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I didn’t stick around to hear what excuse she’d give whoever was at the door about my disappearance. Instead, I rushed into the bathroom, surprised at how agile and rejuvenated I felt.

Balancing on the edge of the bathtub, I pushed open the hatch. As soon as I pulled myself into the crawlspace, yelling erupted somewhere behind me.

Out of time.

I pulled the hatch closed to avoid giving away my escape route and hurried through the narrow passage until I reached the room Rinlora’s mother instructed me to enter.

The window took a little finessing to get open, but once I did, I welcomed the breeze against my skin. It’d been too long since I’d been outside—at least outside of a dream.

As soon as I stepped onto the fire escape and the metal rattled beneath my feet, I realized I’d made a mistake by not looking first.

Below me, a group of men and women stood guard in the alley, some shifted and others unchanged. A few glanced up at the sound, and the moment they spotted me, they began shouting orders at each other.

I couldn’t go down, but I had no idea what waited for me above. With several angry Shyrlivi already climbing the fire escape, the roof was my only option. I could only hope there was another way down on the opposite side—and fewer people waiting for me when I got there.

I grabbed the ladder and started climbing, hoping like hell that the thing could support my weight.

The entire structure shook and swayed as I made my way past each landing, but I refused to look down. The increasingly loud rattle of the fire escape told me they were following, encouraging me to keep moving, even when the swaying intensified.

By the time I reached the top, my arms should’ve been burning, but they weren’t.

I pulled myself over the ledge and rolled onto the roof, barely winded after climbing five stories.

Whatever Rinlora’s mother had injected me with was still doing its job.

I pushed to my feet and rushed across the roof, searching for somewhere to hide or another way off the building.

There wasn’t one.

There wasn’t anything but a few ventilation pipes, a large structure with no defining features, and what looked like air conditioning units that rattled with a constant hum.

I slowed as I reached the opposite side of the roof.

The next building wasn’t far. Maybe five or six feet separated one rooftop from the other. Could I make it?

I leaned forward enough to look down, then immediately stepped back.

Nope.

Absolutely not.

Even with whatever magical adrenaline mojo coursing through my veins, I wasn’t an idiot. If I missed the other roof, I had five stories to fall.

I wasn’t keen on being a Rae pancake anytime soon.

Metal clanged behind me.

I spun around just as a clawed hand curled over the edge of the roof.

Shit.

I looked at the neighboring building again.

Could I do it?

I glanced back at the ledge as another hand joined the first, and a burly Shyrlivi hauled himself onto the roof, followed by another. Both had shifted, their massive horns and claws making it clear they weren’t playing around.

Panic flared within me, intensified by the sharp rush of magical adrenaline, making my stomach turn. I heaved, ready to throw up the fruit I’d eaten earlier, but I fought back the nausea. I couldn’t be sick now. I needed to escape.