This—this was what I loved.
The wind kissing my face, the scrape-scrape-scrape-scrape of my sneakers against the walls, the warm, rough feel of brick and stone under my hands. There was a freedom in it that I’d never felt anywhere else.
Behind me, a faint chill of magic gusted against my back like a cool, steady breeze. I pulled myself up onto another roof, then glanced back over my shoulder. Deah was staring intently at me, her dark blue eyes glittering in her face, as she used her magic to exactly mimic all of my movements, right down to the way my fingers flexed as I reached out for the next roof. I grinned and kept going.
We climbed up onto the highest roof in this section of buildings. Behind us, the guards were scrambling to catch up, so I stopped a second to look around, planning the rest of our escape.
I pointed out the route to Deah. “This way! Follow me!”
She nodded and fell in step behind me, her eyes still glittering with magic as she ran the exact same way I did.
Where I had climbed up before, now I went down, down, down, grabbing hold of the edges of the roofs and sliding down as far as I could before letting go and dropping to the next building. If not for the guards chasing us, I would have been having a great time.
Finally, I took hold of the lowest roof and hung in the air for a second before dropping back down to the street again. Deah jumped down right beside me, but she took her eyes off me, just for a second, and she landed awkwardly, tumbling to the ground, yelping, and clutching her left ankle.
“Are you okay?” I crouched beside her.
Her pretty face creased with pain, but she held out her arm to me. “I think I sprained my ankle. Help me up.”
I did as she asked and the two of us started moving down the street where we had ended up, three blocks away from the parking lot. Deah tried to keep up with me, but she hissed every time she put any weight on her ankle and I ended up wedging my shoulder under hers and half dragging, half carrying her along.
Our slow pace gave Blake and the Draconi guards plenty of time to catch up with us.
Their shouts, which had faded to angry murmurs in the distance, grew louder and louder and closer and closer. I craned my neck around, then up. I didn’t see any guards on the street behind us yet, but it was just a matter of time now, especially since a couple of them popped into sight on the rooftops, shouting and pointing in our direction.
We had to get out of sight of the men on the rooftops, so I dragged Deah into the first alley I came to—not realizing that it was a dead end. I cursed and whirled around, ready to head back onto the street, but Deah stepped away from me, even though she was wobbling on her feet the whole time.
“Stop—just stop, Lila. It’s no use. I’m slowing you down.” She lifted her chin. “You need to leave me behind.”
My mouth dropped open. “What? You can’t be serious! No—no way am I leaving you behind for Blake and the guards to capture.”
She looked around a second, then pointed over to a rusty drainpipe that was attached to the alley wall. “You can climb up that, right? Get up onto the roof and then make it to safety?”
“Of course I can climb up that,” I snapped. “I can climb up anything. But that’s not the point. We can both make it out of here. I’m not leaving you behind. Now come on.”
I started to take hold of her again, but Deah shook her head and hobbled away from me.
“My ankle is sprained. I can barely stand on it, much less run or try to climb with it. One of us needs to be the distraction while the other escapes. You know it as well as I do.” She stared me in the eyes, letting me see and feel her rock-hard determination. “I’m the one who’s injured, so I’m going to be the distraction.”
“But—”
She gave me a grim look. “I’m Victor’s daughter. You heard what Blake said. My dad won’t kill me . . . right away.” Her mouth twisted. “Not until he has a chance to blackmail me into doing his bidding again. Or to take my mimic magic for himself.”
I opened my mouth, but she cut me off.
“But you, Lila? My dad will throw you into a cage with the rest of the Sinclairs. Or worse, execute you, if Blake doesn’t go ahead and do it for him. So you need to go—right now.” Deah pulled her sword free from a belt loop on her shorts. “I’ll hold off Blake and the guards as long as I can. That should give you enough time to get back to Felix and Devon and tell them about the warehouse.”
“But—”
She shook her head. “No buts. This is how it has to be and we both know it. Besides, Blake and my dad don’t realize that you know about the warehouse. That means you, Felix, and Devon still have a chance to break in and rescue everyone, including me.”