Leaps between buildings

She leapt off the rooftop and glided soundlessly to another. Then she sprinted, vaulted, climbed the brick and the black-iron fire escapes, savored the whip-kiss of cold wind on her chest, and with every step her heart pushed hot blood into her fingertips and toes.
She lived again beneath the limitless sky, and though her jungle was brick, concrete, asphalt, and metal, it still had a pulse and life of its own beneath her soles. She loved the city even more after dark, when people emptied the streets and she was free to roam unseen. She explored the rooftops in her block, learned the best routes, the easiest jumps—though she performed the hard ones, too, pleased that her season of near-mortal weakness had passed with something so simple as a stroke of Ms. Cross’s pen.
Only mortal laws bound her here. If she could stay free, she would only grow stronger and stronger.


Chapter 3, Page 40