I watch the end of the line shake, and then lurch violently to the side. It mirrors the feeling in me as a wave of panic and fear that isn't my own batters against my psyche.

"What's going on?" Rory asks, no doubt noticing the change.

"She's... I can feel her again." I look at him. "We gotta go."

Rory casts a rune and the scryer's glass dissipates. Then he sits at his desk, and steeples his fingers. "No," he says, regarding me with a look I can't parse.

Not that I need to. I'm done. Rax will forgive me if I snap his boyfriend's neck. He's gotta. He's not unreasonable.

And yet... "Why?"

"Because you need to do this alone. If I'm there, Tiana might not... she might not want to fight."

He doesn't say it, but I get it. Her guilt. The pain. She'd shut down.

"But I can't get there fast enough."

Rory ponders for a moment. "Why do you think Magisorcerers wear their uniforms?"

...Rax'll bounce back, right? "Rory, we don't have time for a history lesson. Get your fucking chime out and summon the car."

He keeps going. "They're arcane focuses. Each one has a resonator built into them, meant to amplify magic and make it more intuitive."

"Okay, but I'm not a Magisorcerer."

Rory rises from his seat. "'When a girl who is of heroic heart, who is bound by sacrifice, gives of herself to accept this magic... She shall become a Magisorcerer'. Draxus told me about that day. When you arrived, bloodied and dying. Out of nowhere, like you'd teleported straight to him."

"So what? It's a fluke. I'm magical by my very nature, but I just... I figured out how to cast the spell. That's all. Nothing else."

"And today?"

"Another fluke. That's it."

"It didn't feel like you tapped into something else? Something new that helped you when you couldn't help yourself?"

A fear that's distinctly my own grips my chest, joining the horrified pleading from Tiana. "Okay, but that doesn't mean... I'm not... I can't be a fucking Magisorcerer!"

Rory seems unmoved. "You took her into you. You accepted the magic of it. Not just then, but how many times since?"

I shake my head. Because it can't be. It just can't. "They destroyed people like me. Slaughtered them. Banished them."

"I know. I know. It's not fair. But will you let it stop you from saving her?"

I cross my arms. "It won't even work."

Rory shrugs. "Then there's no harm in saying it."

"Saying what?" I play dumb.

He stares at me, unamused. "She's still my wife, Kam. And even if she wasn't, she'd still be one of my best friends."

I grit my teeth. I've heard Tiana say the words enough times that they're engrained in my mind. Even the first time I heard them, they felt... right.

"By the power of justice and the great houses..." I say, and I feel something inside me begin to tingle. It's nerves. Fear. That's all.

This won't work. Still, I hold out my hands. "I call upon the power of granted to me by the Magisorcerers of old."

The tingling doesn't fade. It surges.

"In the name of those who need protection..."

The sensation shifts, and I feel what I felt when I was on the run. I feel power.

"To bring hope to all the hopeless..."

Inside me is a light that isn't mine. One that I don't want. Stolen from a girl who deserves it.

"I am Magisorcerer Kam!"

Pale green light cascades over my scales, taking the place of my clothes. They don't burn away. They just dematerialize. Overwritten. It's exactly like what happens with Tiana. It's not cold, or warm. It just is. It holds there, glowing so bright that I have to squint.

It's working.

It's working for me. Kamilliajora Neff. The Devouring Sin-Viper. I brace for it to fade. For the magic to realize it doesn't want me. To fizzle. When the light dims, I think that's what's happening. But no. It becomes real. Solid. Soft against my skin.

I don't believe it.

I trace a finger across the silver piping adorning my wrist. It's somehow as pliable as cloth, but it's cold and metallic to the touch. An emerald's faceted into the wrist.

I'd asked Tiana once if they were real. The gems. It feels real. Alarmingly so.

And right. It feels right.

It has to be a lie. It has to be fake. I can't be this.

But I don't have time to reckon with how fucked every part of this is. Tiana's pain stabs at me again, and I can feel the way she's fighting just to stay conscious. Just to stay in control.

And she's losing.

Which means I have to be a hero.

The emerald on my chest glows, and I feel the power focus into it. Like this, it's easy. I feel her pain and I know where she is.

It doesn't take more than a thought, and then I'm pulled away. I don't rocket through space. I'm just... there. Instantaneously. Transported to a place I shouldn't be.

A woman scrambles back, bumping into me. She screams when she sees my face, but then she notices my uniform. Her fear's replaced with confusion.

"How?" she utters, mystified. "It should be possible..."

"Fuck if I know," I say.

"Kam...?" Tiana's voice is soft, filled with longing and confusion.

I can't bear to look at her. "Hey, Tiana..."

"Is it really you?"

"It is."

"Why won't you look at me?" The tears in her voice sting, cutting at my love for her.

I coax this woman to move behind me. This close, I should feel Tiana. It should overwhelm me. "Because you're not in control."

She gives me a lopsided smirk. "Can't you just let me kill her, Kammie?"