Hummer, Asta thought. It had to be.
Basma emerged first from the pits, followed by Felix and Nat. Vulture was tossing her head in that way that Asta knew meant she had been dosed with the irritant. They shouldn’t have done it, Asta thought. Vulture would be unpredictable now, harder to control. She could injure herself and forfeit the race. But Asta couldn’t worry about that now. Her sights were set on Felix.
Asta steered Carmine on to the track the second her crew stepped back. The blue flags were up. It was time to fly.
Asta had not imagined that she would feel any joy at all today, knowing what she had to do, but the moment Carmine extended his wings and she heard the last scraping footsteps on the track, her spirits lifted with him. They were in the air.
They banked to follow the curve of the track below. All around them, the crowds were a living mass of exuberance. Faces turned upward to the dragons. She loved this, Asta thought. It hadn’t been entirely true, what she told Allie about not loving racing anymore. This part, she loved.
The first buoy was located just off the backstretch. Asta turned Carmine to cut in over the terrain. The river trench below them flashed back their piecemeal reflection on the water’s surface. Flanked by magic illusions, the water sparkled.
Asta passed Nat, struggling to keep Vulture’s erratic flight under control.
Just hold it together to the finish,she thought to Nat. That’s all you need to do.
Felix and Essie were directly ahead, heading for the beacon on the canyon towers.
This is it, Asta thought. No going back now.
‘Drop,’ Asta shouted to Carmine.
He dropped.
‘Go,’ she screamed.
He went.
They passed under Essie’s belly.
‘Don’t trust me,’ Asta whispered, desperately wishing that Felix could hear her thoughts. ‘Don’t trust me. Don’t trust me.’
Asta could feel their eyes on her. Hummer. Nat. Gem. Pikki. Dr. Isley. Tess Curie. They would all see it. Asta wanted them to see it. Each would think they knew what she was doing. Cowering to a threat. Showing herself for the backstabber she had always been. Failing to live up to her potential. None of them knew that what she did now, she did out of love. This was the only way to protect Felix.
Carmine pushed forward through the air with ferocious speed, but Essie was going at full tilt. His whole body flexed as his wings beat a wild beat, but even so, he could only creep out from under her shadow inch by inch.
‘Don’t trust me,’ Asta begged. She looked up. She could just see Felix’s mirrored visor looking over Essie’s shoulder. If he thought that she was testing him, as he had tested her– if he let Essie drop as he had that day at Pillar– it would all be over. She shook her head, her heart pleading.
Then she turned her attention back to Carmine. They were almost to the towers. ‘Up!’
They pulled up sharply, right into the path of Felix and Essie.
Carmine’s tail caught under Essie’s foreleg, and the dragons tangled in the air for a moment, their wings flailing. Asta had only meant to slow him, to draw the penalty and redirect Hummer’s wrath away from him.
Nat and Vulture swerved past in a blur.
Asta whipped her head around, looking for Felix. There he was. Essie had found her wings and was rising through the air again. Asta sobbed with relief, one aching and terrible cry. If he had fallen, she could not have gone on. None of this meant anything if Felix was not safe.
Free of his sister, Carmine began to climb again.
The orange-striped penalty flag was up, and Asta knew it was for her even before the light on her armband glowed an orangey yellow. She landed on the canyon tower and held Carmine back as Essie landed, too, then pushed off the tower with her powerful back legs.
Felix had understood her warning, Asta reassured herself as she watched him fly on. But would he understand why she had gambled with his life? He had traded his own happiness so that he could give his family their win, and she had just taken it from him. Would he ever understand that she had done it for him?
Those questions were for later. She needed only one thing from him now.
Asta unfastened the tethers and was off Carmine’s back. The cord, which she had fastened at the start, hung between them, glowing bright. Whatever he thought of her now, Felix was keeping the charge strong. She only hoped that he would not change his mind when she was halfway to the ground.
Asta had to move fast. The time delay gave her the cover she needed to stop at the towers without the judges calling out the medics to check on her, disqualifying her from the race. But her actions would draw attention soon enough, and who knows what the judges would do then? Her best chance was to be back in the saddle before they decided.