Chapter Twenty-Three #4
But it feels good to be happy about something without immediately punishing myself for it.
Then I remember not everyone is back yet.
My eyes go straight toward the course.
Reign comes in first, Lena already moving toward him before he has his helmet off. Revel follows not long after, throwing both arms up like he personally won the entire TT despite finishing nowhere near the front.
“Fourth!” he yells when he sees me. “Who the fuck let you be good at this too?”
“What can I say, I’m extremely talented.”
“More like extremely annoying.”
“Aw, someone sounds jealous.”
“Deeply.”
Then Draygon comes through.
The second he removes his helmet, his eyes find mine across the paddock.
That look hits differently than any celebration could.
I see the relief in his face before anything else, and I know mine probably looks exactly the same. He makes his way toward me, stopping close enough that his hand brushes briefly over my waist.
“You good?”
“Fourth.”
His eyebrows lift. “Seriously?”
“Mhmm I even beat Talon.”
That gets the faintest hint of a smile. “That might be more important to you than fourth.”
“It absolutely is.”
He leans in and presses a quick kiss against my temple before looking toward the course again.
We’re both waiting for the same person.
At first, I don’t panic.
The starts are staggered. People finish at different times. Timing updates aren’t always immediate, and I know all of that because I’ve spent enough time watching this fucking board to understand exactly how unreliable it can feel when you need information now.
Still, when another minute passes and Thorne’s number doesn’t update, the happiness from a few seconds ago begins draining out of me.
Andre moves closer to the screen.
Talon stops talking.
Sayshen lowers his water bottle.
Draygon shifts beside me until his arm is almost touching mine.
Nobody says anything.
We don’t have to.
My heart starts climbing into my throat.
I can hear Wolfe’s voice if I let myself.
Static.
That calm certainty in his tone when he knew there was nowhere left to go.
At least I got to know you both love me.
I close my eyes for half a second.
No.
Not again.
When I open them, the board changes.
Thorne’s number updates.
Finished.
The breath leaves me so fast I almost double over.
“Oh, thank fuck.”
I see his bike a moment later, and whatever professionalism I still had disappears completely.
I run.
Someone calls my name behind me, probably because sprinting through a working paddock is objectively a stupid idea, but I don’t give a shit. Thorne rolls in, gets one foot down and has barely pulled his helmet free when I slam straight into him.
He staggers backward and catches me automatically.
“Bloody hell, Echo.”
“You took too fucking long.”
His arms tighten around me. “I’m here.”
I bury my face against his leathers and grab the back of them with both hands.
“You took too long.”
His hand slides up the back of my neck.
Then his voice drops beside my ear.
“Told you I’d come back.”
My throat closes and the tears come before I can stop them, relief mixing with everything else until there isn’t any point trying to separate one emotion from another.
Thorne holds me through it, cheek resting against my hair, and a second later Draygon reaches us and wraps one arm around both of us.
When I finally lift my head, the whole paddock looks different.
My father has Talon and Sayshen close, one hand gripping the back of each of their necks while he looks like he’s trying very hard not to fall apart himself. Lena is with Reign. Cece has her arms around Revel, who is pretending he doesn’t have tears in his eyes and failing spectacularly.
Andre stands a few feet away with his headset hanging around his neck.
I watch him look at each of us.
Count us.
Every rider.
Every person he sent onto that course after losing one two days ago.
When he gets to the end, his shoulders drop.
He turns his face away and wipes quickly beneath one eye.
Nobody comments on it.
Wolfe’s parents are watching too.
His mother is crying, but there is a small smile mixed in with it as she looks around at the team her son loved and sees everyone who went out come back.
That might be the part that stays with me longest.
Because survival doesn’t cancel grief.
Apparently they can sit right beside each other.
I pull away from Thorne enough to breathe and look back toward the timing board.
Fourth.
My first actual race with the Speed Demons, my first fucking TT, and I came fourth.
I beat Talon, which is obviously going to become unbearable for everyone around me.
But as good as that feels, it isn’t the part of today that matters most.
Everyone came back.
The race mattered. Wolfe’s tribute mattered. Taking his open place on the grid mattered, and placing fourth feels fucking incredible.
But seeing Talon, Sayshen, Reign, Revel, Draygon and Thorne standing here again matters more.
I look down at the three on my new team leathers before glancing toward Wolfe’s family, then back at the people crowded around me.
One final ride for him, and this time, we brought everyone home.