Chapter Fifteen
Danica swerved around the spikes that burst from the asphalt in front of her, gritting her teeth at the near miss. She was within an inch of the largest spike, but the pretty red paint lived to see another day. With the rate Phi was going, she couldn’t promise that the paint would make it to the Games in one piece.
“Spikes are one of the most common traps,” Phi said from the back seat. “The chances of there being at least one trap with them is high.”
Just as Danica corrected the car and gunned it forward after dropping a gear, a massive wooden pole swung in from the right, aiming right for the car.
“Christ!” Danica grunted as she swung the car to the left, the pole missing them by a foot after her correction. At least it had been easier to avoid than the spikes, but she was starting to realize what Phi had meant about needing her instincts. It was like being in a deadly demolition derby on acid. One misstep or detail missed, and they’d all end up dead. It was a nerve-wracking thought.
The Porsche handled far better and faster than any other race car Danica had ever driven at least. Not even her father’s Indy car could match the speed of the Porsche when she dropped it into gear and put the pedal to the metal, and she suspected it had to do with the modifications she was still trying to understand. No matter how hard she tried, figuring out why fairy dust seemed to make the car faster just didn’t make sense. It was hard to understand magic when you were achingly human, but every day, after long hours spent on the practice course, she popped the rear hood of the Porsche and stared at the engine until her eyes crossed. Sometimes, she’d touch. Sometimes, she’d ask Phi to explain the concept again. Danica was determined to understand every magical modification of the car before they ever made it to the Games. The more she knew the car, the better the chances she had of knowing the limits she could push.
“Your instincts are unparalleled,” Phi said appreciatively from the back seat. He was just as strapped in as they were, his tablet in his hand. For the race, it would be mounted behind Arden’s seat. Danica wasn’t sure how he kept ahold of the thing with so much swerving and the speed they did but she chalked it up to his magical vampire powers.
“Kicking on the weapons,” Arden said, flipping a switch on the dash. During the race, the switch would be disabled until the second quarter of the race. The car began to hum, as if pleased that he was turning on new elements. “I control the weapons,” he said as a wheel came from the dash and he gripped it tight. “You control the car.”
“And I instruct you where to go,” Phi added. “We work as a team. We win as a team.”
“And with at least ten teams attempting to win, it can be chaotic. There are more than ten types of creatures, of course, but not all chose to participate. Some believe themselves above such things.”
“So, you think every other team will be attempting to kill us?” Danica asked, shifting the stick into forth gear as she swerved around a ninety-degree turn.
“There’s no doubt in my mind they’ll all have reason to come after us,” Phi agreed.
“Because you’re a prince?”
Phi met her eyes briefly in the mirror. “It’s a long story, Danica. Now, watch the road.”
He pressed a button on the tablet and the ground opened up before them in the middle of the track. Eyes widening and a curse leaving her lips, Danica cranked the wheel and pulled the emergency brake to avoid it. The rear tire kissed the edge of the hole but didn’t fall in, and she was able to correct and shoot forward again. Crisis averted, she scowled at Phi in the mirror, but it was Arden who spoke.
“If this is you rusty, I’m curious how you drive by the time we get to the Games,” he said with a grumble, glancing toward her.
“Was that an almost compliment?” Danica teased, winking at him as she pressed in the clutch and shifted gears again. There was nothing better than the pattern of shifting through gears, the clutch, shift, release, gas that came with the territory. It was one of her favorite parts of racing. “You’re getting better, blood sucker.”
Arden rolled his eyes but when a brick wall appeared in the middle of the road before them, he grabbed his wheel and pressed a button. “Got it!”
Something opened in the front hood of the Porsche, the metal sliding apart to allow a literal rocket to shoot from inside. The brick wall shattered just in time for them to drive through the debris. The car jerked over the bumps of the shattered brick, but Danica held the wheel steady. She met Arden’s eyes with a quick grin before focusing on the track before her again.
“Now, if only you could get me through traffic in downtown Indianapolis just as easily, that would be great,” she joked.
When Arden and Phi laughed with her, smiles on their faces, the air shifted in the car. Suddenly, they felt a little more like the team they needed to be and a little less like strangers.