Page 74 of Tailwind

I wanted to hurt him so badly, to tear him limb from limb, but inside his armour there was nothing I could do. I laid into him anyway, punching down at his faceplate as I straddled him. Every slight I’d received since I was eight years old was repaid in a punch to Gordi’s armour.

A hiss, red light, followed by a bang. And again. Flares were being shot into the air. It broke through the chaos long enough for us to be peeled away from one another. Someone hauled me up and away by the back of my armour. I resisted, but then saw who it was.

Quinn had his faceplate up and had both me and Colly by the collars of our armour. The rest of the Prevere team surrounded us, cutting us off from Mirendi.

‘Theo.’ My chest was heaving. I couldn’t see him through the press of people.

Quinn nodded and left us in the care of his team. He put his faceplate down and cut through the crowd.

‘That was kind of awesome,’ said Colly next to me, sounding way too happy as he popped up his faceplate. ‘Was it obvious it was my first fight or did I do okay?’

The bizarre, totally Colly question brought me out of the bloodlust. I gave him a light punch on the arm. ‘You did great.’ I looked up at his young face. ‘Thank you.’

He beamed down at me like a ray of sunshine in the middle of the frosty hellscape.

I tried to smile back, but the results weren’t great. Half of my face was numb – probably for the best given the amount of damage Gordi had done.

Quinn reappeared, Theo by his side. My stomach twisted until he lifted his faceplate. He was completely unharmed.

‘Your faced is fucked,’ he said, smirking.

The asinine comment sent a wave of relief through me, soothing my frayed edges.

‘So’s yours,’ I replied. ‘Nothing to do with the fight though.’

‘The secret is out then.’ Theo ran a glove over his helmet, his habit of messing with his hair unstoppable. There were half a dozen scuffs in the paint – a gift from Mac Boll. I hated it. Punching Theo was my right, no one else’s.

‘You knew?’ Hurt poured from Colly’s voice. ‘I wouldn’t have told anyone!’

I believed him. It was a sad truth that by the time I’d found myself with something like an actual group of friends that it had all fallen apart.

Quinn’s eyes flicked between me and Theo. He was asking all the questions in his head, likely working through the past few weeks to add up mine and Theo’s behaviour.

Before anyone could ask more of us, the crowd parted. A white-haired and bearded man in waterproof layers was like a storm cloud rolling into us. Felix Lancel, the Prevere team boss. He thumbed over his shoulder.

‘Inside.’

It was time to face the consequences of my actions. My heart maintained its pace, my hands didn’t shake. A resolve solidified inside of me – there was nothing I regretted about what I had done.

At least not yet.

Once we were outside of the protective bubble of the Prevere crew the crowd pressed in around us. The force feedback on my suit made sure I felt every hand and elbow as the journalists tried to pull me into interviews as we pushed past them to get to the atrium.

‘Lena!’ Out of the many cries for my attention I recognized one – Josie.

She was stuck behind a cluster of Kiestral crew, all with looks of confusion and horror on their faces.

‘Look after Gottyk, please!’ was all I had time to reply before I was swept inside the mountain.

The noise quietened once we were behind the giant wooden shutters. The warm air hit my face, bringing it back to life. The pain from the fight crept in inch by excruciating inch. It blossomed out from my raw cheekbone, down to my jaw and up into my eye, which felt like it was about to close up.

From the look of it, all riders had been pulled inside. Ellas Ruan and Jas Thokan stood off to my right, arms folded and on their hips, respectively, looking too professional in their Victrolia green armour to even want to be associated with the mess. To my left was Theo, not having strayed far. Omar was examining his helmet, tutting.

Colly was very animated – his hands were quick and fluid as he spoke to Quinn, who was nodding along, but had his gaze fixed on me instead.

My hand reflexively went to my face as pain bloomed harder with the hot shame that joined the physical hurt. I’d not regretted a single moment since my choice to take Thorne’s suit, but seeing the face of a friend so stoney after learning my secret … it was enough to make me doubt.

The Bolls were being chewed out by their team boss – Kristoff Pierce. He was gesticulating wildly, sometimes pointing over at me. ‘The wrong fucking one! How hard is it—’