Power unlike anything I've ever felt before floods me.

And it keeps flooding me, as more and more of the purple smoke escapes the orb and finds its way to me.

The cuffs activate, trying to punish me for using magick, but I hardly feel the pain.

The energy thrumming through me feels too damn good.

I shut my eyes and become instantly hyper-aware of every bit of magick in this room.

Dubois's golden obedience sigil, hovering in the air right behind me.

The chancellor's half-finished obedience sigil, suspended in front of me.

The cuffs, sending out irritating shockwaves.

With the immense power thrumming through me, all I have to do is imagine the cuffs opening and falling away.

They clatter to the floor, behind me, freeing my arms.

Then I repeat what I did in the Port Ashford Redwoods, the last time Dubois attempted to use a sigil on me.

I pull on all the golden strings surrounding the sigils, then let them snap back into place.

Both sigils vanish.

Another round of gasps fills the room, and I open my eyes.

Time has no meaning in this river of energy, but I sense only a second has passed.

The chancellor's staring at me, eyes wide with horror.

Caelum's got a different look on his handsome face. Awe.

A purple glow's shimmering across their clothes, and I realize... I'm the one glowing.

The Aether dances all along my body, sinuously wrapping itself around my limbs and torso.

It's singing a beautiful song, and I lean into it, my whole body humming with it.

"I have to stop this!" The chancellor has gone ashen, and she's pointing her wand at me.

"What are you doing?" Chloe says from behind me, her voice full of fear.

"Severing her connection." The chancellor's moving the wand, and another high-pitched tone resonates through me as she begins to build a new sigil.

This sigil is bad. Wrong.

If I let her complete it, it'll end in my death.

I need more power to defend myself.

The amount of Aether inside me's only a fraction of what's still in the orb.

I jump to my feet—all my pain long gone—and I seem to be lightning fast while everyone else is stuck in slow motion.

I take a few quick steps, positioning myself directly beneath the floating orb.

I raise my hands high, calling the rest of the Aether to me.

Protect me.

It begins to flow to me even faster, wrapping around me, until the entire room and everyone in it is glowing from it.

From me.

Chloe and Dubois are saying something, but I can't hear them over the high-pitched, beautiful song the Aether's singing.

It vibrates through my body, filling up every cell.

The chancellor is nearly done with her new sigil.

I can see it plainly now, floating in the air in front of me. It's an intricate geometric symbol, woven from gold strings.

It pulses sickly, every edge glinting sharp as a blade.

Then it's flying through the air, coming straight for me.

I attempt my trick—snapping the golden strings to get it to vanish—but all it does is slow it down.

I can't let it touch me!

My heart rate skyrockets, and I stumble back a few steps.

Help.

I reach for the remaining Aether above me, and powerful thunder echoes through room and rattles the windows and walls.

Everyone's covering their ears as if they're in pain.

But I'm not in pain.

It's beautiful.

It's the sound of the last of the Aether singing as it leaves the orb and integrates with all that I am.

The chancellor's waving her wand frantically.

Her sigil picks up speed again, hurtling straight for me.

I raise my hands, as if they can shield me from the deadly magick.

A flash of bright white light erupts from my palms, blinding me.

When my vision clears, the sigil's gone.

Dubois and Chloe are to my right, staring at me slack-jawed.

The chancellor still has her wand raised in my direction, but she's not moving anymore.

Caelum seems stunned as the purple glow dances across his face—the light still emanating from me, brighter than ever.

"Evacuate!" the chancellor yells. "We must sound the alarm—get everyone out—before she loses control!"

A giggle bubbles up in my throat.

I don't know what she's talking about.

I am in complete control.

I feel amazing. The power dancing through me makes me feel so awake, so alive.

It's better than any drug.

Far better than my ADHD medication.

I've never been better in my entire life.

But they're all fleeing anyway.

The chancellor, Caelum, Dubois, and Chloe. They're running away from me like the cowards they are.

Only Chloe looks back, and there's naked fear on her face.

"I'm sorry," she says. Then she's gone too.

I don't know why she's sorry. I'm not.

This is what I always wanted, isn't it? To be free. To finally have some power. To fight back and finally win.

I smile and close my eyes, swaying to the Aether's song, filled with more bliss than I've ever known.

An alarm blares from the walls, rudely snapping me out of my reverie.

They need to shut that shit off!

I hold my hands over my ears, but I can't block it out. It's like it's inside my head.

It's grating, dissonant with the Aether's song. Awful, irritating, relentless. Worse than the fire drills at my old school.

It sounds like a goddamn...

Siren.

You're a murderer.

Worthless. Unlovable. Trash.

They all left you here to die.

A sick feeling roils through me, and I wobble on my feet, suddenly dizzy.

I'm too hot. Sweat's streaming down my forehead. I can taste the salt of it on my lips.

Something's not right.

I raise my arms, attempting to draw more of the Aether so I can feel better again.

But the orb has vanished, and the purple smoke's gone.

Because I already took it all.

I suck in a shaky breath, wipe my forehead, and stare down at my hands.

A vivid purple glow shimmers and dances across my skin.

My hands start to shake, and bile creeps up my throat. Between the alarm and the light, I think I might puke.

I take a few deep breaths to calm myself and close my eyes, trying to tune out the alarm so I can go back to the blissful state I was in a few seconds ago.

The Aether's still singing a symphony. I just need to focus on it.

And then I can feel good again.

My jaw feels like it's wired shut, and an awful pressure is building behind my eyes.

What's... happening?

"Aether is highly lethal." Arielle's words at the Hall. "All four Guardians must work in perfect unison to control the Aether, or the outcome could be fatal."

What have I done?

Electric pain cascades through me, and I let out a scream and fall to floor. It's worse than the cuffs, worse than a hundred blood pacts doling out their torture.

The Aether's song is growing louder and louder, competing with the school alarm.

"Please stop," I whisper.

But, of course, it doesn't.

It's part of me now.

I begin to sob again as the song grows even louder.

The Aether's snaking through me, and I'm on fire, being carved up internally, burned alive.

I'm on my hands and knees now, dry heaving.

It's chewing through my organs, eating through my bones.

It's worse than anything I've ever felt—and growing worse by the second.

The intensity of the Aether's song is rising in pitch.

There's nothing beautiful about it now. It's a monster, raking its claws across metal.

A monster, unfurling inside me, feeding off me like a parasite.

Eating me alive so it can become powerful enough to escape.

That's what it wants.

To escape.

It's like before, when I was in the ocean. All that power was filling me up, and I knew I had to let it go to survive.

I'm curled up on the floor, sobbing in pain from the relentless torture.

I have to let the Aether go.

Then maybe... maybe I'll survive this.

I roll onto my back, panting as I stare up at the Redwood canopy through the dome.

Let it go. I have to let it go. But how?

My head's pounding in time with the Aether's song and the awful siren whine of the alarm.

The evacuation alarm the chancellor set off.

To get everyone out of here before I "lose control."

Oh my God.

The power destroying me from the inside is stronger than the magick I held in the ocean—far stronger than the magick I let go of that instantly killed Amanda. That killed all the living creatures in my vicinity.

How many students will die if I let the Aether go now?

I have to keep it inside me as long as I can.

To give everyone enough time to escape... from me.