Page 74 of Serpent and Shadow

They obviously thought Nyx was right, and moreover, that I’d been listening to her, when none of them had been able to reach me. I had been listening to her, but, as much as everything she said made logical sense, it didn’t change what I felt. That clock still ticked louder and more convincingly than Nyx’s calm words.

I agreed with her reasoning in its entirety.

I also knew she was wrong.

Luc must have seen some hint of that in my face.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” He glared at me, then at Nyx, like he thought she was encouraging my madness. “Are you as suicidal as Alaric says Bones is? Who jumps off a two hundred meter tower just to see what the fuck might happen?”

“It really does seem like an incredibly reckless and premature test,” Alaric said, his voice only mild on the surface. His fingers hesitantly touched my back. “Perhaps we should try a few less extreme experiments first, dearest? Something less likely to end up with you splattered all over the stone?”

I looked between their faces.

I wished I had a more rational explanation for them, something they would accept.

But it wouldn’t make any difference.

Nothing I said would change their minds, so arguing with them, or even just stating my case, would accomplish nothing.

In the end, I just told them the truth.

“You can either stand here and watch me do it,” I said. “Or eventually you’ll need to leave, and I’ll do it anyway.”

“We’ll tell Forsooth,” Luc threatened. “He’ll put you on suicide watch. He’ll assign a guard. They’ll bolt the windows––”

I didn’t wait for him to finish.

Without changing expression, or tensing any of my muscles enough that they’d notice, I geared into the blue and white sun over my head. I flicked my fingers in a quick series of mudras, and murmured a cast in Latin.

A thick shield erupted around my magical aura.

Another of Bones’s little tricks.

It shoved off Luc’s hand, and Alaric’s fingers, and Jolie’s hold on my arm.

It even forced Nyx out from between me and Luc, so that she stumbled back a few paces, just enough to give me room.

I didn’t wait.

I couldn’t wait.

All four of them were too good with magic, too quick-witted, too afraid.

Stepping up onto the window sill, I leapt out as far as I could.

Once free of the glass and stone, I opened my arms.

It was a strange sensation, when gravity caught me at the top of that arc.

I’d fallen from high places before, of course.

I’d panicked even, especially when I’d first been learning to fly.

Even in those panics, I’d known, deep in my mind, I had the ability to catch myself, if only I could figure out how. I had a tool at my disposal, even if I was terrified I’d be unable to figure out how to use it in time.

Moreover, I also knew, even if it was tough to remember in those first few seconds, that Quicksilver was watching, that his student teachers were watching, and he wouldn’t let me die, whether he liked me or not.

He’d make sure someone caught me before I got too close to the ground.