“Fold ‘em in, you hybrid freak!” the mage snapped. “What’s wrong with you? And why’d you have to get such an enormous pair, anyway? You trying to show us all up, again?”
I glanced over my shoulder, and saw the chocolate brown and cream wings extended most of the way out. I instinctively pulled on the muscles there, and the wings drew in a corresponding amount. When I moved away from the angry mage with the goatee, however, I heard a squeak and a cry from my other side.
“Leda!” Miranda’s voice protested with a giggle. “You really are a menace!”
I pulled on those muscles more, and glanced back to make sure my wings had tucked all the way behind me. Only then did I glance at Miranda, embarrassed, and now flushed.
“Sorry!”
Unlike the angry mage, Miranda let out a delighted laugh.
“Figures you’d figure it out in under five seconds,” she teased.
I glanced around at the others only then.
More than half were still working on getting the wings attached to their backs. A few pairs hovered in the air by shoulder blades, and one witch had them hovering upside down, where gold threads in the wings were weaving into iridescent blue threads in the brunette witch’s aura. I watched curiously as both sets of threads began to tie the deep blue wings into her muscles and bones. When the process had finished, it looked like the wings grew straight out of her back. Her clothes hungthe same, as if the wings had punched holes in the witch’s pink hoodie and white button up blouse.
“Very good, Miss Shadow,” Quicksilver boomed approvingly.
I glanced in his direction, alarmed, but he’d already turned away.
“Miss Nordburg!” he shouted next. “Your wings are upside down! Ask your primal to fix that for you! You’ll need to detach them entirely, then re-attach them the other way!”
I watched as a badger-shaped streak of light ran around her in a circle, looking concerned and stressed as it manipulated the magical golden threads between its paws. Slowly, the wings began to detach from the witch’s back. Once the badger had them free, it began to turn them counterclockwise in the air.
It was maybe another fifteen minutes before everyone had a pair of wings attached firmly to their shoulders and backs.
I glanced at Miranda, who now wore her new pair of silver wings. As she was three or four inches shorter than me, her wings dragged the ground, even though they were smaller than the pair I’d picked out.
I was still looking out over all the different colored feathers, when Quicksilver finished helping a small, Thai-looking witch with long black hair attach her lavender-colored wings, and straightened to survey our group.
“All right,” he said. “I need six of you up here. That’s the largest number myself and Ms. Keene can monitor safely.” He motioned towards his assistant, a stern-looking student teacher with pink hair and deep black eyes. “Listen for your name,” Quicksilver continued loudly. “I’m taking you in order of how quickly you successfully attached your wings. Mr. Doucester, Miss Fenrix, Mr. Strangemore, Miss Liu, Mr. Pinscher, and Miss Shadow. Step forward.”
I felt all the blood drain from my face.
No. I couldn’t have been one of the first six? That wasn’t possible.
Quicksilver was already motioning us over as he walked in the direction of the opening in the tower wall. My hands clenched, but my legs moved mechanically to follow. I had a deeply bad feeling about where all of this was heading.
That feeling was quickly confirmed.
“The best way to get over your fear of heights,” Quicksilver boomed out, to include all of those watching. “…And to learn to trust your own magic and the magic of the wings, is to dive straight in.” He grinned around at the class.“Literally,in this case. We find it’s better if you don’t have much time to psych yourself out. Don’t worry, Ms. Keene and I won’t let anyone crash too badly. She’ll be monitoring three of you, and I’ll take the other three.”
I wasnotreassured.
The wind whipped harder as I approached The Eyrie’s edge.
The sun was burning through the morning mist, but the wind remained cold, and the height didn’t look any less terrifying than it had when I first noticed how small the river looked from up here.
“You’ll be fine,” a voice with a Irish accent assured me.
I turned my head, and found a strange mage watching me.
“Don’t worry,” he said, smiling. “Most of us going this first time are already licensed. Two of us are on The Skulls… the Malcroix Skyhunt team. We won’t let you fall. Quicksilver won’t let you fall, either. Anyhow, just connect with your primal, it’ll?”
“All right, Mr. Strangemore,” Quicksilver said, coming up to the mage’s other side. “Score a date on your own time. I’ll be giving the instructions here.”
The mage with the violet eyes flushed scarlet.
