Page 96 of Tailwind

I tapped my heels on Ascil’s flanks and she was off into a run immediately. Her legs were so long that the runway disappeared in an instant, the dense trees closing in rapidly. The heavy thumps of her footsteps vanished, no longer reverberating through me, because we’d taken off into the air.

If thirty seconds was all I had to put distance between myself and Bach then I had to use it wisely. I missed having Josie on comms to be my external brain.

I pointed Ascil in a straight line, hoping that distance would be my ally.

By the time I’d had the thought, my shoulder thumped and a dusty white spot had appeared on the black leather.

‘Fuck!’ The curse was out of my mouth before I had the sense to stop it. I slowed Ascil down and wheeled her around in the air to face Bach.

He was gone.

‘What the—?’

‘If you waste time after a loss, you’re further away from the next win.’ As Bach’s proverbial advice rankled at me through the comms I spotted a blue tail disappearing into the canopy. Whatever injuries he had, they didn’t stop him from flying like the champion he was.

Luckily for me, irritation fuelled my competitive fire.

So we dived into the treeline to follow Bach and Vepari. Regret literally hit me as the branches whipped me on the arms and across my visor. I’d become too used to flying with armour.

Ascil, despite her elegance, was far bigger than Vepari. The dense terrain was definitely not in our favour.

Still, my determination didn’t falter. There were only a few routes Vepari could take through the jungle, so I followed the gaps she’d left behind. All I had to do was twitch for Ascil to follow my instructions. It was glorious.

By the time I saw the end of the blue arrowed tail I was drenched in sweat, breathing heavily and completely tunnel-visioned on my mission. Even with the augments running constantly to cool me down and increase the airflow it felt like the toughest workout so far.

I loved it. Running laps, lifting weights and sparring had nothing on this.

Time blurred just as my peripheral vision did. All that existed was me, Ascil, Vepari and Bach. We inched closer, enough that I could see Bach’s movements as he directed his dragon.

So I did what had become my specialty – I copied him.

For every turn, dip and straight I was less than a second behind. If Bach tweaked his reins, I tweaked mine. When he leaned right, I leaned right. When he ducked low to gain speed, so did I.

‘Time.’

I felt a vein in my forehead throb.

‘I was nearly there! You’re calling it now so I don’t catch you? That’s unfair!’

Vepari pulled up through the trees, scattering debris on to me and Ascil as we followed. Their speed dropped dramatically as they circled back towards the aviary.

‘Come on, just a bit longer and I’d have had you!’ My burning energy had nowhere to go. If I didn’t hit Bach with the spear I was going to combust.

‘We’ll talk about it when we land.’

Ascil took us down to the ground. I unhooked myself from the saddle and dismounted, walking over to Bach and yanking off my helmet.

‘Seriously, what’s the point in ending the session now? I thought I’d get the chance to learn something today and I—’

Bach pulled off his matching black helmet after dismounting. I squared up to him. The moment I saw his face again reality slapped into me.

I’d been mouthing off at him. The first flight together and I’d started complaining. That shrivelled logical part of my mind started working overtime to compensate for the mistake I’d just made. Solutions weren’t coming fast enough.

‘If you didn’t just learn something from that two-hour flight then Josie has put too much faith in you.’ Despite his sweat-wetted hair, Bach was remarkably calm. Especially given his new mentee was trying to start a fight.

‘Two hours?’ My self-control was still losing out to impulse.

He cocked an eyebrow. ‘Much longer than that wouldn’t be healthy. Or are you forgetting all your keeper training too?’