“Who do you think you are?” I snapped at Sariel. His eyes widened ever so slightly. Apparently, he hadn’t expected me to talk back. “Oh, I know… You’re just pulling at his tails because you like him.” I made air quotes around the word “tails”.
The archangel was furious. His perfect face darkened, his lips turned into an invisible line as he clenched his jaw, and his eyes changed from heavenly silver to pitch black. All in an instant. His wings spread around him, and I saw the feathers lining their edges were as sharp as knives. Well, shit. The archangels I read about in books weren’t so scary. I almost felt betrayed.
“Sari, honey, she’s not worth it,” Lorna whispered sweetly. “You said it yourself. Let’s see how she does. She won’t make it, obviously, and the Headmaster will kick her out before the end of the day. But we can have fun watching her try.”
“Don’t call me that,” Sariel growled low in his chest. Fortunately, Lorna calling him “Sari, honey” had saved me from certain death, because he huffed and turned his back to me just as the professor announced the beginning of the test.
“I’ll climb with you,” Klaus said with a gentle smile.
“You don’t have to,” I sighed. “You can probably… I don’t know… zap yourself up there.”
He shrugged as he grabbed the ladder and placed one foot on the first rung.
“I’m not that great at teleporting. Yet. Still learning. I can float, though. But I won’t do it now, okay? I’m climbing this with you.”
Sariel unfurled his mighty wings and took flight toward the first wooden platform. “See you, human trash.” He laughed out loud. “Or not. I wouldn’t mind if I didn’t have to see your dumb face again. Make sure you take a wrong step and die, okay? Thanks!”
I narrowed my eyes at him, but he was alre
ady too far up in the trees to notice. Not that he gave a damn. Lorna burst out in laughter. I turned to give her a piece of my mind, but she’d already disappeared. I blinked and looked up. She and Sariel were already on their platforms.
“Yeah, she’s a mage, too,” Klaus said.
With a sigh, I took hold of the ladder and tried to steady it. Oh my God, I was going to die. Soon. In the next ten minutes, probably.
“So, that’s teleporting.”
“It’s not as easy as she makes it look.” There was a hint of sadness in his voice. “She comes from a long line of mages, and she’s been training since before she could walk. Some say Lorna Chiaramonte could crawl, float, and teleport, so when her parents tried to teach her how to walk, she refused because she didn’t see the point of it. Though, I’m pretty sure her family spread the gossip, and it’s not actually true. A baby deciding whether walking is worth learning or not sounds like a bit of a stretch to me.”
Klaus’s chatter helped me take my mind off what I was doing. This wasn’t so hard. I could do this. One foot in front of the other. By the time I’d climbed half the distance, I’d gained enough confidence to move quicker.
“You’re doing great, sister. Really.”
I gave him a wide smile. Yeah. I was quite proud of myself. I stopped for a second to enjoy the view. Bad idea. Realizing how far up I was made my stomach churn and my head spin.
“Don’t look down!” Klaus yelled at me. “Come on, Mila! You’re smarter than that.”
Smart, yeah. There’s nothing smart about what I’m doing. I dragged in a breath, forced myself to look up and only up, and resumed my climb. I could see the platform getting closer and closer. I was getting closer and closer to it. I grabbed the edge with my gloved hands, pulled myself up, and once my feet were firmly placed on it, I hugged the tree for dear life.
Don’t look down, don’t look down. The temptation was maddening! Klaus was already studying his next step. Apparently, we had to place our feet on something that looked like an oversized swing, hold onto the ropes that connected it to the cable above, and just launch ourselves into the unknown.
“There’s another platform there,” Klaus reassured me.
“I can’t see it!”
“Trust me, it’s there. Just follow my lead.”
“You’re doing this with me, too? You said you can float.”
He shrugged. “I don’t want to leave you behind.”
My heart warmed at his words. Maybe today wasn’t so bad. Maybe it wasn’t one of those days. A mage wanted to be my friend. If I didn’t pass the test and I was forced to go back home, at least I’d have an awesome story to tell my future grandchildren. If I survived, that was.
“Isn’t there… a certain time we have to make?”
“Nope. This isn’t about who finishes first or last. It’s about how you finish it. This is the easiest part of the test, Mila. They want to make sure you have enough strength in your arms and enough courage in your heart to swing a scythe later.”
“The easiest, you say…”