CHAPTER FOURTEEN
‘I’m going to enjoy this,’ I said as I twirled the haft of the axe in my hand.
It wasn’t a true Volitant weapon – the handle was still bronze, but it had its own arcanite for power. More importantly, the axehead wouldn’t burn through its victim, but simply leave a light tingle on the skin.
Still, if I swung it hard enough it would hurt.
Theo walked around me in a lazy circle. His own weapon of choice, a longsword, shone loose in his hand. Both of the weapons lit up in the opaline pink of a neutral piece of arcanite. No team colours here except for our gym clothes.
‘It’s nice to know you’re back to treasuring our time together, Paldon.’ His voice dripped with sarcasm, practically drooling to start the fight. ‘You know you didn’t have to queue with my fans to speak to me again, right?’
My jaw clenched. I kept his eye contact, content to watch his feet in my peripheral vision. He was trying to rile me up because he knew I had the upper hand. I smiled, not letting him win the fight before it had begun.
‘It’s hard to be around someone when they take up all the air in the room with their oversized ego. I give it about ten minutes before I start to suffocate in this carriage.’
‘I’ll crack a window for you.’ He winked.
‘I’ll crack your skull for you.’ I gave him my most unhinged smile and looked at the small scar above his right eye. It wouldn’t be an accident this time either.
He moved. In the split second my eyes had looked at his forehead he’d closed the gap between us and brought up his sword. No longer was he relaxed and lazy. His grip on the sword was near perfect.
A shame for him that my instincts had always been better.
I brought my axe up to knock the sword away and kicked out, hooking my foot behind his knee. He stumbled, catching himself before hitting the floor and spun around to face me again.
He blew upwards, sending a couple of curls dancing away from his face. ‘I was just making sure you were paying attention.’
‘Yeah, sure.’ I stood side on and gripped my axe. ‘Let’s see how distracted you are.’
I ran forwards and swung wide, using my body as leverage. His sword blade met my axehead, but power won over dexterity in an attack like this. He did enough to throw me off my target though. Instead of his ribs, I hit his shoulder.
Still, I’d won the first mark of the day, even with the after-effects of the shockstick still slowing me down.
I kept it up. Over and over I swung at him, a barrage of moves that didn’t give him time to adjust his position or counter with any finesse.
Theo was a thinker. He liked to spend time to plan his moves both in and out of racing.
It’s why he was faster in tricky corners, but slow against unpredictable arcans.
I was the opposite. No thoughts, only axe.
Then I felt a dull tingle against my thigh. Frozen, I looked down. Theo’s blade rested against my leg. I thought he’d twisted away from my attacks to recover, but instead he’d gone for a move outside my eyeline.
‘You bastard.’ I could only stare at it.
He’d improved.
‘You’re surprised?’ he asked, incredulous. ‘Did you really think I’d make the same mistakes I did as a teenager?’
I tore my eyes away from where I’d been hit and looked up at him, scowling.
‘You did.’ He laughed, relaxing back into a starting stance. ‘Nice to know your expectations for me are on the floor.’
I rolled my shoulders. ‘You’ll be on the floor right along with them, Vaspre. I don’t care how much better you’ve gotten.’
His eyes caught the sunlight. ‘Is that a promise?’
Irritation flared. I charged at him. We went toe to toe, matching one another strike for strike. I disappeared into the fight. My body moved automatically. Muscles used their own memory to block his moves. Every time I went for a hit his sword was there to block me in return.
All I could see was Theo. It became all-consuming.
His skill wasn’t the only thing that had changed – his body had been refined.
His shirt plastered against his torso with sweat, showing his newly defined pecs and abs.
His thighs flexed as he steadied himself.
His arms were lean and strong, so different from the lankiness of his teen years.
Sweat trickled down my spine. I could see his curls getting heavier the longer we fought. It was infuriating. He was matching me. I should have been able to beat him. I’d always been faster with weapons, more willing to cause blunt-force trauma to anything in my way.
Now though Theo was the same. The balance between us was exact. He’d been trained by a Volitant team while I’d scrubbed dragon shit off the floor. I longed to be the version of me who’d had the same training. Faster, stronger, more powerful.
I swung the axe, battering it against his blade. I could be that version of myself. I would show him. I went again, swinging at his hand.
My feet fell out from underneath me as he hooked a foot behind my knee. The same move I’d used. I hit the ground ass first, my head following and thudding against the training mat. My axe was kicked out of my hand. Theo pinned me down, one knee on my chest and a foot braced next to me.
‘What was that about me ending up on the floor?’ His smile was smug, enough to bring out his dimples. He swept his hair away from his face. It didn’t do any good, it fell right back.
Suddenly I remembered exactly when I’d last had sex. Over a year before and it had been very disappointing. I was so unsatisfied that sparring with Theo had stirred up my lust. How pathetic did I have to be to have my body betray me like this?
His smile reached his voice. ‘How about another round?’
‘Get off me.’ I shoved and rolled, tipping his weight away before standing up.
He fell, bracing himself on his hands. ‘I didn’t mean to—’
‘Save it. You won.’ I picked up my disarmed axe and shoved it back on the rack. ‘We both know you won.’
Without looking back I escaped out of the carriage. I heard him scramble to his feet, but I didn’t care. I needed to get away from him. His body may have changed over the past five years, but he was still the same shitty person inside.
I reached the crew carriage and locked myself in one of the tiny bathrooms. The scorching hot water and steam from the shower matched how I felt.
Matched too well. I rested my head against the tiles and turned the temperature way down, content to feel the cold water roll off my back and hope it would take my problems with it.
The next morning I woke up with the gratifying feeling of my muscles complaining.
It felt incredible. Every muscle had been stretched, tested and pushed to the limit.
I’d kept up with my fitness while out of racing – I had to for my role as dragonkeeper – but nothing so in depth as training with Theo.
Not that I planned on admitting it out loud.
After the way it had gone I didn’t exactly want to do it again either.
I grabbed some breakfast before making my way through the train to Gottyk’s carriage. I usually avoided the crew cabin and relied on my own stash of food, but with the amount of energy I was using to train and tolerate Theo I needed something far more substantial.
‘Lena.’
Anxiety panged in my chest, not just from the surprise, but from the contagious nervousness of Hector, Thorne’s strategist. He’d wafted up silently behind me as I queued for my food.
‘Hi, Hector.’ I couldn’t act too differently from normal, but I was struggling to remember what normal was.
He shifted his weight, as light as he was, from left to right. ‘I hate to ask.’
I tensed. That was normal. Whatever he was about to say was regarding Thorne and there was never a time I didn’t flinch at this.
‘But can you try and get him to the briefing this week? I’ve been chasing him down, but he’s been more … private than usual.’ Hector couldn’t even say Thorne’s name, let alone name his absences for what they were.
I cleared my throat. ‘Sure.’
A tight smile was all I offered to end the conversation. Luckily Hector didn’t linger any longer than necessary. The way the team treated Josie because of their admiration of Bach was for the same reason they avoided me, like I smelled. Rider reputation rubbed off on us.
As soon as the hot roast sandwich was in my hands I made my escape to Gottyk’s carriage.
The big lump of orange scales hadn’t even woken up yet.
He’d gotten too used to the bright sun of northern Gedeinia to let him know it was morning.
Now we only had the grey-streaked sky to go by as we travelled south.
I rubbed the space between Gottyk’s eyes – the most gentle way to wake the big boy up.
‘Time to go, buddy. We’re nearly there.’
The views through the windows had shifted from the warm yellows and browns of the north to the deep greens and purples of the south.
The high-speed train slowed enough to pick out details; the shallow rolling hills were much the same as one another – endless farmland for crops and animals, scrubby hills with tough purple flowers and tall thick trees in clusters.
Even with the consistent temperature of the train I could feel the cooling of the atmosphere in my bones. As if on cue, droplets of rain streaked across the glass roof. They barely had time to land before being swept back by the speed of the train. We had most definitely arrived.
I unhooked my flight suit from by the door and climbed in. Fireproof, waterproof, dirtproof – there weren’t many elements it wouldn’t repel. The transition from train to the aviary barely required going outside, but I knew Gottyk would be keen to stretch his wings after so long spent indoors.
After brushing down his scales to clear off any errant copper pellets I saddled him up.
Luckily Thorne was one of the riders who opted to travel separately in luxury rather than slum it with the teams – a choice the reigning champion Ellas Ruan, his teammate Jas Thokan and the Boll brothers also made.