CHAPTER TWELVE
Orange scales surrounded me when I next cracked my eyes open. Pain shot up my spine and into my neck the moment I thought about moving. Copper pellets dug into my scalp, my head feeling twice its usual weight. I wasn’t wearing my helmet.
I wasn’t wearing my helmet.
I scrabbled for something to latch on to and haul myself up. Gottyk was there. I was in the aviary. His big brown eyes loomed over me as I used his foreleg to help myself sit up.
‘Hey, buddy.’ It was an effort to get the words out. My throat rasped and my head bloomed with pain as I spoke.
‘Good, you’re awake. Now can you call your dragon off?’
Theo. The memory of what happened crashed back into me. The aches tearing apart my insides were from a shockstick. The attacker had run off when Theo had arrived.
He knew my secret. He knew I’d flown in the race. Now he could betray me again.
My breathing hitched. Gottyk’s head whipped up and a low rumble vibrated through him.
‘Every time I try to get close he tries to eat me, Paldon. You’ll have to get back up on your own.’
Grunting with effort, I heaved against Gottyk’s leg to stand. Pellets tumbled from the folds of my suit, some pooling in the edges of my armour. Beyond the short wall of Gottyk’s stall stood Theo.
His flight suit was half off, hanging at his waist to reveal his fitted purple fireproof layer underneath.
His hands were tucked into the fold, thumbs hooked over the edge.
The orange lights of the aviary warmed his light brown skin and cast a soft glow on the edges of his curly hair.
It was classic Theo to look so relaxed and approachable after a hectic race.
Looks were deceiving though.
I glared at him. It wasn’t my best, given I was using a dragon to keep myself upright and my vision wasn’t all the way back, but I was sure he’d get my intention.
‘You can go now.’
From the lack of Kiestral, Volitant and media staff yelling outside the door it seemed he’d yet to spill my secret. I braced myself for the gloating that was no doubt on the way.
‘Yeah, that’s not going to happen.’ His voice was serious, rare for him. ‘What the hell was that?’
My jaw tensed. ‘It’s not like I was drowning in options. Taking his place was the only way.’
The rest of my sentence hung in the air, silent. Thanks to you.
‘Are you stupid, Paldon? I mean why are you getting attacked?’ He stepped forward to the stall wall, but immediately backed off when Gottyk snapped his jaws.
I placed a calming hand on my dragon’s snout, my heart swelling painfully with gratitude. I hated Theo. I hated him a lot, but my issues with him couldn’t be resolved the same way as Thorne. He had to be able to race for me to beat him.
‘I don’t know who that was on the stairs, but I’m sure it’s just the beginning of a long queue once you tell everyone the truth.’
He pursed his lips, stroked the threat of stubble on his jaw and leaned back on the augment workbench. His smirk was back. ‘Now why would I do that?’
‘Quit playing. I’m not in the mood.’ I took my hand off Gottyk and placed a shaky foot forward. I reached the edge of the stall and held Theo’s gaze.
‘Playing? Oh, no. You know I’m serious when it comes to racing.’ He grinned. ‘How will I prove that I’m better than you once and for all if I tell everyone your secret?’
My chest tightened, causing a spasm in each of my limbs. ‘What?’
He shrugged. ‘I’m not surprised that you’ve somehow replaced Thorne. We both know you’d do anything to race. What does surprise me is how bad you’ve become. You used to be nearly as good as me.’
The hair on the back of my neck raised.
‘It was my first race. It’s not like I’ve been flying for three and a half years and still coming in sixth.’ Memorizing his performance was finally coming in useful.
‘The way I see it, we have an opportunity to settle our scores. We’re both in Volitant now. Flying together week after week to see who really is the better rider? It’s everything we dreamed of.’ Theo’s eyes were steady, watching me sway on the spot. He wanted a reaction.
I bristled, holding back out of spite. Whether it was an explosive reaction or me giving in to his plans, he wouldn’t get it. He could talk about old shared dreams as much as he wanted – they meant nothing to me now.
‘I might have taken the title by crossing the finish line first, but we both know it was a draw in the Wyvern Cup, Paldon. The ones who gave me the trophy might not have admitted it, but we can. A draw was never going to be good enough for us.’ His jaw tightened as his chest rose and fell faster.
My nostrils flared.
‘What’s the catch?’ He might have been offering me the chance to keep racing, but he was still the same Theo who’d gone from my best friend of ten years to a backstabbing coward in the blink of an eye.
‘Oh, you want to iron out the conditions?’ Mischief lit up inside him.
I’d seen it a thousand times before. The way he stood a little straighter.
The way his eyes caught the light just a little more.
The way he tucked his hands back into the fold of his half flight suit to keep them from giving away his excitement.
‘Out with it, Vaspre.’
‘Well, if we want a fair competition to end our disagreement on who is the better rider, we need to level the playing field.’ He pushed off the workbench and walked towards me. ‘We can’t be on the same team with the same dragons.’
Gottyk rumbled a warning.
‘Nor would I want us to be,’ he placated. ‘You clearly have a fine mount already. However, there are other things we can do to get you up to speed.’
‘Excuse me?’ My hands curled into fists.
His dimples appeared. ‘We were both in the same race just now, and I say this with all intended offence – you were shit.’
I lurched forward, but my legs lagged behind my brain. What was going to be an intimidating swagger followed by a right hook turned into a trip and fall directly into Theo. He caught me by the shoulders.
The citrus scent filled my senses.
His curls fell forward, brushing against my forehead. A wholly unwelcome heat flushed my cheeks. I pushed away from him, steadying myself and looking anywhere else.
Hatred continued to boil inside me, not just at Theo, but at everything that had happened. Crashing in the race. That he knew my secret. That he thought he was gracious to keep it. That he’d found me collapsed on the stairs.
Gottyk huffed a breath at me, blowing back my sweat-soaked hair. A sense of helplessness washed over me, far too familiar thanks to the past week. I clamped my jaw as hard as possible, rejecting the emotion that had followed.
‘So—’ He braved being the first one to break the silence. ‘We agree to work together off circuit, so we can go hard in the races?’
I twitched into a glare. ‘Work together? Doing what?’
He nodded. ‘We used to do it all the time. Or have you forgotten?’
I hadn’t. My childhood memories were loose, refusing to be stuffed away since our run-in at the Kiestral circuit.
Me and Theo training together pre- and post-races. Reaction challenges, cardio training and strength building. Quizzing each other on Volitant history, mentally running through the circuit layouts we’d be flying on the upcoming weekends and memorizing our opponents’ racing styles.
‘No.’ I flexed my hands, trying to get the feeling back in my fingertips. I could manage pretending to be Thorne, but being around Theo again … My hands began to feel cold and sweaty at the thought of it.
‘We both know you only reach your potential when you’re competing with me.’ His grin widened, knowing exactly what he was doing.
Every nerve in my body lit up with the urge to fight. He knew exactly how to push me, how to put pressure on my weak points. I hated it. I hated him.
‘But I’m not the same without you either.’ He shrugged, like he hadn’t just admitted something I thought him incapable of.
My head buzzed with shock. The day we’d met at eight years old we’d each claimed to be the best, then had spent the next ten years trying to prove it.
I savoured the taste of it. The admission that he was in some way less without me. I’d been starved of any scrap of evidence that he’d also suffered these past five years. It soothed me, making the pain from the shockstick feel like a light breeze.
It also made what I said next deeply satisfying.
‘No.’
I’d used him in the race and it had worked. At least until the Bolls had got involved. If doing it again meant he got what he wanted, then I would withhold it. I owed Theo nothing. He might be dangling my secret over me, but I didn’t trust him to keep his mouth shut either way.
His dimples disappeared for a brief moment before he collected himself, straightening out his shoulders.
‘Really? I thought you’d do anything to fly in Volitant, Paldon.’
We both knew that wasn’t true. I stood my ground, unwilling to surrender.
‘Well, I’m going to show some maturity here and give you twenty-four hours before I go to the press.
Consider what you’d be gaining. You’d have someone to protect you from more rogue attackers.
At least until I train your combat skills back up – five years and you’ve already forgotten how to throw a punch. ’ He had the audacity to wink at me.
I could feel my heart thumping against my ribs, each beat telling me: Hit. Him. Hit. Him.
He hooked a hand into the waist of his flight suit, the sleeves grazing along the floor as he headed towards the door.
‘See you soon, Paldon. I’m looking forward to reforging our alliance.’ He backed into the heavy door, shoving it open with just his back, not taking his eyes off me. ‘Twenty-four hours.’
He slid away. The door thudded behind him.
I closed my eyes and slumped on to the floor. Gottyk nosed his snout under my arm. I gave my dragon a more-than-deserved hug.
‘Well that went as well as it could.’ I cupped his big head in my hands, scratching under his chin not just for his comfort, but mine too. ‘Never mind me. How are you doing?’