Page 90 of Malcroix Bones Academy

“Yes,” I said, my guard going up a little. “It’s Shadow, actually. You’re Strangemore?”

“Yes! Graham,” he added, with another of those tips of the cap.

I smiled, and he waved me forward.

“Just think about wanting to return to The Eyrie,” he said, louder as he veered gracefully to make a turn. “Or, if you can’t manage that, think about how we’d both better get back before Quicksilver’s on our arses with a bow and arrow…”

I snorted.

Even so, I managed to think some combination of those things.

I marveled as the angle of my own wings changed.

They tilted precisely to curve me around with a stomach-lurching turn, then flap with muscular strokes to begin raising me higher in the air. I could see The Eyrie in the distance already, like a strange, stone tree sticking out from the lush green of the forest. It looked unearthly in its height, and it occurred to me an instant later that itwasunearthly.

I wasn’t on “Earth” anymore. I had nothing to do with that place now, apart from my brother, and he would join me here in just a few short years.

In the meantime, though, I was falling behind.

Graham Strangemore was at least four body lengths ahead of me.

Follow him,I thought?maybe at my primal or maybe at the wings. My wings beat harder and faster.Follow him, and the river,I amended next.

Keeping over the river would take me more or less straight to The Eyrie, and hopefully without colliding into Strangemore’s back.

Besides, the river was stunning in the early morning sun.

Minutes later, I’d mostly caught up with the lanky mage with the streaked blond and brown hair. I paced him after that, flying to his left. He grinned at me, flashing white teeth, and tilted his wings into another barrel roll. That time, I didn’t try to copy him, choosing instead to clap. He grinned wider, and I found myself thinking I maybe liked flying.

If I could pass this, it was one less thing to make me a freak.

It was one more thing that might make me belong.

Whether the Magical nobility and their poster child, Caelum Bones,prat extraordinaire,liked it or not, Iwouldbelong here. Maybe not quite like they did, but in my own way.

I had to believe my brother would, too.

21

Seeing Arts

“Find a partner.” Professor Vivian Underwood’s voice was smooth, a rolling purr. The Seeing Arts teacher moved like a panther around the classroom, watching us with silver irises and vertical pupils. “Challenge yourselves,” she advised. “Find someone new to pair with this week. The more different the minds you work with, the more you will learn…”

It was the fourth week of class.

I could scarcely believe a whole month had gone by, but I also struggled to remember what my life had been like before. As for my academic schedule, things had ramped up exponentially from when I started.

My teachers were growing more demanding, as were the assignments. I’d also noticed that expectations on me, personally, seemed to be growing. Maybe it was a sign they were taking me more seriously… or maybe they were all looking for me to trip up, or possibly crack under the strain, given my schedule.

Either way, I no longer got any leeway for not having grown up in Magique, and not having attended magical classes beforenow. They treated me like any other student, which was both validating and terrifying, possibly in equal measure. In some instances, like with Forsooth, they seemed to expect evenmorefrom me.

When I wasn’t in class, or eating, or showering, I was in the library. That, or I was asleep with spells cast to continue to read magical texts while I dreamed. Or I was out practicing offensive and defensive spells with Miranda, Jolie, Draken, Darragh, and Luc, and whoever else decided to join us. Or I was flying with Miranda and sometimes Graham Strangemore.

Graham had asked me out.

So far, I’d put him off, but it had been flattering.

I’d been asked out by other mages, too, but most of them only seemed interested for the reasons Alaric warned me about over the summer. Namely, they assumed I’d be a degenerate, and an easy lay because I was half-human.