Magic University Book One: The Siren and the Sword by Cecilia Tan Page A

students with binoculars were scanning the sky in the direction of Powderhouse Circle.
    “Oh for the love of...” Frost went directly to the edge and leaped, even as Remy reached out a hand to stop him.
    “Crazy-ass maniac!” Remy shouted after him. “Now we’ll probably end up with both of them stranded in Somerville somewhere.”
    “Give him a break, Rem.” Caitlyn took off her amulet and the glow around her faded, darkening her naturally red hair. “If he finds him, the broom’s the quickest way to get him back here.”
    “Or maybe he just didn’t want to give it up.” Remy took her amulet and the broom, then went to collect the others. “What do you...?” Kyle started to ask Alex something, but Alex was not standing where he had been a minute before. He shook his head and asked Jess instead. “Will they be okay, you think?”
    “Yeah, probably,” Jess said. “Nichols probably ran out of gas early for some reason—either his broom just didn’t have enough, or he wasn’t channeling his energy well...”
    “Hey, Kyle!”
    Kyle looked up to see Alex waving to him from the edge of the building with a broom in his hand. “Come here and try this!”
    Kyle and Jess exchanged a look. “Go on,” she said. “You know you want to.”
    He hurried over to Alex who urged him to take the mask and cape off. “We can both go. Stand in front of me and put the broom through our legs like this...” Alex pulled him close with one arm. “Then the amulet’s ribbon needs to go around both our heads.” A student Kyle didn’t know put the amulet on them. “Okay, Ace, you ready for this?”
    “Won’t we weigh twice as much?” Kyle asked, a little nervous.
    “And won’t we have twice the magical power a single person has?” Alex countered.
    “Um, yeah,” Kyle said, but in his head he was thinking,
What if I don’t have any magical power after all? What if I’m just one of those Sighted weirdos? What if we fall off this building and die?
    But then there wasn’t any more thinking to be done because Alex jumped them both off the building. Kyle felt his stomach hit the roof of his mouth, but then he opened his eyes because it didn’t feel like they were plummeting to their deaths. It felt like they were soaring.
    “Pretty cool, huh?” Alex said, in his ear. “Just keep your knees together.”
    “Okay.” The warming draught they’d taken before was still at work, and where Alex pressed against his back and where his arm held around Kyle’s middle felt almost tingling with heat. The rush of the wind on his face was delightful as they flew over the Yard, right past Kyle’s own window at the top of Gladius House, then turned in a wide arc to head back. Kyle laughed as he realized Alex’s green parrot was flying alongside them.
    “We’ll come in as slow as we can. Let the momentum carry you into a run,” Alex said as they approached the roof. Kyle thought of how Frost had done a little jog.
    Their landing wasn’t perfect, as they tripped each other up a little, and only quick thinking by Alex saved Kyle from being choked by the amulet, but as Kyle ended up falling into Jess’s arms, he counted the maneuver a success. The broom was passed on to someone else.
    “Thanks, Alex.” Kyle realized his heart was still pounding from the adrenaline rush. “That was really something.”
    “No problem, Ace.” Alex whistled and the parrot came back to his shoulder. “You guys heading back to the dance?”
    “I think we had enough dancing,” Jess said, her hand sliding down Kyle’s hip.
    “Ahh. I see. Well, you kids have fun.” Alex gave them a little wave and then headed over to some other students, pulling the pipe from a pocket somewhere and waving it enticingly. From overhead came a joyful laugh, and Kyle looked up to see another pair go by on the other broom, waving to them.
    “Do you want to stay and watch more?” Jess asked. “I’m not sure how many more flights there will be.”
    Kyle smiled.