Page 156 - Fourth Wing

the cliff’s edge at a nearly vertical climb.

My breath catches in my throat as Sawyer sprints toward the ramp, using
his speed and momentum to carry him two-thirds of the way up the ramp.

Just before he starts to fall, he reaches up with one arm and grasps the lip of

the ramp and hauls himself over the edge.
Rhiannon and I scream and cheer for him. He made it. In an almost

flawless approach.

“Perfect technique!” Professor Emetterio calls out. “That’s exactly what
you should all be doing.”

“Perfect, and yet he was still passed over at Threshing,” Luca snarks.

“Guess the dragons have some sense of taste.”
“Give it a rest, Luca,” Rhi says.

How could someone as smart and athletic as Sawyer not bond? And if he
didn’t, what the hell kind of hope is there for the rest of us?

“I’m too short for the ramp,” I whisper to Rhi.

She glances over at me, and then back to the obstacle. “You’re wicked
fast. If you get your speed up, I bet the momentum will take you to the top.”

Pryor—the shy cadet from the Krovlan border region—struggles on the
swinging steel rods in the third ascent due to some rather predictable

hesitation on his part, but he makes it just as Trina nearly falls at the

shaking pillars, reaching for a rope. I can only make out the flash of red
from her hair when she starts the rotating stair steps, but I hear her scream

all the way to my toes as that particular rope sways near the ground.

“You can do it!” Sawyer shouts down from the top.
“They go in opposite directions!” Aurelie calls up.

“Tynan, start,” Professor Emetterio orders, watching his pocket watch

and not the course.
My heart thuds in my ears when Trina makes it past the steps, and the

drumming doesn’t let up as Rhiannon is called to start. She passes the first
ascent with the grace I’ve come to expect from her before coming to a halt.