"ZAINE!"
The world stopped.
And I mean stopped in the most complete way possible. The blast that was about to turn my teammates into dust froze in mid-air, hanging there in a wave of white-hot destruction that looked more like a picture than real life. Roran's barrier was caught half-made, the golden light frozen in the air around his hands. Kiela was stuck in the middle of pulling Nomari backward, her face locked in pure terror. Nomari's mouth was open in what was probably going to be a scream.
The floating fire orbs hung still in the air. Even the magic itself seemed to have paused, the spell circles around my reflection's hand glowing but not moving, not spinning, not doing anything except existing in this moment that had been ripped out of time.
The only thing that could move was myself and I turned my head toward the figure that appeared in the center of the chamber.
