Page 171 of Emylia

She was a healer.

The best.

She hadn’t just earned the rank of high healer in her early twenties—she’d rewritten what was possible. And now I understood why.

She used magik.

Emerald eyes narrowed on me as she stepped closer, testing the space between us. Her fingertip brushed my skin… and she recoiled instantly, cursing.

“You’ve taken too much. You need to expel some of it.”

“Or what?”

She hesitated.

“Or what?” Maalikai echoed.

“If she doesn’t release it… the power will devour her.”

“Shit,” Sebastian muttered, now beside me, careful not to touch me. “What do we do?” he asked.

“There’s nothing we can do,” my mother said. “She has to do this on her own.”

I forced myself to stand. The magik inside me was too much. I could feel it—swirling like liquid lightning behind my ribs, through my veins. In every molecule inside my body.

I closed my eyes and tried to summon the lightning.

Nothing.

I tried again.

Still nothing.

“Think back,” Mom urged. “When you unleashed your powers before—what triggered it?”

“We were being attacked. I was furious.”

“Okay. Your powers are tied to emotion. Any powerful emotion will do.”

I tried—anger, fear, desperation. But all of them fizzled.

“It’s not working,” I whispered, the panic rising. “I can’t—I can’t do it.”

“Emylia, look at me.” Her voice cut through the chaos. “You are the daughter of the most powerful wielder in existence. Don’t fear your power. Command it.”

But the smoke was already swirling around me, clinging to my skin. The storm was already rising.

I was out of time.

This was it.

I looked at her. At Sebastian. At Maalikai. My heart fractured, the truth rising in my chest like a scream.

Tendrils of destruction had reached my limbs, inking through me like they had a mind of their own. Fire brandished my skin, feeling like the calm before a volcano erupted. If the molten that swam through my veins did’t find a way out, it would burn through my body, cindering me to ash. If I didn’t get a hold of this power and expel it, this would be my last couple of minutes, if that.

Nothing.Still nothing.

I was going to die.

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