Page 115 of Tailwind

Heat puffed out of his nose. Yes, he was.

‘Well, I’m sorry, okay?’ I led him out of the aviary where Bach already waited with Aloux. It would be the battle of the metallics. ‘It’s not like I don’t want to do well. If anything flying with you makes the nerves worse. I used to lie awake at night imagining what it would be like, running through all the moves I’d seen in the races …’

If Surquet had eyebrows, one of them would have been raised as he side-eyed me. He could doubt all he wanted, it was true. I had been eleven years old when Surquet debuted in Volitant Forge. It was after Cam had left home, but before she’d taken me with her. During the day I’d raced with Theo, and during the night I’d raced with Surquet … and Ascil and Aloux, and all the others Bach had flown before.

It was wild that it had become reality.

‘Ready?’ Bach had his helmet on, faceplate up, already seated on Aloux.

‘As I’ll ever be.’

I went through the same motions I did every morning. Helmet on, training spear gripped, up into the saddle and ready to go. Though I’d been lasting longer before Bach tagged me first, I still hadn’t been able to use the remaining time to get him back.

‘Just a second—’ I said over the comms to Bach, before lifting my helmet back off. I leaned forward and tapped Surquet’s shoulder. ‘Hey, this is going to sound weird, but can we lose as fast as possible, please?’

I braced myself for another honk of irritation, but it didn’t come. Instead, he merely closed his inner transparent eyelid, his intelligent pink eyes still watching me. His head twitched.

That was as close to an ‘Ugh, fine’ as I was going to get. So I stuffed my helmet back on and hoped my plan would count for something.

‘Let’s go!’

We took off, using our thirty-second head start to put some distance between us and Bach. Both Forge dragons were bred for sharp, tight circuits so navigating through the jungle was easy – for both riders. I had Surquet push too hard through the bend in the trees, leaving talon marks in the trunks.

A familiar hollow thump hit my shoulder.

‘Time to switch. Get your head straight, Lena,’ Bach’s words came through clear on the comms.

A flash of yellow gold through the trees to my right was enough to start our chase. There was a reason I’d daydreamed of flying these dragons. Yes, it was to drown out the feelings of being alone, whatever … but the reason it worked was because even the thought of racing with them was thrilling. It was fun.

Maybe the drake race had reminded me. Maybe I’d managed to pull my own head out of my ass for long enough to realize how lucky I was. Either way, if the version of me from twelve years ago had seen me doing this without trying to pull off the coolest moves possible, she’d have used all the bad words Cam had taught her and sent me home with a kick.

So that’s what I did. Instead of picking the optimal path through the trees to gain on Bach and Aloux, I nudged Surquet up through the canopy. As we arced into the open air we barrel-rolled before diving back down. We swam through the jungle like it was the ocean, breaking the surface to show off like it was the air we needed.

It was the first time I hadn’t tailed Bach directly. I kept an eye on him, on the way the trees below us moved as Aloux blasted through them, but the hunt had changed. As far as I could tell, he wasn’t sure how to respond.

He was clever and, thankfully, considered me to be not stupid either. So any attempt to pretend I didn’t know what I was doing wouldn’t work. However, I could use this against him.

Surquet responded in earnest to my directions. The first time we’d flown together the week before I’d been rigid in my plans and he’d followed them dutifully. Now though he was eager. I could feel it in the way he launched into the flashy moves. When I had him pull off a hairpin turn in view of Bach he flicked his tail like a whip, the fin on the end catching the sun filtering through the leaves.

I followed his lead, spinning the spear as we shot down a straight slope before we doubled back to the others. My heart was light as we flew, feeling in sync with Surquet like our hearts were beating in time with one another.

All of which had the wonderful effect of annoying Bach. With the comms open I could hear the occasional grunt when I changed directions with no apparent cause. I wasn’t the one being hunted, but I was putting space between us. I didn’t know what he would do, but I knew he would do something.

Bach would be trying to parse my movements so he could counter them. He would be using those famous crystal-blues to look for a pattern as I showboated on Surquet. He would find one, but he would be wrong, because I was having fun coming up with moves that looked good in slow motion for the imaginary crowds.

If it had been a race he would have flown on, reaching the end goal of the finish line on the final lap. This wasn’t a race though, it was a training session. Bach’s goal was to teach me something. To do that he couldn’t just fly off to the other side of the ranch.

So he stayed close, trying to taunt me into following. As he drew closer I let Surquet dance away, breaking through the canopy again to sun his rosy wings. We caught the wind for a few moments, slowing. Bach had been about to dash ahead in the trees beneath, but leaned into a turn to stay nearby instead.

I smiled.

The spear shot downwards, towards the apex of the corner where he would be slowest. The spot was obscured, but I saw Aloux’s yellow gold scales disappear the same time as my spear.

‘Fuck!’

I whooped at Bach’s curse, throwing my fists up above my head. Surquet rolled, not caring that my hands were no longer on the reins. I laughed as the saddle straps tightened on my waist and the world turned upside down. We’d done it.

We landed at the aviary where I leapt out of the saddle and ran to Surquet’s head, skidding underneath the tall dragon.