The wind stung your face like a hundred tiny needles, sharp and merciless, and for the hundredth time today you wondered why in the name of Thanagar you agreed to this. Your boots were planted on the very edge of the abandoned rooftop, thirty stories above the ground, where the city’s lights blurred into rivers of gold and steel. Your wings twitched behind you — new, untrained, still rebellious like a wild beast refusing its master.

“Don’t overthink it,” Kendra said, her voice calm but firm, standing just a step behind you. Her own wings were folded neatly at her back, bronze feathers catching the fading sunlight and shimmering like blades of fire. She was dressed in her leather harness and flight gear, though her gloves were off — she always said she needed to feel the wind, to read it.

Easy for her to say. She was graceful. Controlled. Every movement sharp, calculated. You? You were seconds away from throwing up.

You inhaled deeply, grounding yourself, but Kendra noticed anyway. She always noticed.

“Relax your shoulders,” she murmured, moving closer, her hand gently pressing between your shoulder blades. “Right now, you’re fighting your own wings. They’re not the enemy. They’re a part of you.”

You shot her a glare over your shoulder. “A part of me that apparently wants me dead. In case you haven’t noticed, every time I try this, I plummet like a brick.”

Kendra smirked — just barely, but it was there. “And yet you’re still alive, aren’t you?”

You hesitated, exhaling through clenched teeth. “For now.”

Her wings unfurled suddenly, snapping open with a rush of air that made your hair whip wildly around your face. She stepped forward until she was standing at the very edge with you, her body aligned perfectly, her gaze fixed on the horizon.

“I wasn’t born knowing how to fly either,” she admitted softly, eyes distant, as though she were seeing something long past. “I’ve died hundreds of times. Reborn. Lived whole lives before this one. And every time… this part is the hardest. Learning to trust the air.”

You looked at her, surprised by the rare vulnerability in her voice. Kendra rarely spoke about her past lives.

She turned her head, catching your expression, and for a moment, her gaze softened. “I’ll be right there with you,” she promised, her hand briefly brushing yours. “I won’t let you fall.”

You almost laughed. “Pretty sure gravity’s not gonna listen to you.”

Kendra leaned closer, her lips inches from your ear, her voice dropping into a low whisper. “That’s why you have wings.”

Then she stepped off the ledge.

No warning. No hesitation. One second she was there, and the next she was gone, diving headfirst into the open sky. Your chest seized in panic until her wings flared, catching the wind effortlessly as she curved upward, climbing higher with every beat.

She glanced back, hovering with perfect balance, and called out, “Your turn!”

Your heart hammered against your ribs so violently it almost drowned out everything else. The city was so far below it felt like the earth had vanished entirely. Your wings twitched again, sensing what was coming. You muttered something you were sure would make Thanagarian elders proud — though Kendra would probably yell at you later for it — and jumped.

The first drop was terrifying. The air roared past your ears, tearing the breath from your lungs, and for a heartbeat you were certain this was the end. But then… you remembered Kendra’s voice. Trust the air.

Your wings snapped open.

For the first time, you didn’t fight them. You let them guide you, feeling the wind catch under their span and lift you higher. Suddenly, the fall slowed, turned, curved — and you were soaring.

Kendra’s laughter echoed somewhere ahead of you, wild and free, and when you looked over, she was flying upside down, grinning like this was the only thing that had ever mattered.

“You’re getting it!” she shouted over the rush of the wind.

You swallowed the exhilaration burning in your chest, looking down at the city far below.

Maybe you were cut for this.