Page 55 of Tailwind

Theo wiggled his brows at me, biting his lip. He knew I couldn’t mention that we’d been competing for the past couple of races and Colly was, in fact, better.

‘Especially for a girl!’ he continued happily, like it didn’t completely undercut his compliment.

Quinn even nodded along. Theo was unphased, without any reaction at all. It made me miss Josie.

‘I did well during the Wyvern Series,’ Colly kept going, perhaps unable to stop talking even if he wanted to. ‘But that was because you three had already left. Once you were gone, so was the competition. I ended up winning the title for two years before being old enough to fly in Volitant.’

I hadn’t realized he’d been so good in the junior series. That admittedly took away the sting of him being so good as a rookie. It also explained how he’d gotten a job so young.

‘Prevere has a type then,’ I mused.

Quinn looked up, still eating his meal. My comparison between him and Colly had caught his attention, his green eyes narrowing slightly.

Colly kept going. ‘Right. Quinn had two before moving up too. He had you two on his tail the whole time though. I don’t know why, but my years flying in Wyvern weren’t nearly as close.’

He really didn’t know how to take a compliment.

‘I bet the lack of competition was less about the others being bad and more to do with you being good. I’ve seen you fly.’ I nudged him with my elbow. I hadn’t been keeping tabs on the Wyvern Cup in years, but talent like his didn’t come around often.

‘Not to mention Quinn was twenty-one when he got into Volitant, Col. You’re three years ahead of him.’ Theo scraped his fork for the last bits of his food, almost done with his meal already. He’d kept his eyes down while speaking, but I knew that teasing tone of voice. He was waiting for a reaction from Quinn. It was nice to know it wasn’t just me he liked to irritate.

Quinn didn’t react at all. He just kept on eating. If I ever got the chance I would ask him how he did it.

Colly, however, rushed to his teammate’s defence. ‘Only because there wasn’t space! He had to wait for someone to leave!’

I watched the thick layer of grey clouds above us and thought back a few years.

‘Colly has a point. The Volitant Chroma pack was full of great talent while we were in the Wyvern Series. Thorne’s retirement from Mirendi set off a domino effect of riders swapping teams, leaving room for Quinn at Prevere. The addition of Ballenir the year after—’ I stopped myself. Finishing that thought out loud would be taking a dramatic turn. I needed to be calm like Quinn.

By some miracle, Quinn decided to take over. ‘Whatever Thorne did on his retirement before coming back has ruined him. He’s been flying like shit.’

Theo started choking. Colly thumped on his back while his head was on a swivel, as if paranoid Thorne would materialize out of thin air.

I stabbed my remaining piece of potato so hard that the tines of the fork pierced the box underneath. I sucked in the cool evening air through my nose and tried to let it go. Quinn had been talking about Thorne’s performance since he came back at the beginning of last year’s season. He was correct, Thorne had been flying abysmally and, given the very obvious message I’d received via the shockstick in my ribs, he’d been doing it on purpose for the sake of someone else.

‘Be thankful for it – it means he stays away from us in the front half of the pack.’ Theo directed the comment to Quinn, but from the self-satisfied smile on his face I knew it was meant for me.

‘Bold of you to say you’re in the top five when you spent most of last race up Thorne’s asshole, Vaspre.’ I wouldn’t let Theo get away with insulting my racing when we’d flown side by side for half the race.

‘You watched me? How sweet. Here I was thinking you didn’t care about me anymore.’

I flinched as the feeble wooden fork snapped in my hand. Being drawn into an argument where I couldn’t defend myself without spilling my secret was a bad idea.

‘I was watching my dragon actually. Not everyone is in love with you and your slow-motion shampoo cast ads.’

Colly giggled. I could have hugged him for the backup.

‘I thought you were keeper for Rosinder and Bach?’ Quinn asked, brows furrowed.

‘Uh, no. Gottyk.’ I deflated. ‘And Thorne.’

‘Damn, sorry.’ Quinn’s sympathetic reply was the best I’d ever gotten from anyone. It didn’t do anything to change Thorne’s terrorizing nature, but at least he acknowledged it.

‘What?’ Theo looked between us.

Quinn hesitated. ‘My brother used to run augments for Mirendi when Thorne was there. Said he took out his mistakes on everyone but himself. A real piece of work.’

My shoulders tightened.