Claire said as she veered away and raised her arm in a ?talk to the
hand? gesture.
From many years of experience Helen knew that Claire needed to
punish her a little before she?d be ready to move forward. Then
they?d talk on the phone, make up, and the next day everything
would be back to normal. Just this one time, Helen wished they
could skip to the end of the fight, especially since she hadn?t done
anything, but she knew better than to rush Claire. Instead, Helen
dutifully ran past her.
After a few minutes of running alone, Helen started to get bored
with the mortal pace. She looked at her watch to calculate exactly
how much time she would need to kill before making her way back
to the trailhead, and took off across the moors at an impossible
speed. She knew Lucas could simply step up into the air and start
flying, but so far that approach hadn?t worked for her. Maybe she
172/395
needed to be running to get airborne, kind of like an airplane. Here
was a chance to test that theory.
As Helen struck out off the trail and through the marshy land
surrounding Miacomet Pond, she began to sense the lightness she
associated with flight. There was a fluttery feeling in her stomach,
a barely contained wildness that she assumed was an expression of
Scion power. She felt static energy running over her skin. It was as
if she had rubbed a balloon over her entire body and then held it
just far enough away so that her whole surface felt the outward tug
of an electrical field.
Taking an experimental leap, Helen soared up into the air. At
first she thought she had done it, that she was flying, but she soon
felt herself reach the top of a very large arc and begin to descend.
She had merely jumped higher than ever before?too high?and