“I pull my power more tightly around me like a magic binky.”

“Tension pulled my shoulders tight, and I prayed my conversation skills were better than my magic.”

“I pulled her arms around me without apology, tight enough that it was difficult to expand my chest enough to fully inhale but for the first time all night, I felt like I could breathe.-pg 232/ARC”

“I sit with my knees pulled in tight and my arms wrapped around my shins. I can no longer feel my feet, as if blood refuses to spread so far from my heart.”

“The glove suddenly feels much heavier, now, more dense. The rush of power didn’t come through me, but wrapped around me; invisible and strangely empty, like a purely mechanical force. It wasn’t like I just got stronger; it was separate from me, like something stepped in and punched him instead of me. I pull the glove off gingerly, half afraid I’ll punch my own fingers off.”

“Magic is a power, much like madness but so much more like fire.”