Page 151 of The Fifth Heir

This was not a random failure.

The conclusion steadied me more than it frightened me. Accidents had no intention to read. Sabotage did. Whoever reversed the channels had wanted the elements driven inward—and expected the result to be blamed on me.

Someone had built the demonstration to feed all four elements into me.

“Malcolm,” I said.

He looked through the barrier.

“The repairs are backward.”

His gaze dropped to the channels.

“No.”

“They reverse the return flow.”

“The runemasters tested them.”

“They tested simulated power. Not four live elements.”

The distinction had been his argument before the demonstration.

His face changed.

The headmaster heard me. “Can you restore the original flow?”

“Not from outside the containment.”

“What can be done from inside?”

I examined the pattern.

The four elemental channels ended at my rune. Their original return lines had been cut. The outer ring still had the capacity to absorb power, but no direct path reached it.

I would have to create one.

“Tell the others to stop resisting,” I said.

Torren stared at me. “No.”

“Fighting the pillars increases the pressure.”

“You want us to let them drain us?”

“For a few seconds.”

“No.”

“Torren.”

His Fire circle flared.

“I promised to help keep you alive.”

“Then trust me again.”

We had stood on opposite sides of a burning bridge when he made that choice the first time. Now Fire was being torn out of him, and trusting me required him to stop fighting the thing trying to hurt us both.