She'd had trouble with it before, on multiple occasions. Breathing. The air thick and smoky around her, heat flaying against her skin, the sound of fire sirens in the distance and quiet calls from inside a burning train. Air had been scarce, then. She knew how it worked in theory, that fire needed oxygen in order to burn, and what Claire wonders now is how it all worked. How she was able to walk through it, in spite of having nothing to run on. Maybe it was adrenaline. Just like it had been months later, with a man sparking the air right around him from the space of her kitchen, his body flung by the energy. Then, every single sense of hers had slowed down to a complete still, her vision gone white, her ears ringing, even the smell of burning, melting, escaping her as she couldn't breath.

But this was different. There was no way to ford through it. And that left Claire terrified, wanting to do anything to keep Edmund by her side, her arm still sliding along the dirt and toward him, eyes only briefly skimming over the wolf who had come bounding out.

"I'm 'kay," she tried to insist, her voice cracking. "Don'— I'm okay."