So I grabbed the ledge and took a slow, calming breath before pulling myself up with all my strength and a muffled groan. This was one of those rare times I was glad for the training I'd been given. They'd meant for me to use it to kill monsters, not escape from them, but oh well.
Wait, whydidn'tI kill them? Why didn't I burst into the room where they discussed my fate and burn them all with my magic until they were puddles of melted flesh and insides?
"You know why," I huffed at myself, and pulled myself up further, until my head and shoulders hung in mid-air outside.
They'd been the first people to claim me, to say I was theirs, and I couldn't get their words out of my head. Vann had said we were best friends, but never that I washis. That he'd hunt down my enemies and put their heads on spikes just because they hurt me.
"Stop it," I hissed, forcing my attention on the city spread out below me.
"Okay, that's okay, it's not too far down," I breathed, trying not to lose my shit at the distance to the ground. It could have been worse; I could have been at the top of the building.
But my stomach flipped at the thought of falling down two storeys, and I knew I'd end up with a broken bone. Or twelve.
I frantically scanned for something to help my descent, and spotted a balcony hanging above me. If I could pull myself up, I'd be even higher, but at least I'd be on solid ground, and I'd be away from the shadowkind. I could figure it out from there. The city hummed with a buzz of activity, far from silent; I could find a crowd and get lost in it. But first I had to get away from this building.
I'd been trained how to climb, but I’d never put it into practise before.
"Now or never," I whispered, and locked down a sound of fear as I turned so I faced the red sky, my hair whipping over my shoulder to hang down my back. "Worse; this isworse."
It had been scary enough when I could see the ground, but now that all I could see was the sky and the silver glass building above me? I was shaky and petrified.
But the three monsters inside this building would keep torturing me with my past, andanythingwas better than that. So I pulled myself up the wall, bit by careful bit, until my fingers closed around warm iron. Ugh, even the metal wasn't cold like it was supposed to be. This place was too hot.
I missed the coolness of the house I just escaped.
"No," I chided myself breathlessly. No going back. Only going forward.
I bit my lip so hard I drew blood, trying to muffle my groan of effort as I hauled myself up the railing, gripping so hard the metal dug into my palms.
I pulled myself up, hand over hand, but the metal was slick with humidity. My hands slipped down the full length of the railing, dizzyingly fast. A scream ripped up my throat, cutting through the low murmur of city noise and making my ears ring as I tightened my hold, screwing my eyes shut against the quick blur of my fall.
Who would miss me?
I knew the answer to that. My mother was dead and I'd never known her. My grandmother was a living nightmare. My only friend sacrificed himself to save me. No one. That's who'd miss me.
No one.
My hands thudded into the base of the balcony, and as if some god was watching over me, I managed to grab onto another railing securely enough to stop my fall.
"Okay," I panted. "Okay."
Everything was okay. I wasn't going to fall. I was going to climb onto the balcony, find a way out of this building, and then go home. Find Thief wherever he was lurking in my flat and live happily ever after.
I clung to that fantasy as I dragged hot air into my lungs and painstakingly pulled myself back up and over the railing, collapsing gracelessly into a heap on the balcony.
Please, no one decide to use this balcony now.
Why did three monsters need a whole building anyway? I got that the basement was their torture layer, and the second floor held their rooms and living areas, but what were on the other—I counted, tipping my head back—six floors?
"Not important," I groaned to myself. I'd long since accepted that talking to myself was part of me, no matter how crazy it made me look. Well, how crazy it proved I was.
I gave myself a minute to breathe in the hot liquid air, panting as I stared out across the glass towers of the city, splashed with red light from the chasm that cut across it in a messy slash. After the minute passed, I hauled myself to my feet with a groan and assessed my options.
There was a ladder that ran down the side of a building next to this one, but reaching it would require me to jump across three balconies on this floor and then make a deadly leap.
"I have to be crazy to do this," I said, raking sweaty hands through my hair.
"Good thing I'm certifiable," I replied to myself, strangely reassured … by myself.3