Page 86 of Malcroix Bones Academy

I’d crossed the river for the first time that morning, using Faerie Bridge.

The wind had been biting and cold there, too, but the view from the bridge was beautiful, with wildflowers, ferns, and rose bushes growing all over the banks, interspersed by tall, graceful trees. A green field with thigh-high grasses rippled to the north.

From the bridge, The Eryrie rose stark and visible beneath the mountains.

Further back, I’d seen Devil’s Falls, the massive waterfall in Bonescastle Nature Preserve that fed into the Faerie River. I’d already been warned to stay out of the water, even in the summer months: the river was cold, deep, and had treacherous currents. I hadn’t missed how fast-moving the water looked as it flowed over the colorful stones and through the openings under the bridge.

Now, staring down at it all from the rooftop of The Eyrie, including a distant view of the east side of Bonecastle City on the other side of the wall, the campus looked absolutely enormous. From up there, the river looked like a gently twisting snake.

“With your back turned to your equipment, if you please, Miss Shadow.”

Quicksilver’s voice broke sharply into my thoughts.

When I glanced at him, mortified that my mind had been completely elsewhere, he surprised me with a smile and a cheerful wink.

“It’s easier, at least until you get the hang of it.”

I flushed again, and turned so that my back was to the large, chocolate brown and cream wings. He’d had us spread out to give one another space, and my wings lay on the stone a few feet from Miranda’s, who stood next to me.

“Focus on your primals,” Quicksilver said. He paced in front of us like a lion with a flicking tail. His eyes ran up and down the rows of students, eagle-like. “For this first time, ask them to make the connection for you. Putintentioninto the request… if you haven’t done it before, especially.”

His eyebrows rose humorously at me again.

“…They’ll know if you’re afraid.”

I looked at my foot-and-a-half tall, pitch-black monocerus, but focused my magic on the sun-like flame over my head. Without realizing it, I’d already grown accustomed to getting my magic directly from there; I could justseeit now.

Would you mind attaching those brown and white wings to my back?I asked, in what I hoped was a polite and not-at-all terrified request. The wind whipped through me, and I wrapped my arms around my torso, looking out through the opening in The Eyrie’s jagged wall.

Preferably, could you do it tightly enough, I don’t plunge to my death when he tells us to jump off this bloody thing?I added.

The monocerus stared back at me unblinkingly.

Over my head, I felt sparks of magic ripple down my head and spine.

They grew stronger at my shoulder blades and in a line down the muscles of my back.

I could feel the curiosity there, the interest.

“Pay attention to how your primal operates,” Quicksilver said, his voice still booming and clear above the high wind. “Watch how it threads the enchantment built into the wings into your own magic. Let it teach you.” His voice grew a touch of menace. “You won’t always have time to ask your primal to do this for you, not in the real world. You’ll need to know how to do it on your own, and quickly. Magicals havediedbecause they took too long to attach. The goal is to have this process be as fast as a thought. For now, let the primal show you how the magical resonances work together…”

I watched on the backs of my eyelids as my primal felt over the wings, pulling at threads of the enchantment built into the hollow, gold “bones” that held the feathers together. I’d not even noticed the metal there until it began to glow. I wouldn’t have guessed gold wings could be so light, but now I saw it was molded so delicately, into such thin, perfect, hollow shells, it barely weighed anything. They’d also been spelled to be even lighter, I realized, when my primal showed me a new set of symbols etched on the gold.

“Remarkable,” I murmured under my breath.

I knew I’d probably be one of the slowest in here, but I tried not to care. Like Quicksilver said, a handful of the other students turned nineteen long enough ago that they’d gotten private instructors, and were already licensed with their own wings, like that blond prat?

My thought was interrupted by a strange sensation on my shoulder blades.

My bones and spine grew hot briefly, making my heart beat faster.

Then a weight hung there.

My primal urged me to flex, and I did, feeling the muscles under my skin enjoy the sensation.

“Oi!” a voice next to me shouted. “Watch it, Shadow! You nearly knocked me down!”

I opened my eyes, startled. I saw a flushed, dark-haired mage with a black goatee glaring at me, a pair of reddish-brown wings on his back.