Like always with him, I abruptly lost my temper. “Disgusting, immature, overbearing, control-freak, thinks-he’s-always-rightarsehole?”
“Maybe I’m just trying to get your attention,” he’d retorted back. “Since talking to you like a regular person doesn’t seem to be working. You know, you might actually trylisteningto someone other than yourself for a change. Someone who’s actually lived in this world long enough to know a few things?”
“I’ve got my actualfriendsfor that, thanks,” I’d sniped back.
That, at least, had shut him up.
Temporarily, anyway.
I found myself thinking about his words though, as much as it annoyed me.
When I considered which classes I might drop, however, or might be willing to postpone to another term, or even another year, I came up blank. The truth was, all of it felt vitally important. All of it felt useful, if not critically necessary. I felt an urgency in every subject, every book, every lecture, every ritual.
I wasn’t willing to give up any of it.
Not even if I should.
I certainly wouldn’t give it up becauseCaelum-bloody-Bonestold me to.
20
The Eyrie
“Please do not remove your uniform shirts in here.”
The tall, dark-haired, scarred, and disarmingly handsome, middle-aged mage scowled around at us. His sun-beaten skin made his scars stand out, but it still evoked “hot pirate” to me, more than, say, “battle-scarred professor at least twice your age.”
I knew I wasn’t the only one reacting that way to Professor Rafe Quicksilver, our new flight instructor, and professor of Offensive and Defensive Magic. He was a rank-6 fighter, which apparently was about as high as you could get, as there’d only been a few rank-7s in all of recorded history, even among the Warlocks.
I’d heard a number of female students whispering about him, along with a few of the mages. Even so, I flushed when he aimed his light-brown eyes directly at me.
“I’ve already had three students try to strip half-naked in here,” he said, his stare holding mine before sliding away. “Don’t let’s have a fourth. And while I understand some of you hired private instructors and are already licensed, this is still a required course, and you’re not at home now. There’s absolutelyno need for bare skin to establish a wing connection. The connection is magical, not physical, so clothing’s got no bearing. You’d be seeing a lot more naked idiots careening into buildings in London, if that was the case.”
A few students chuckled, exchanging amused looks.
I glanced down at the cream and brown-streaked wings I’d borrowed from the sets on the wall as we climbed the steps of The Eyrie. He’d told us to grab whatever we needed, waving at the sets hanging from hooks as he led us up. Unlike Miranda, I still didn’t have my own. I hadn’t wanted to buy any until I had some idea what to buy, and Drakken and Miranda made it sound like a lot of the variables had more to do with individual taste.
For the same reason, my wing choice today had been pretty random. Not having any idea what I should be looking for, I just grabbed a set I thought looked pretty.
Now I was very glad I didn’t have to get half-naked in front of the hot pirate teacher, much less twenty of my classmates.
I was even more glad I didn’t share this class with Bones.
The sheer number of classes we shared already disturbed me.
For the past three weeks, I’d seen him in Theurgy, Alchemy, and Praecurology. I knew from his grumbling as he glared at my schedule that we also had Seeing Arts together on Fridays, even though he hadn’t bothered to show up for the first two weeks.
But at least I wouldn’t have him sneering at me in here, where there was a good chance I’d fall on my face, and possibly in a way that could have me tumbling off the side of The Eyrie and plunging into the river below.
The last two weeks had been all safety lectures and theory, plus a few short practice sessions on how to control the wings.
This week, Quicksilver told us to meet him here, at The Eyrie.
Miranda and Drake said The Eyrie was part of the Skyhunt course, but as I’d never seen a match, and hadn’t asked anyone to explain it to me yet, I had no idea what part The Eyrie playedin the game. Sports with wings, bows, arrows, and spears were the least of my priorities at the moment, even knowing that Skyhunt was yet another thing that set me apart from Magicals who grew up in this world.
Personally, I was a lot more interested in learning magical combatoutsideof a game.
My Flying class was the earliest of the day, so it was cold on top of the Eyrie. It was also foggy, windy, and intimidatingly high. A round, jagged, stone wall surrounded us on most sides, with one flat opening overlooking the valley. From there, I had a stunning view of the river’s curve, the forest, and the three, angular temples in the distance.
