A cluster of students in black robes had frozen mid-stride. A girl with bushy brown hair dropped a stack of parchment. A boy with round glasses stepped forward cautiously.

Then the torches flared. All of them. At once. The flames roared three feet high, turning the corridor blistering orange, and a low hum vibrated through the stones beneath her palms. The students stumbled backward.

But calm wasn't coming. Something inside her chest was unravelling, hot and frantic, and the windows at the end of the hall groaned. A crack spiderwebbed across the glass.