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“Someone is trying to take us out of the sky,” I say, as though that explains my own magic.

To punctuate my words, the plane jerks violently, throwing me forward. I barely manage to catch myself on the pilots’ seats, trying to regain my bearings.

“I’m here to help land the plane.”

The woman laughs, the sound containing all sorts of skepticism. And honestly, I’d probably laugh too if some little shit who collapsed onto my dashboard claimed she could help.

Come to me…Empress…

The ghostly voice whispers in my ear and against my skin. The hair on my arms stands on end. There’s something perversely alluring about that voice.

“Listen, I don’t care how experienced you both are—you’re working with forces beyond your senses, and you’re not going to be able to land this plane without my help.”

I’d like to say they were roused by my words, but the truth is, both pilots have returned their attention to flying the plane, and the woman is telling her companion about some course of action that might work.

Right.

I close my eyes and take a steadying breath, focusing inward.

“Use my power. Ignore my pain. With this spell, I’ll land the plane.”I incant the rhyme over and over as my power flares, then spreads out from me.

When I open my eyes, I see it clear away the deep-blue magic that obscured the view out the front window. Once I can see our surroundings, I try not to scream. There are rolling mountains and a sea of trees beneath us, and they’re growing closer by the second.

Oh Goddess, we’re going to die.

I take a deep breath and force the insidious thought away.

I just need to help land the plane. It’s not impossible. I concentrate on my power again, letting it unspool from within me, and continue to repeat the incantation.

My power rushes out of me and flows to the underside of the plane. I cannot see what it’s doing, but I vaguely sense it pressing against the aircraft’s smooth metal underbelly. And then I feel it ripple as though it’s becoming its own air current. Hell, maybe it is.

It strains, working to shift the angle of the plane.

Not enough! Not enough!

I grit my teeth, my head throbbing from my exertion.

“I call on magic most arcane. Protect these people. Land this plane.”My voice grows louder, even as the turbines roar and muffled screams filter in from the cabin.

With each utterance, more magic pours out of me. That opposing magic is still present, but rather than battle for dominance, its magicmeldswith mine.

Once it does so, I feel the nose of the plane inch up, just a little. And then a little more.

The pilots give rapid-fire commands—either to each other or someone on the other end of their headset. Maybe it’s all going to be okay, maybe—

“Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! We’re going down!”

Fuck.

The trees out the window grow larger and larger.

I keep forcing my magic out, straining to level the aircraft. Now that that other magic is helping, it’s working. I’m just not sure it’s working fast enough.

I groan, then scream at the exertion.

Empress, I sense you drawing near.

Slowly, slowly, the front of the plane lifts.