23
Karol Bruce was the first one she saw, stepping out from between the housing units.
He had a poisonous, gleeful look on his still-bruised face.
Then another cousin appeared on the other side of Asta.
Then another. She turned and came face to face with Hummer himself.
He was wearing a long, rather soiled raincoat.
Asta could almost smell the gunpowder on the lot of them, the smoke, the blood. They were all looking at her, and yet their eyes seemed to go straight through her, as if she was the illusion of a woman, liable to break apart at any moment.
‘She wins,’ Hummer said.
‘What are you talking about?’ Asta tensed.
‘Tomorrow. You won’t beat her, and neither will he.’ His eyes bored through Asta. ‘If he takes it from her, someone’s gonna pay for it. Could be him, could be you. But you won’t like it.’
‘Who? Take what?’
Hummer made a sour face at Karol, who shook his head in disappointment. Asta looked from one face to another in the failing light, slowly comprehending. Her jumpsuit could not keep the chill of the coming night from sinking into her bones. He wanted her to throw the race.
‘What? No! If she wins, she wins. What am I supposed to do about it?’
‘Seraphin. He’s your responsibility.’ Hummer tipped his head in the direction of Felix’s room. ‘Use whatever methods you like.’ His sneer made Asta’s skin crawl. ‘But stop him.’
‘No,’ Asta said. ‘I’m not going to do that.’ She regretted the words as soon as she saw Hummer’s shoulders tighten.
‘Oh, yes you will,’ he said, his voice soft, almost sing-songy. ‘You know how I know?’
Asta held her tongue.
‘You ain’t stupid.’
‘I’ll pay you back,’ Asta blurted. ‘That’s what this is about, right? The money.’ She would ask Felix for it after all, though the thought turned her stomach. ‘Then I won’t owe you anything.’
Karol and one of the other cousins exchanged a throaty laugh that made Asta shiver.
Hummer took one small, ominous step closer to Asta. ‘The money? I forgot all about the money. Keep it, sweetheart. Congratulations! You got yourself a promotion. Hoity-toity. New job, new responsibilities.’
‘I don’t want it. I want out.’
Hummer smacked his lips in disgust. ‘Didn’t ask what you wanted, did I?’
‘Look, I don’t even know what you expect me to do,’ Asta pleaded. She reached out and grabbed the sleeve of Hummer’s grungy raincoat.
‘Do what you do.’ He dusted her fingers away dismissively, and she let go.
Asta stared at him, not understanding.
‘Do you think we chose you by accident?’ Karol cut in.
‘Everybody knows what you did to Seraphin at that school. It’s not that hard, Ek.
The man said to do what you do. So do what you do.
’ As if that was an answer to all her questions, the Bruces turned and trudged away down the avenue into the gathering gloom.
But I didn’t do it, Asta wanted to say. It wasn’t what you think. That’s not who I am.
Except that to everyone else, that was who she was.
Asta had lived with that lie so long that she herself had almost begun to believe it.
Every decision she had made since then, she had made thinking that she was the kind of person who risked the life of the one she loved because winning mattered more than anything.
For the first time in her life, Asta wished she were back on the Ekenberg Farm.
Right now, she could be learning the ways of the seasons and crop rotations from her parents and working the land beside her cousin Leif, and Felix might be weaving illusions somewhere, happy and free.
Pikki would be uninjured, running her textbook-perfect races.
Gem would be getting some hotshot band their first big break.
But instead, Hummer and his greasy henchmen were standing here telling her that if she didn’t take care of Felix, they would.
How had she let this happen?
She should have listened to her parents when they had tried to get her to come home. It was at the Turbo Cup, the day she qualified for Silverscale – the first and only time they had come to see her race.
Gem had brought her to the stables under the pretense that Carmine’s leg was bothering him, and there they were, Linden and Maeve Ekenberg, chatting away with the Bruces.
It had felt so strange to see them standing there together as Tru rambled on to Asta’s father about the dietary regime that she kept for the dragons.
It was like seeing characters from two different TV shows onscreen together.
Asta’s parents had bragged about how well Leif was doing on the farm.
‘That Leif’s a real natural,’ her father kept saying.
‘A real natural.’ And he had hinted that Asta could come home and join her cousin.
The market prices were favorable right now.
The farm was actually making some money these days.
Always ready for a game of one-upmanship, Hummer made Nat tell them about the money she was winning at tournaments.
‘I’m not saying you can’t make money at it,’ Linden had said. ‘But not all money is worth making.’
Hummer had curled his lip in disgust. Then he laughed, one loud and grating laugh. ‘That has got to be one of the wrongest things I’ve ever heard anybody say. All money is worth making.’
Later, when they were finally alone with Asta, Linden had been the one to say what they were thinking. ‘He was wrong, Asta girl. You know that, right?’
Asta hadn’t known what he was talking about. ‘Who?’
‘Your friend with the little hat,’ Maeve had said. Asta could still remember her hands, wrapped around her purse straps, blanched white at the knuckles. ‘And that woman.’
Linden had sighed. ‘Chasing money is a dangerous game.’
‘Why don’t you just come home?’ Maeve had asked
And of course, Asta had refused. She was one race away from qualifying for Silverscale. They didn’t understand her, she had told them, and they didn’t believe in her. Maybe Asta had been right about that, maybe not. But they had been right about Hummer.
If she had just stayed home and done what they told her, she would have saved everyone all this trouble. But it was too late for regrets now. It was time for her to decide what she was going to do.