
The students around him were backing away, terrified. The green-pinned students were already running, shouting for Enforcers.
But the Enforcers wouldn't get there in time.
"Lina, wait," Rhett grabbed my arm as I surged forward. "It's a trap. It has to be."
"I don't care," I wrenched my arm free. "He's dying, Rhett!"
I ran.
I sprinted across the grass, ignoring the shouting students. "Move! Get out of the way!"
I slid to my knees beside the boy. Up close, the smell of ozone and burnt sugar was overpowering. His skin was burning hot.
"Help," he gasped, his voice thin. "It hurts. It... pulls."
I grabbed his hands.
The moment skin touched skin, I felt it. The Vacuum. The Pull.
It was the same sensation I had felt in Marrow's office, but magnified a thousand times. Something—something—was latched onto this boy's magical core, sucking him dry like a juice box.
"Lina!" Kai shouted, running toward me with Rhett and Lucien.
"Don't touch me!" I yelled back. "It's contagious! Stay back!"
I looked at the boy. If I didn't stop this, he would burn out. He would become a shell.
I am a battery,I thought.I accept. I store. I stabilize.
I closed my eyes and opened the floodgates of my own core.
Usually, I pulled magicin. That was my gift. I took the Triad's overflow and held it.
But now, I had to be a shield.
I visualized a lightning rod. I wasn't here to store the energy; I was here to divert it.
NO,I commanded.GROUND.
I grabbed the siphon-thread—the invisible straw sucking the life out of him—and I slammed it downward. I didn't break the connection; I redirected it. I shoved the parasitic line straight into the earth beneath the Quad.
The grass around our knees instantly turned black, singed by the sudden discharge. But the line snapped, starved of its target.
The backlash was instant.
The vacuum roared—a sound of frustration that echoed in my mind. The siphon snapped back, whipping around wildly before dissolving into nothingness.
The boy gasped, his body arching as his magic rushed back into him. The pink light stabilized, softening to a gentle glow. He slumped against me, unconscious but breathing.
I sat there, panting, my hands trembling.
