Page 23 of Tailwind

I flexed my neck despite the soreness from the race. ‘I’ve spent my life training against gravity.’ I swatted her hand away. ‘I can handle the G-forces.’

She slapped my shoulder with the binder. ‘No, idiot! Your brain!’

‘Oh …’ I rubbed at the place she’d poked, leaving a phantom fingerprint behind.

I looked down at the heavy binder. On the cover in neat script the name of the next race was written out: Eauveil. The Mirendi circuit.

‘You’re actually here to lecture me, aren’t you?’

‘Yes, I am. And if you want to stand a chance at not coming last, you’ll listen.’ She pulled two more binders out of the bag, piling them neatly on top of one another. ‘Did you really think you were the only woman being held back?’

She didn’t look up as she asked the question. Instead she pinched the corners of the already neat stack, lining up the information she was about to hit me with. I recognized it, the emotionless way she’d asked, like her voice would crack if she hadn’t been so well practised at hiding it.

Josie was a keeper too, working at Kiestral for years just like me. Longer, even. Yet there was something she wanted that they wouldn’t let her have.

‘What do you want?’ I asked.

She still didn’t look up. ‘To be a strategist.’

I snorted out a laugh.

It was her turn to get mad. She shoved me. Or she tried to. I knocked away her arms before she could make contact. Sometimes brawn over brains worked in my favour.

‘Don’t you dare laugh at me.’ Her anger was cold and quiet, so at odds with my hot and loud kind.

I held my hands up in placation. ‘I laughed because I should have known. I’ve only been speaking to you for five minutes and you’re already the biggest know-it-all I’ve ever met.’

Tension left her stance, not that it had been a good one to begin with.

‘So, what? You’re going to be my strategist?’

‘Yes.’ Her confidence was clear.

I wasn’t so sure. Trusting someone else had failed me before. Every day of the past five years had been a reminder of that.

Yet … she hadn’t told anyone. She’d found me, helped me and then kept her mouth shut. If there was anyone in Volitant who was the opposite of Theo Vaspre, it was Josie.

‘Okay. You can brief me, but I’m not promising I’ll follow through on it.’

She smiled for the first time. It was, unfortunately, contagious.

‘Good. I have a condition though.’

I scoffed. ‘Are you really in a position to be negotiating?’

She cocked her head at me. ‘I’m not the one stealing someone’s identity and racing in secret.’

I tried to come up with an argument that would work, but it was taking too long. ‘Fair.’

‘Speaking of which.’ She sat on the bottom bunk and flipped open the first binder. ‘I checked and technically you’re not breaking any Volitant rules. You’re a Kiestral employee, so you’re not stealing Gottyk to race. You have your flying licence from being a keeper and …’ – She ran a finger down the first page. – ‘You have twice the number of points you need from the junior series to be eligible to race in Volitant.’

That was surprising. Not the points, I’d already known I was beyond qualified for the job. The surprise was that Josie knew that too.

‘Before I go through your other statistics—’ She silenced me by holding up her hand. It seemed to be a habit of hers. ‘We need to make an agreement. I’m going to help you. In exchange for that help, you need to agree to take me with you.’

‘Where?’ She already had access to all the races, just as I did. Only the rider facilities were off limits.

‘To the top.’ She flicked through the pages of her binder. ‘After our conversation in the aviary, I did my research. You had a junior career just as good as the other riders of your generation – better than some even. You were even tied on points during the last race of the Wyvern Cup.’