Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty by Maureen McGowan

Book: Sleeping Beauty by Maureen McGowan Read Free Book Online
Authors: Maureen McGowan
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I be up here every afternoon, copying you?”
    â€œGreat.” He grinned. “Then why are you headed for the stairs?”
    â€œUm, you said I could come down to train. Do you want me to come down or not?” she asked. Tristan was strange and infuriating, even if he did make her feel kind of fluttery inside.
    He folded his bare arms over his broad chest.“A real slayer wouldn’t use the stairs.”
    She looked down to the gymnasium floor and shook her head. “It’s at least a twenty-five-foot drop! I can’t jump that!”
    â€œTake a look around you,” he said, his voice calm and deep. “What can you use to help?”
    There was a rope hanging a few feet away from the balcony. It should be a relatively easy jump, but she’d never tried anything like that before. She had only recently been allowed to walk down a flight of stairs unaccompanied, and had never tried anything where failing had real consequences. She wondered what would happen if she died before she turned sixteen. Would the kingdom be saved—or cursed forever?
    â€œJust concentrate,” he said, breaking her out of her morbid thoughts.
    â€œFocus on the rope, see yourself grabbing it, and don’t think about the floor. It’ll take care of itself.”
    â€œThat’s what I’m worried about.”

    â€œSlayers don’t worry. They train, they develop skills, they practice, and then they act.”
    Trembling, she nodded. He was right. If she wanted this, it was time to prove it. But to leap for the rope, she’d have to stand on the railing. She briefly considered whether she could sit on it, but she wouldn’t get enough momentum for launching from that position.
    She looked down. Tristan looked up at her with calm encouragement on his face. He wasn’t prodding or daring, he wasn’t teasing or goading—he simply nodded encouragement. Confidence flowed into her. She had good balance. She was a good climber. She could jump. She could climb ropes. She’d tried all these things over the past two weeks of sneaking into the empty gym. Other than falling, there wasn’t one part of this challenge she hadn’t done before. The problem was, she’d never done all those things together.
    Pulling courage from deep inside her, she pushed to rest her hips on the railing, then lifted one foot up. After testing the railing with her bare foot and centering herself, she leaned to the side and brought the other foot up.
    She wouldn’t win any prizes for grace—balanced in such an awkward side lunge on the railing with her hands holding onto the wood between her legs—but grace wasn’t what this was about. This was about proving to herself she could do it. And if she didn’t believe she could do it, how could she possibly convince the school’s administration?
    She drew her second foot closer, shifting her weight until she was securely in a crouch. Then she raised her hands in front of her, and balancing, she slowly straightened her legs until she was standing on the railing.

    â€œLucy,” a voice came from behind her, “what are you doing?” Miss Eleanor’s high heels clacked on the wooden balcony floor, approaching quickly.
    â€œIt’s fine!” Tristan yelled up. “She’s coming down to train.”
    â€œLucy, if you go down there . . .” Miss Eleanor’s voice trailed off, as if she’d run out of threats. “If you go down there, I wipe my hands clean of you. I won’t send anyone down to rescue you.” She really had run out of threats. That last one sounded like more of a promise.
    It was now or never. Lucette blocked out everything except the rope, and then leaped. Her hands gripped the rough rope, but she slipped, wishing for once she was wearing her gloves. She wrapped her legs and feet around the swinging rope to stop her rapid, hand-burning slide, and then, with her heart racing

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