Page 57 of Tailwind

‘I’ll play your rivalry game, Vaspre, but that’s it. No sharing, caring or any of that shit. We tried it once and that was more than enough for me.’

I spun on my foot and stomped back to the aviary. He didn’t call after me again.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

‘Are you ready for this?’ Josie’s voice was clear and smooth. It was soothing to have her in my ears. Almost as soothing as being on dragonback, perched in the branches of an ancient redwood, counting down the minutes to launch.

Hector was on the regular comms that I had to tap to respond to, but the communication between us had started off terribly and had only gotten worse. My gut still twisted when I gave my terse replies. It wasn’t his fault – it was mine for pretending to be Thorne. So, really, it was Thorne’s fault.

I didn’t mind blaming him. I’d happily take every chance I had.

‘Lena?’

‘Yes! Sorry. I’m too used to ignoring comms.’

Gottyk twitched underneath me, his tail lashing from side to side as we waited in the treetops.

‘Too bad. There will be no ignoring me.’

I smiled. No, there wouldn’t. Josie had run me through the proposed race strategies three times the night before and made me repeat them back to her twice. After the run-in with the other riders over dinner, hanging out with Josie and talking about all things racing had been a breeze in comparison.

‘How are the others looking?’ I asked.

‘Good, unfortunately. Obviously Victrolia will do well here, but those aren’t the ones we’ll be fighting for position. If you come up against them don’t waste your time blocking them. Focus on Ballenir and Mirendi. They’ve all flown here before.’

‘What about Prevere?’ The blue dragons and their riders were talented, with Colly being the only other rookie this season. If there was a chance I could get ahead of one of them, it would be him.

‘If there’s an opportunity, take it. They fly fast, but clean. Low risk.’

I nodded, then remembered Josie’s warning. ‘Okay, got it.’

‘The team will count you in. I’ll see you on the other side of launch.’

True to form, what Josie said came to pass. Hector gave me the thirty-second warning, then the ten.

The start flare erupted above the canopy.

Gottyk sprang from the branch. Splinters sprayed everywhere from the wrenches his claws left behind. Needles rained down on us from the trees as the great redwoods shook from the force. My flight suit emulated the scattering on my shoulders and back.

The first dive was a blur of red and green. The giant trunks elongated in my peripheral even with the visor lenses trying to keep up. I tapped Gottyk with my feet to have him spread his wings early. Launching from halfway up the tree only gave us mediocre height and fighting our way back up from the forest floor would be a waste of the second-place advantage we’d been lucky enough to draw.

Jas Thokan was the sole rider ahead, already blending into the forest on the back of his green Victrolia dragon. Only the flashes of gold light under his armour kept him from disappearing completely. The longer we could stay on their tail the better.

The first lap flew by. The benefit of starting so far forward was incredible. Everyone else was playing catch-up while we could focus on flying into clean air. It had been so long since I’d been racing at the front that I’d forgotten the joy it brought. Not getting into an immediate struggle was blissful.

‘Go for an arsenal as soon as possible.’ Josie’s instruction was clear and simple. Being at the front of the pack meant we’d be facing the arcans first.

‘Where?’

Josie had mapped out all previous arsenal locations on the circuit map, with the frequencies of how often they’d been used, as well as history to indicate any patterns.

‘Best chance is the medium route. Take the first left.’

‘Got it.’

I followed Jas around the last two corners ahead of the route split, shooting behind him on the racing line. Shots of adrenaline danced through me at the thrill of it. Gottyk built up our height, just as the Victrolia green ahead did. It made winning look like a reasonable goal.

‘Jas looks to be going on the short route. He’ll be building up distance rather than strength.’