Page 87 of Spirit Storm

Arcana Academy's recovery ward, I'd bet on it.

"She's awake."

Violet's voice is tight with relief, and then four faces crowd into my field of vision. Asher. Wylder. Lily. Violet. All of them looking at me with that particular flavor of exhausted worry that I know means they've been sitting here a while.

"Am I dead?" My voice comes out rougher than I'd like.

Asher laughs. "Alive, baby girl. Very much alive. You just powered up." He drops into the chair closest to the bed. "Congratulations, by the way. Second affinity. Very dramatic reveal, ten out of ten."

I push myself up onto my elbows and immediately notice the change. There’s a pressure, low and dense, sitting inside both ears like they need to pop.

I work my jaw experimentally, but nothing happens.

I try again. Still nothing.

I look past Asher to where Wylder is standing at the foot of the bed. He has his arms crossed, and that carefully neutral expression he wears when he's been frightened and is pretending to be holding it together. "Have you ever heard of someone developing a second affinity?"

He exhales slowly and unfolds his arms. "Developing one, no. Most witches with multiple affinities manifest them all at once. The thing is, when that happens, the affinities share the available power. Each one ends up weaker than it would be if a witch only had the one."

“So, half my power will go to spirit magic and half to the new one?”

“Historically, yes, but Dr. Thorne's working theory is that yours don't share. He thinks each of your affinities has its own full measure of power, independent of the other."

I let that settle. "And that's what caused the chaos?”

"Yes. Two fully powered affinities occupying the same space, neither yielding to the other." He meets my gaze and shrugs. “The mechanics of it arriving months after the first are a mystery. It’s different from anything on record. He's being careful about drawing conclusions."

"Where is he now?"

"Reaching out to other practitioners. Anyone who might have seen something close to this before."

I work my jaw again. The pressure sits there, fat and stubborn, completely unmoved by my efforts.

Violet squeezes onto the edge of the bed and Lily appears on my other side, and I stop thinking about my ears long enough to register that they both look like they've been crying.

I sit up fully and hold both hands out, one to each of them. "I'm okay. I just needed an extremely inconvenient and unplanned reboot. I'm good now."

"You didn't wake up." Lily's voice is smaller than usual. "They kept saying you would and you just—didn't."

"Until I did." I look between them, these two faces I'd burn down anything to protect. "I'm here now and I’m okay.”

Lily lets out a watery laugh and squeezes back hard. "I was so jealous of you guys getting your affinities. Now, I’m not so sure I want mine."

"It’ll be fine. By the time yours comes, we’ll have it all figured out." I release Lily's hand and look at Violet properly. "How's the storm magic? Are the healers here getting you sorted?"

Violet brightens immediately, sitting up straighter. "So much better, actually. The conduit really helped to start with, and then they worked with me on the actual source of it rather than just managing the overflow, and it's—yeah. I've got a real handle on it now."

Lily's mouth twitches. "It does still get a bit dark and rainy when she's annoyed."

"I'm working on it." Violet turns the glare on her sister with precision.

"Good progress," I say, mostly to head off whatever Lily was about to say next.

I look at Asher, then Wylder, and let the gratitude I feel come through plainly because I don't have the energy to dress it up right now. "Thank you. Both of you. For getting me here. For—" I gesture vaguely at the fact that I am alive and intact. "Again."

"You can repay me," Asher says immediately, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, "by telling me what the second affinity is. Because I have been sitting here for hours wondering, and it is genuinely hurting me."

I hesitate, the memory of the world blazing white still very fresh. "I basically exploded the last time I reached for it. I’m not sure I’m ready to try that again yet."