Chapter 190 --190
Another surge. This one felt like it was burning through her veins. Elara’s vision whited out for a second. When it cleared, she was lying on her side on the bed, curled around the pain-that-wasn’t-pain, trembling.
The sheets under her palms were cold. That helped. Marginally.
[DURATION: 01:23:15]
An hour and twenty-three minutes.
How much longer? How much more could she—
Magic tore free.
She felt it rip out of her control like a dam breaking, flooding the room in a wave of raw power that made the dampening arrays shriek. Light blazed blue-white across the walls. The temperature dropped ten degrees in seconds as the arrays struggled to absorb the discharge.
And the heat in her body intensified immediately, as if the magic leaving had created a vacuum that demanded to be filled.
Elara heard herself make a sound—low, desperate, nothing like her normal voice. Her fingers dug into the mattress. Every nerve was on fire. Every breath felt like inhaling sparks.
"Host." The System’s voice was gentle now, worried. "You need help. Call Ken back. He can stabilize the drain, make this easier—"
"No." Elara forced the word out. "Not... with someone watching. I can’t..."
She couldn’t explain it logically. It wasn’t logical. But the thought of anyone seeing her like this—reduced to nothing but heat and need and animal responses—was worse than the pain. Worse than the magic tearing her apart.