Chapter 12 · Steal the Starlight - Chapter 12: Pull the Star

"Get your ass back! Now!" Wren’s voice screamed over the roar of the crowd, but I couldn't move.

I was pinned against the jagged remains of a concrete pillar, my boots sliding in grit and glass. Above us, the floating debris of the plaza was humming—a massive, unstable shard of reinforced steel hanging by a thread of warped gravity. One wrong move, and three hundred civilians became a pancake.

"I've got it," I spat, though my lungs felt like they were full of needles. "Just... keep them back!"

I slammed my palm against the pillar. The black cracks of my power surged, hungry and jagged, eating into the concrete. It felt like freezing acid climbing up my arm, biting into my marrow. I wasn't just holding the debris; I was trying to crush the gravity well itself.

"Ellis, your arm!" Wren was there in a blur of gold and white, her boots skidding to a halt beside me. She didn't touch me—she knew better—but her eyes were wide, darting from the crumbling ceiling to the black veins spidering up my wrist. "You're overdrawing. Stop it. Let me take the load."

"Can't," I hissed, my teeth grinding together.