Asta had tried to argue with him. ‘Youdid.Everyone did. I could have listened, you know. You don’t have to fix this for me.’
But she was scared. Scared that if she opened the door, Hummer would be on the other side. Or Flávia Gameiro. Or the police. Or somebody. She kept the door locked and the shades down. It would have been smarter, she thought upon reflection, to hide out in someone else’s room. But who did she have at this point that would shelter her?
She imagined Felix in his own room, rewriting his story of her once again. After all this, it turned out shewasthe kind of person who would risk other people’s lives for her own ends. She was the kind of person who helped an evil man become more powerful, just to save her own skin.
And his, though Felix did not know that. She had tried to protect him yesterday. She had tried to warn him. But she had almost failed catastrophically. If Essie hadn’t caught herself. . . the thought was agony. Asta was as much a threat to Felix as anyone. For his own sake, he should stay as far away from her as possible.
Asta had offered no defense last night when she was called before the NFDRA board. Flávia had been irate. Asta just nodded and waited for the words that would tell her that she was free.
But to her amazement, Tess Curie had stood and spoken for her.
‘You can’t change the rules after the fact. That ain’t fair.’
‘We’re not changing the rules, Tess. The cut from below on Seraphin was a clear violation.’
‘And she sat the penalty.’
‘She used the time toalter the course,’ said another board member, an old man with wiry eyebrows and a folded handkerchief in his pocket. ‘That kind of interference flies in the face of gentlemanly competition.’
Tess snorted. ‘Too bad she ain’t a gentleman.’ There were a few titters of laughter at this. ‘I’ll give it to you, Roy: it was a dirty move.’ Tess shot Asta a disagreeable look. ‘But that’s what they said about spikes the first time they showed up. Now, everybody’s got ’em. We can say itain’tallowed. We can say itis. But until we make that call, you can’t punish her for it.’
Flávia had shaken her head stubbornly. ‘This is all semantics. The fact is, she came off her dragon.’ Her tone made it sound as if the matter was settled, and Asta had breathed a little sigh of relief.
Tess sighed, too. ‘We decided this last year, woman. Attached means legal. She wasonthe dragon. Technically.’
‘But what was the substance of her attachment?’ Dr. Isley had asked.
Tess had been unmoved. ‘Who gives a shit? You saw her. She was swinging around like a dingleberry. She was fucking attached.’
‘The rules stipulate an attachment bytether,’ Dr. Isley had replied, his finger marking the spot in his rulebook. ‘I, for one, would like to inspect the item to ascertain whether itisa tether.’
‘Asta?’ Flávia had said, looking at her expectantly. ‘May we see the tether you were using?’
But Felix had already released the magic by then, and Asta had nothing to show.
‘Where did you get it?’ Dr. Isley pressed.
‘Someone made it for me,’ Asta had answered, but she refused to tell them who. Let him be spared this, at least.
Flávia had sent everyone home well after midnight. The board members would reconvene in the morning and deliberate. A press conference would be called to announce the winners by ten o’clock. The award ceremony would be held, as planned, at noon.
The press conference was going to start in a few minutes. Huddled under the blankets, Asta listened to strangers debating her choices, condemning and defending her in choreographed turns. She wanted to wake Carmine up to keep her company, but his gentle snoring on the other side of the wall was its own kind of comfort.
The sound of Gem’s key card in the door drew Asta’s attention away from the TV. The door swung open, letting in the too bright light of outside, making Asta wince. Gem entered with Asta’s parents behind him.
Asta’s mother rushed to her in the bed and threw her arms around her.
‘Oh, you’re okay. You’re okay. You’re okay. Oh, thank god.’
‘What are you doing here?’ Asta asked, embracing her mother and meeting her father’s eyes over her shoulder in the dim light of the room.
Linden Ekenberg pressed his lips together in an expression that told Asta nothing. Maeve leaned back from the hug and inspected the parts of Asta that she could see. She poked at the ice pack bandaged to Asta’s purple-bruised thigh like a nurse checking her patient.
‘Are you really alright, honey?’
‘Mama, I’m fine.’
‘We were so worried after your accident in that first race, and then you almost crashed with Felix– you scared the living daylights out of me, Asta.’
