Page 117 of Magical Academy for Delinquents
I nodded. He lifted us up slowly until we were past the treetops. I could see the chaos around the edges of the Pinnacle building. Norm police, magical police, and several Pinnacle guards were trying to herd aggressive, rutting shifters into cages--comforting sobbing women--taking the statements of bystanders. Not an eye looked our way as Gray floated us through the sky. He pulled us around the corner of the building, and I pointed a hand at one of the far lights in the parking lot, making it flicker and burn out.
A couple eyes turned that direction, but still, no one looked up, even as we edged around all the boards and planks and construction, toward them.
When we reached the window, Malcolm and Evan glanced over at me. I spread a blanket of darkness beneath our feet as we hovered, then lightened it a bit to fit with the surrounding light. "Do it," I ordered.
Both of them shot narrow beams of fire at the window, melting lines into the glass. They cut out a giant square from the pane, large enough that we could step through it. Their cutout fell forward, toward us.
That wasn't supposed to happen--my thoughts went into slow motion as I watched the rectangle of glass pitch forward and start to plummet.
Holy fuck.
No.
My mind saw the glass hitting the sidewalk below us, transforming into a spray of sharp little droplets--ending us. Every head would turn. Every eye would look up. We were done. Baked. Cooked.
"Preschool," Z growled, diving down. He reached for the glass and caught it. Barely. His fingers clung to the edges like clamps.
I turned to look at Gray, who'd been supposed to catch the glass. His face was covered in sweat. It rolled down his forehead, dripped over his eyes.
Shit. He was nearly maxed out.
I swam through the air toward the window. "Inside. Now! He can't keep holding us," I whispered shouted. I don't know if they heard my words. I could hardly hear myself over my pounding heart, but they saw me. Malcolm and Evan followed quickly. We climbed inside and I turned to Gray.
"Come on Gray. What's wrong? Can't handle a couple guys?" I taunted.
Gray turned to face me, and his expression grew angry.
"Thought your magic was stronger, didn't you? Bet you're wishing you'd gotten that power up right about now."
Gray's brows drew down and Z started to rise with the glass. Slowly, but he started to rise.
"Come on, you lazy bum. Daddy can get entire rockets to Mars."
A growl erupted from Gray's lips and Andros shot through the sky and into the room. He tumbled to the floor.
"And then there was one," I said. "Come on, Preschool. Any little old Force could do what you're doing now."
Z rose farther, enough to hand the glass through the hole to Evan and Malcolm, who carefully took it and walked it to the side of the room. They set it on some table or something, but I didn't look over at them. I kept my eyes locked on Gray's as Andros yanked on Zavier's hand and dragged him up the side of the building and into the room.
"Come on Gray," I put my hand out.
Gray took one shaky breath before he shot forward and barreled into me. I slammed to the ground. The wind was knocked out of me and my ribcage ached. But I smiled and reached up to wipe the sweat from Gray's brow. "You okay?" I asked.
He rolled off me and laid on the floor. "Yeah. Just a couple hundred pounds more than we practiced with. Andros is heavy as fuck."
"I'm pure muscle," Andros glared down at him.
"And happy about it," Z said. "That's why your codename is Jolly."
Andros glared at him.
I took a minute and gave Gray a minute to recover before I climbed to my feet. Then I glanced at Malcolm. "How far off our time are we?" We had to make it from our current spot on the sixth floor and through the laser and construction debacle on the seventh floor in less than twenty minutes because that's how often the guards were scheduled to make their rounds.
"Five minutes," Malcolm replied.
Fuck.
Chapter 44
