Stunneddoesn’t even begin to cover it. Clarke faces the window as the shuttle rises away from the city so no one can see the expression she’s making. “I’m sorry?”
“For me to win, Oliver had to lose. I hoped us being on the same team at Provenance would help, because at least if we won the team championship, we’d both win. But he couldn’t get past me raising the individual trophy, me standing above him on the podium. It bred resentment and secrecy. A relationship can’t survive that.”
Clarke’s throat gets tighter the longer Delphine talks. “That sounds really difficult.”
“Thanks,” Delphine says, sarcasm thick enough to taste. “You might be thinking that you and Julian can beat the odds. You might be thinking you and Julian can make it. You won’t.”
“Julian and I aren’t—”
“Spare me the denial. If you’re dumb enough to blow up your career over a relationship with someone who will never be able to put you first, that’s on you.”
Delphine fixes one last pin. Clarke turns quickly when she feels her start to move away. “Wait! Why’d you stay with Oliver for as long as you did, if it was hopeless?”
“Because I loved him,” Delphine says simply. A dark look flits across her face. She adds, “And because someone I thought I could trust told me to keep trying.”
Clarke’s breath is short. Does she mean…“Who?”
Delphine’s eyes go to the front of the shuttle. She looks between Engel and Julian, then down to Clarke.
“Val Dumond,” she says slowly, “is single-minded in her pursuit of victory. It makes her an effective team principal. It does not make her a good person.”
Shit.Shit.
Clarke clears her throat. She needs confirmation. “You think she did it to mess with you?”
“Oliver and I were already having problems when I was still with Chronicle. I thought about leaving him then, honestly, but Val convinced me to give him another chance. When I decided the only way to do that was to join him at Provenance, I figured Val would never talk to me again. But two seasons later, she approached me after a race one day. Said that I’d seemed a little lost. Offered to listen, if I ever wanted to talk. Told me that some things were more important than the leaderboard, if you can believe that.”
Clarke can believe it. She can believe it because that’s exactly what Val said to her. Months ago, at Lion’s Head, those were the exact words Val used to open the door with Clarke.
“I was more naive back then,” Delphine goes on. “More trusting. I didn’t see what she was doing, using what I told her to mess with me, until…Gods, far later than I should’ve. She’s ruthless. If you won’t listen to my warning about getting involved with Julian because any relationship between racers in the same circuit is doomed from the beginning, consider that angle instead. The second Val thinks you’re a threat to Julian’s focus, you’re dead.”
Delphine moves a few rows away. Julian sees her go and looks to Clarke, a wordless inquiry on his face.
Clarke musters up a smile and sinks into her chair as much as the dress will allow. She’s not hiding, she tells herself. She’s just…compartmentalizing. She’ll think about Val and her influence and if Clarke and Julian are strong enough to wade through the snarls of being direct competitors after tonight, because if what Clarke’s planning doesn’t work out perfectly, she’s going to be out of a job next year anyway, and then it’s all moot.
Tonight is about burning bridges and seeing if something new can be built out of the wreckage. Everything else will have to wait.
42
The gala takes place ina floating palace. It’s modeled after what Mount Olympus, the mythological home to the ancient Grecian Olympian gods, might have looked like. There are twelve large, interconnected buildings, all columns and masonry in off-white stone, nestled among green hills that hover three kilometers above Olympic City in a bed of perpetual clouds.
The first portion of the night is a display of the ships and cars. Each circuit is assigned to a different building, so the Formula E guys head off for the Temple of Demeter while Clarke, Delphine, Engel, and Julian make their way to the Temple of Ares. Delphine leaves the rest of them behind without a backward glance, striding after the small droid sent to guide them (unnecessary, as they all had to study maps of the palace so as to be able to direct sponsors if asked). Engel rolls his eyes and jogs to catch up with her. Clarke and Julian walk more sedately down several flights of grand, elaborately carved stairs curving along a hill.
Julian offers Clarke his elbow. “Everything okay with Delphine?”
Clarke doesn’t need his elbow. She’s perfectly capable ofhandling herself in heels, and the bubble of breathable air held in place around the palace by the same type of force field used at the paddock keeps wind to a minimum. She takes his arm anyway. She’ll talk to Julian about the concerns Delphine raised. Shewill. Just not tonight. “She was helping with my hair.”
“Your hair looks perfect.Youlook perfect.”
“You clean up pretty nicely, too,” Clarke says, making a show out of looking him over. It’s an understatement. The sleek lines of the black tux accentuate Julian’s build; the green of his accessories brings out the amber flecks in his eyes. His hair is styled in that perfect balance of neat and messy, a few stray curls left to fall rakishly over his forehead.
“I know.” Julian preens, adjusting one of his lapels. The Chronicle logo is embossed on the fabric. “How jealous can I expect you to get when people flirt with me tonight?”
Clarke’s laugh carries, drifting out into the open sky. Other sounds catch her attention in comparison: people calling to one another between buildings, doing final preparations; the rumble of ships and cars as they’re moved into position; the hum of an orchestra warming up in the Temple of Zeus.
“Is that a no on the jealousy?” Julian pouts, then switches to a wheedling tone. “Could be fun to see which of us loses our cool first. There’s this portico off the back of the Temple of Apollo. We could sneak off there after dinner and—”
Clarke darts to the step in front of him and claps her hand over his mouth. “Julian. Behave.”
