Page 180 of Knot So Fast
"LUCIUS!" I scream his name, fighting with my harness, trying to get out even though my car hasn't fully stopped moving.
The Ferrari hits the barrier upside down, the roll hoop disintegrating on impact. The car continues over, clearing the Armco entirely, disappearing from view on the other side. The crowd's roar turns to screams.
And then?—
The explosion is immediate and total. A ball of orange fire rises above the barrier, the kind of fire that comes from ruptured fuel cells and destroyed batteries combining in the worst possible way. The kind of fire that doesn't leave survivors.
My car finally stops, lodged against the tire barrier at an awkward angle. I'm pulling at the harness release, but it's jammed—of course it's fucking jammed—and I can only watch as the fire grows, black smoke billowing into the Abu Dhabi night sky.
"LUCIUS!" I scream again, my voice breaking, raw with the kind of grief that comes from watching your other half die. Because that's what he is, what he's always been, even when we hated each other. My twin, my shadow, my reflection in a darker mirror.
And he just died saving me.
The marshals are running toward both scenes, fire extinguishers already deploying, but I know it's too late. No one survives that kind of fire. No one walks away from that kind of impact. My brother is gone, turned to ash and memory in the space between heartbeats.
Through the smoke and chaos, I hear Dex's voice, professional composure completely shattered: "Oh my God—Lucius Wolfe's car has—there's been a massive accident—the Ferrari is?—"
Marcus cuts in, his usual bombast replaced by hollow shock: "The safety car is deployed. Medical teams are responding. This is—folks, this is the worst crash we've seen in years."
But I can barely hear them over the roar of blood in my ears, over the sound of my own voice still screaming my brother's name even though I know he can't hear me. Even though I know he's already gone.
The checkered flag waves somewhere in the distance. Auren crosses the line first, becoming the first Omega to win a Formula One race. It should be a moment of triumph, of vindication, of proving every doubter wrong.
Instead, it's the moment everything breaks.
Kieran's voice crackles through the radio, desperate: "Lachlan, are you okay? Can you get out?"
"The harness is jammed," I manage, my voice not sounding like my own. "But I'm—" I can't say fine. Can't say okay. Can't say any of the automatic responses because my twin brother is burning to death fifty meters away and there's nothing I can do about it.
More voices flood the channel—Harrison asking for status updates, Caspian demanding information about the fire suppression systems, Luke coordinating with medical teams. But it all fades to white noise against the crackling of flames that I can hear even through my helmet.
The image sears itself into my retinas—the pillar of fire and smoke marking the spot where Lucius Wolfe ceased to exist. The brother I spent three years hating for choices that weren't really his. The twin I pushed away when he needed me most. The other half of my soul that I'll never get back.
He saved me. Knowing what it would cost, knowing he wouldn't survive it, he turned into me anyway. Made the choice in a fraction of a second to trade his life for mine.
The ultimate commitment from someone we all thought couldn't commit to anything.
Finally, a marshal reaches my car with cutting equipment. The harness comes free, and hands pull me from the cockpit, butmy legs won't support me. I collapse onto the tarmac, helmet still on, staring at the inferno that used to be my brother.
"We need to get you to medical," someone is saying, but I can't move. Can't look away. Can't process the fact that we won—Titan Racing will take the constructor's championship, I'll have my fifth consecutive driver's title, Auren made history—but the cost...
The cost is everything.
Auren appears in my field of vision, having abandoned her car the moment she crossed the line. She's pulled her helmet off, and tears are streaming down her face, mixing with the blood from wounds that have reopened. She drops to her knees beside me, pulling me against her despite her broken ribs, despite the pain it must cause.
"I'm sorry," she whispers against my helmet. "I'm so sorry. He saved you. He saved you."
Like that makes it better. Like that doesn't make it infinitely worse.
The fire crews are working desperately, but there's nothing left to save. The Ferrari is a twisted, burning skeleton. And somewhere in that inferno are the remains of my brother, who died thinking I hated him. Who died never knowing I'd finally learned the truth—that he'd been protecting us all along, playing the villain to keep us safe.
The paddock will celebrate our victory tonight. Champagne will flow, bonuses will be calculated, history will be written about the first Omega to win a Formula One race.
But all I can see is fire.
All I can hear is the echo of my brother's name tearing from my throat.
All I can feel is the weight of a victory that tastes like ash and loss and the terrible understanding that sometimes the price of winning is everything that actually matters.
