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I must have done all right. Marco, Aaron, and Nate all looked pleased in their own ways. And West looked pissed, which meant I’d performed better than he liked. I gave him a pointed glance. I hadn’t even broken a sweatyet.
“How long can you keep that up for?” he said. “A thirty-foot dash is nothing. You need endurancetoo.”
“Do you have a longer track for me to take on?” I said. “Or are you suggesting I just run back and forth like a crazyperson?”
He gave me a thin smile. “You’d better make do with what wehave.”
Oh, he’d like it if I backed down, wouldn’t he? As if I hadn’t been in situations ten times more humiliating than this in the last seven years. He had no idea what “endurance” meant. I wasn’t going to let his arrogance get tome.
“No problem,” I said, keeping my tone breezy. “I wouldn’t mind giving my legs a good stretchanyway.”
I took off without any preamble this time. I raced across the lawn to my starting point, pivoted on my feet, and zipped back the way I’d come. Once I fell into the rhythm of the thump of my feet and the heave of my breaths, the growing burn in my muscles was almost pleasant. I gave myself over to the sensation, not bothering to count repetitions. Just flying back and forth over the yard as if, if I pushed myself a tiny bit farther, I might actually leave theground.
I had worked up a bit of a sweat, slick under the silky shirt, when West leapt forward in the middle of one of my dashes. He swung out his foot as if to trip me. But my instincts had taken over the second I’d seen him moving. I was already dodging out of the way. I slowed and swiveled, folding my arms over mychest.
“Really?”
“We’re supposed to be testing agility too,” he said, looking not even slightlyguilty.
“And she’s having no problem showing you up in that area too,” Marcosaid.
“We’re not done yet.” West pointed to one of the tallest trees at the back of the yard. “How high can youclimb?”
His smirk had come back. Probably thinking that in the city I hadn’t gotten much experience with trees. And maybe I hadn’t, but there’d been plenty of fences and buildings to clamberup.
“Would the top work for you?” Iasked.
I marched over to the tree without waiting for an answer. All I got was an inarticulate mutteranyway.
The pine’s lowest branches jutted from its narrow trunk about a foot over my head. Low enough that I could still reach them with my arms extended, but I bent my knees and sprang up so I could hook my elbow right over one. Hugging it, I walked my feet up the trunk until I could swing my legs over the branch too. Then I scrambled up and reached for the nextone.
Once I was in the tree, climbing was way easier than West must have realized. The branches were spaced so close together it was more like hefting myself up a ladder than any real challenge. I pulled myself along as quickly as I could without completely losing my breath. Sap was smearing the violet fabric of the shirt, but Marco had said not to worry about that. The pungent pine smell filled my nose. I drank it in with anothergrin.
As I got higher up, the branches grew thinner. So did the trunk. A hot breeze whipped past me, making the upper half of the tree sway. I gripped the rough bark tighter and keptgoing.
When my climbing material had pretty much run out, several feet from the tree’s peak, I wrapped one arm around the trunk and glanced down. I’d come a little higher than the roof of Marco’s house. In the yard below, Nate raised his hand to give me a thumbs-up. I couldn’t see West’s expression, but I’d bet it was even grouchier thanusual.
And I could make him even more peeved. My grin widened as the urge came over me. The fall was twice my leap from the bedroom window yesterday, but a little extra risk just made it moreexhilarating.
I stepped forward on the branch andjumped.
The air whistled past my ears. The blouse’s sleeves billowed around my arms. For a second, I could imagine the wind catching them, lifting me up to soar toward the sky. My breath caught with a knot of longing beneath mysternum.
Someone let out a worried shout. Then I was hitting the ground, balls of my feet first. Pushing off them, I bent my knees into a roll. I tumbled over on my shoulder and flipped back onto my feet, straightening up in one smooth motion. My feet stung a little and my breath was still ragged, but damn, that had been a delicioussensation.
Aaron was giving me his usual quiet smile. “It looks to me like agility isn’t a concern. And I think between all those tests, we’ve also covered strength prettywell.”
West’s jaw had clenched. Something flickered in his eyes, an emotion I couldn’t quite put my finger on until he opened hismouth.
“In the real world, we don’t pull stupid stunts like that unless our lives depend onit.”
His tone was snarky, but my ears picked up a faint tremor underneath. I paused with a retort on mytongue.
He’d been a little scared for me, despite himself. And he hated that, didn’t he? Hated it so much he needed me to snark back at him so he could go back to being pissed off withme.
Too bad. I wasn’t going to give him what he wanted. I’d give him the exactopposite.
“I’m not going to argue with you about it,” I said, keeping my voice soft and even. “You’ve got to trust I don’t take risks without knowing what I can handle. And if you need to find some new reason to be angry with me, you’ll have to come up with it on your own instead of trying to pick afight.”
