Page 45 of Tailwind

She was sharing a meal with Bach. A pang of jealousy shot through me. Despite our budding allyship I’d yet to ask her about him. They seemed to genuinely get along. Neither of them were especially chatty, but as they ate their food I could see them exchanging a few words, content in one another’s company. If I’d been with them there would have been an embarrassingly long list of questions for Bach to answer.

Josie caught my eye so I gave her an eye roll that made it clear I was doing as I was told and moved on before Bach looked up too. There were a few more hours until Theo’s deadline, but I was tempted to drag my feet the entire time.

The Ballenir carriages were next. They were the same configuration: rider cabins, dragons, team carriages. My pass got me into the corridors that ran along the left side of the entire train, but I wasn’t able to access their cabins. The same went for the exclusive rider carriages at the front of the train.

Bracing myself I knocked on the first cabin door in the rider carriage. Theo’s rider number was painted in blue, bright against the deep purple. I tried to stuff down the internal protests. This was going to keep my secret safe, Josie happy and, hopefully, give me more stamina for racing.

No reply. I knocked again, louder. I used to wake him up by tipping his mattress. He’d only woken up when he hit the floor.

‘He’s in the cafe.’

I looked up to see Omar Wilver at the next door along. He had a towel slung over one shoulder and a sheen of sweat on his forehead – he’d been in the private rider carriage working out. I could see the curiosity on his face, but he did me the favour of not looking me up and down. As a woman knocking on the door of a Volitant rider, there were plenty of assumptions he could have made about me.

‘Thanks.’ I gave him a flat smile, feeling incredibly awkward.

I shuffled past him as he dug in his pockets – I hadn’t even found Theo yet and I was hating every second of my decision. Omar was an excellent rider, well-respected and beloved for his positive attitude. The last thing I wanted was for him to think I was a Theo fan who had sneaked on to the Volitant train.

I rolled my shoulders and kept going. The Ballenir carriages, despite having the same structure as Kiestral’s, had a whole different feel. Kiestral was all fresh white with streaks of vibrant orange – it invited the outside in with its summer colours. Appropriate for the coastal Gedeinia team.

Ballenir had dark wood panelling inset with rich purple edges. The lights were all energetic light blue, which made them feel alive even after dark. Even with the long windows stretching down the corridors it had the feeling of a city at night. So reminiscent of the Crescent, their island home.

If that hadn’t been enough to remind me of the place where Theo had grown up, the incredible smell coming from the cafe as I entered the crew carriage certainly was.

Pops, Theo’s grandfather, who refused to tell me his actual name, would spend the whole evening cooking for the family. The one-pot dishes he loved to make were much like the Vaspre family itself – warm and welcoming. Of all the downsides of my friendship with Theo falling apart, losing his family had been a big one. Theo being home was always worth celebrating, especially when I’d tagged along too. Between them and Cam, I’d nearly had a normal childhood.

I paused before reaching the window of the cafe cabin. It was stupid to be so nostalgic for a family that had never been mine to begin with. Yet there had been so many nights, weekends and summers spent on the Crescent with the Vaspres. All that time amounted to more than just shared food. It had been a second home.

Coughing, I cleared my throat. It was a past that belonged to a version of me I’d left behind. The naive Lena who hadn’t seen trouble coming.

So I walked forward instead of looking back.

The cafe was full. The Ballenir team hadn’t just clustered around their tables like in the Kiestral cabin, they were somehow all sitting together, chairs pointing in every direction other than towards the tables. It was chaos to an outsider looking in, but they laughed and wove around one another like it was nothing.

Theo was there, tipping his chair back against the far window with his arms spread, hands behind his head. Even sitting, he couldn’t not be leaning on something. How he could be so consistently off balance was beyond me. Still with my hands in my pockets, I waited for him to look over. There was no way I was going to draw attention to myself by waving.

It didn’t take long. Annoyingly there was some kind of natural proximity sensor built into us that let us know when the other was near, like a dragon raising its hackles when their den was invaded.

Theo spotted me and was, satisfyingly, surprised. He pushed his curls back out of his eyes as if to make sure he was seeing straight.

He stood and made his way over, stepping over the stretched legs of his team without needing to look. The whites of his teeth were on full display as he reached me, passing through the open door of the cafe.

‘Miss me already?’

I’d known he’d have a line like that ready to greet me with, but it didn’t stop the spark of annoyance igniting in my chest.

‘Time to train.’ No point dancing around it, the pain wouldn’t be any less if I did.

He swept his hands up into the mess of his hair in faux surprise. ‘Already? You still have a few more hours before my deadline.’

I didn’t bother to reply. It would have just fed his ego further.

Theo leaned forward, a glimmer shone in his eyes. ‘You can admit it, Paldon.’

A cough sounded from behind me. ‘Excuse me, guys.’

I flinched backwards, bumping up against the window. Omar Wilver walked by, giving Theo a clap on the shoulder before heading into the cafe.

I didn’t see the expression on Omar’s face as he passed. I didn’t need to, because Theo’s delight made it quite clear how embarrassed I should have been. I’d been spotted calling for him at his room and now whispering in the corridor together. If the train had plummeted off a bridge at that moment I wouldn’t have minded at all.