Cotton shrugged. Hiding his amusement behind the twinkle within the olive flecks in his eyes, he poured himself a shot, then tossed it back. His face twisted from the potent tartness and the alcohol’s burn, but he quickly recovered before turninghis attention to Onyx. Cotton dropped his arms at his sides impatiently, slapping his thighs.
“You up first, Cotton?” Onyx asked, brows raised in surprise.
Cotton shrugged again, analyzing the rooftop of the building beside us. The building was shorter in height than the one we currently stood on. He angled his head and narrowed his eyes as he gauged where he stood the best chance to clear the jump.
Chrome took another shot and passed one to me.
On instinct, I grabbed Hazel’s wrist, stopping her from downing another one. The glare she leveled me made me want to shrink back, but I held strong. “Slow down. And don’t think I’m letting you try to make that jump.”
Hazel’s gaze dropped to my fingers clasped around her pale skin. “First of all, I can take another shot if I want to.” With her other hand, she began peeling my fingers off her wrist one by one. Calm and sassy—the tone I knew to avoid—she said, “Second, I’m not an idiot, Slate. I will not be leaping to my death. No worries.”
Someone bumped into my shoulder, and I turned to find Peri at my side. “I told you, Slate. She’s safe with me. We’re not jumping. Just going to watch you dumbass boys put your drunken superhero capes on while I grab videos for a laugh later.” She pulled out her cell phone and shook it in front of my face to emphasize her point.
I exhaled, stepping away from Hazel, her sharpened gaze softening. “Good,” I said at last, conceding to my sister.
“I bet Onyx is going to be the one clinging onto the edge of the coping,” Hazel mused, causing Peri and me to laugh. “He’ll be begging someone to pull him up.” The wistful grin on her face told me she hoped this scenario played out.
“I can assure you, I will not be the one pulling his ass up. This whole thing is his idea. He better clear that jump,” I said,wondering how we were even going to do this or if there was going to be any structure to this little game of his.
“Okay, so here’s the rules,” Onyx announced. “We start out one at a time. We’re all a bit tipsy, right? So, we’ll start slow and make the jump while only slightly inebriated.” He blew out a breath, puffing out his cheeks as he did. “We have to clear the jump back. And once we return, we take another shot and keep going. If you don’t clear the jump, then you’re out.”
“What if we all clear the jump with the exception of one person?” I asked. I wasn’t sure about Cotton’s rooftop jumping abilities, but I wouldn’t bet against him. And gods knew Chrome could clear the jump while blackout drunk and blind. It was Onyx I severely doubted.
“Well, the loser has to…” Onyx chewed on his cheek, looking up at the sky as he pondered the loser’s punishment. His overconfidence either filled me with amusement or concern. I wasn’t quite sure which one to lean into more. “Loser has to return to the palace naked and get past the guards.”
Chrome closed his eyes and dropped his head to his chest as he shook his head. The grin on his face made it clear he fully believed that Onyx would be the loser and had just fucked himself.
“So, what are the rules? Magic or no magic?” I asked him, the smugness on my face unable to be hidden.
“I honestly don’t see how our magic can help us in this case, so sure.” Onyx shrugged without a care. “Fuck it, keep the magic.”
Chrome and I snickered, our fists blocking our laughter. “Alright, then,” Chrome said. “Magic it is.”
“Cotton, you volunteered to go first.” Onyx gestured to the edge of the roof. “Go ahead.”
Cotton twisted at the waist, cracks rippling down his spine as he did, followed by the angling of his neck to rid it of loud pops.
After observing the surrounding area, he climbed up on the ledge and peered down at the drop, then ahead at the jump. He hopped down and strolled to the end of the rooftop. Giving his thighs a quick stretch, he dropped into a runner’s lunge, focus hardening his eyes. The white hair in his sleek haircut stood stark against the inked night.
“You think he’ll make it?” Hazel asked me in a low voice over her shoulder from my side as we stood, bracing to watch him.
Cotton was training to become the next Inquisitor, not a Warrior, but he seemed pretty confident in his skills.
“It’s hard to say,” I murmured. “But I wouldn’t bet against him.”
Cotton took off, sprinting toward the end of the rooftop and then doing what Chrome and I had done many times. He leaped onto the flat ledge and bound himself off the rooftop as he sailed through the air in a lunge.
We all stared as we held our breaths, waiting to see where he landed. As time seemed to slow, and he seemed to stall out, he managed to drop onto the flat roof of the building beside us.
Cotton’s white hair disappeared beneath us and blended into the shadows as we collectively rushed to the ledge and peered down. Once Cotton’s head emerged in the distant light being cast down on him, we all cheered and clapped for his success. Without a smile or any sort of celebration, Cotton walked several feet on the roof and sat cross-legged while he waited for the next jumper.
“Hell, yeah. That’s one person down. Who’s next?” Onyx shifted his gaze back and forth between Chrome and me.
Chrome shrugged. “I’ll go.” He didn’t bother checking the distance or making any judgments of what the jump would require from him as he confidently strolled to the spot Cotton had previously been occupying for his launch location.
Without a stretch, he bolted into a sprint, his chromatic hair streaking past us at a speed none of us could ever hope to attain. With his royal hybrid nature, it made sense why he was so gifted, but no one else knew about that except for Peri and me, leaving the others in awe of his speed and agility.
Chrome leaped onto the ledge of the roof and effortlessly soared the wide gap separating the two buildings. He always made it look so simple, like it was merely a hop to him.
