On a Razor's Edge by K. F. Breene

enough to get your point across and stay on your feet,” Stefan commanded lightly.
    Right y-o. He apparently thought I was a master at this stuff.
    I tried to remember how I did it the first time—I didn’t just pull elements; I focused on the others in the room. Then, because I couldn’t grasp the magic they held—since they held it within themselves—I envisioned them trying to hurt Stefan. Trying to direct an attack as Trek had done. As if I pulled a string from their bodies, I slowly emptied not only the room, but them, of magic.
    The warning came in a rush this time, threatening to overwhelm me. Pain lanced my body, my inner alarm blaring. I felt Stefan tug on the link, taking magic from my body, trying to balance me, but there was too much. Toa could hold a bit more than Trek. Dominicous could hold as much as Stefan. All in all, too much!
    The flood drowned me, dumped over my head and suffocated me. I felt consciousness leaving, like I had at that battle. More magic siphoned out, but even more dumped in.
    I threw my palms out. Black exploded into the room, turned the air sluggish, and then thick. Then solid. Everyone froze, not because they wanted to, but because I’d just—somehow—successfully executed the thickening spell. Really executed it, too. The only person that could move was me.
    Alarm pulsed through the link. Stefan stared at me, unable to even talk because he couldn’t move his jaw.
    “So, shit. Lemm e…shit!” I thought really hard. I’d never been able to do it, so I didn’t know how to undo it.
    I sprinted for the door , but couldn’t rip it open because of the damn air. “Crap!”
    I sprinted in the other direction, diving through the open window like James Bond, and then running so fast around the giant mansion that my legs didn’t feel like my own. I hammered down the hallway, burst through two doors, straight armed a naked dude advancing on a waiting woman wearing a blindfold, and catapulted into the correct corridor. A team of attack-dog looking men waited outside of the room I was just in. Harsh and well-trained, they were supposed to be guarding against any foul play.
    They weren’t doing a real bang-up job!
    “Anybody know how to break or stop a thickening spell?” I gasped, my sides heaving as I gulped air.
    A whole defense team of eyes turned my way. There was an awkward beat while they placed my face and comprehended my words, and then they were active. Just not in the way I had hoped.
    Three g uys reached for me immediately. I dodged out of the way and ducked under another pair of giant, groping hands. I backed against the wall and threw a protective spell around myself, not knowing any other way to keep them off while getting very important information.
    Three sets of hands kept reaching for me, apparently overconfident in their invincibility. A loud buzzing flung them away from my self-made cage.
    “So, anyway, I need help undoing a spell…” I said in a rush.
    A six-and-a-half foot block of muscle stepped in front of me. “Where is the Regional?”
    “He’s in the room still, locked in place because I turned the air solid. I need to undo that. Quickly. I’m pretty sure they can breathe, but if they can’t, we don’t have much time!”
    The man stared at me for a secon d. If I hadn’t grown used to Toa, it would have disconcerted me. He turned to someone behind him. “Break open the door.”
    “Best to try and rip it out. Air’s solid. It’s not going in…” I reminded, and then shrank against the wall as the flat-eyed stare of the large guy turned back to me.
    “How did you turn the air solid?” he asked, his deep voice thundering out of his chest.
    “Uh…with a spell…” I grimaced in a hopeful sort of way.
    Through the link, Stefan’s alarm had turned into bemused patience. The man dealt with a lot where it concerned me, and when in private, it tickled him to no end. I had no idea why, because I even flabbergasted myself. But at least he could