Page 79 of Of Flame and Fury

“Why can’t she just fly over the forest?” Rahn asked through their comms. “Avoid the track altogether.”

“We’d have no clue where the finish line is,” Dira’s scratchy voice answered.

“Shut it,” Kel grunted, voice muffled through the leather bandanna over the bottom half of her face. How did Coup breathe through this thing? It was twice as thick as the last mask she’d raced in.

Mustard flames flashed to Kel’s left. She had barely turned her head when talons appeared through the blaze, lashing out towardher. Savita instinctively veered away from the pending attack as Kel yelped. She jerked violently in the saddle.

Kel’s forearm cramped as she brushed a slanted line along Sav’s neck, instructing her to shift higher among the towering foliage so no one could attack from above.

Savita followed Kel’s instructions—but not before lashing out in return, swerving to spear her beak at the yellow phoenix. Sav caught a mouthful of yellow feathers in her maw, yanking them back before climbing higher.

The yellow phoenix cried out in pain and fell back.

“What the hell, Sav?” Kel muttered, making a mental note to be firmer in her instructions.

Savita released a deep, triumphant crow. Crimson dripped down her beak. Arms already aching from holding on to the pommel, Kel straightened Sav’s path, keeping her phoenix focused on the path ahead instead of any other attackers. She adjusted her legs, shifting forward in the saddle to a more comfortable position.

“Come on, Varra,” Coup barked. “Just let your phoenix do her thing. Focus on the track ahead.”

“Don’t anticipate the phoenixes,” Dira added. “Let Sav guide you for now.”

Kel held fast to Savita’s saddle pommel, wishing she could spare a hand to mute her ear-comm.

She managed the next turn perfectly, though the path soon became less clear. Thin trees dotted the open track. Kel swerved around two before Sav’s left wing caught on the third. They hadn’t collided hard enough to slow, but two yellow feathers shot into the air, yanked free. Sav continued blazing on, seemingly indifferent to the collision. Kel huffed out a hard breath.

They’d just survived another turn when a phoenix crowedfrom somewhere nearby. Kel whipped her head around, frantically searching. What if it was a wild phoenix?

The distraction caused them to slow, just a fraction, and another phoenix soared ahead.

“You’re faster than that, Kel!” Dira shouted. “Let Sav enjoy herself at least a little.”

“The gear should do most of the work for you,” Rahn added. “Just keep Savita along a straight path and she’ll know what to do.”

Kel grunted, realizing she owed Coup an apology. She didn’t remember the comms being such a frustrating distraction the last time she’d raced.

“Remember how badly you didn’t want me to race, minutes ago?” Kel yelled.

Her teammates fell blissfully silent.

Savita pinned her wings and shot between two trees as thick as her body. She heard the rustle of other phoenixes weaving through other ancient trees, leaving smoking trails that drifted above the canopy.

“Stay low beneath the tree line. I know it’s dense—but it’s better than wild phoenixes spotting you,” Dira called.

Kel bit back an argument. The thick, tangled greenery had barely been thinned for the race. If not for blinking lights along the path’s railing, Kel would lose sight of the track in a heartbeat.

A flaxen-yellow phoenix swerved toward Kel, vying for the same narrow path that Savita traced. Sav snapped, flexing her wings.

Kel pressed a hand over the bandanna covering the bottom half of her face, wiping away sweat. The forest’s heat had already drenched Kel in a heavy sheen and Savita was growing hotter beneath her. She trusted that Coup would alert her if her phoenix grew too hot. But even with riding leathers and a thick saddle between them, Savita’sfeathers were already near-scalding. Forked, anxious sparks flickered down her back.

They raced deeper into the forest, weaving past blurred groves of carnivorous flowers and onyx shrubs that hissed as they passed. The foliage was too dense to see where they were placing, but Kel didn’t waste her breath asking Dira through the comms and risking more unwanted commentary.

The path before them cleared, just a little, and Savita spread her wings to their full width. The other phoenixes blazing around them finally came into view, and Savita nipped at the feathered tail of a coral-red phoenix, who shrieked but didn’t have the space to turn back.

Distracted by Savita’s open maw, Kel didn’t see what lay in front of them until a phoenix ahead collided with the ground.

Savita lifted her wings as Kel yanked on her harness. They barely slowed in time to avoid the phoenix ahead, bellowing and raging, crawling along the dirt. The greenery receded enough that she could see more than a few meters in front of her for the first time since beginning the race.

“Kel… what… that?”

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