From ALL THE SHADOWS OF THE RAINBOW by Inanna Arthen:
Diana smelled hot wax and felt heat on her face, and then Jack said, “Ground.” With more effort than usual, all four of them cut the flow of energy and directed it down into the earth below them, slowly regaining feeling and movement in their muscles as their minds cleared. Her eyes still closed, Diana had a vague sense that something wasn’t right. Just as she finally took in a breath, and choked on greasy smoke, David said, “Oh, crap.”
They all opened their eyes then, and reacted to the fact that the room was on fire—or on the verge of it. The magical exercise which Diana, Jack and David had performed dozens of times was intended simply to light the candle. Typically, a good percentage of tries resulted in nothing but an ember or a little smoke rising from the wick. Their candle, which had been almost new, had melted completely, leaving the empty candleholder standing in the middle of a large puddle of flaming liquid wax. Bright yellow light flickered on the walls of the room.
They hadn’t even thought to bring in a container of water, far less a fire extinguisher. April ran to get a pan of water from the kitchen. As they cleaned up the mess, drank some water and ate some cookies to help ground and center themselves back into ordinary reality, a deep sense of excitement began to bubble up among them. It was taking a while to sink in, but they were starting to understand that the four of them were such perfect complements to one another, their individual power was amplified a hundredfold. None of them had foreseen it.
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