Page 74 of Hyperspeed
I let myself laugh, loud and free.
It flowed from some place deep inside, as though Kai had played the right notes and coaxed it straight from my core. And when he joined in, his laughterthreaded through mine, turning it into a melody only the two of us seemed to know.
“I like your laugh, rookie,” he mused, and I felt my cheeks heat under my helmet. “You should let it out more.”
I didn’t know how to respond, so I defaulted to deflection. “Careful, Mercer. You’re the rookie tonight, remember?”
“Whatever you say, hotshot.” His voice was so smug, I could almost hear the wink. But as I pulled closer, I noticed his exhaust was smoking, and my heart climbed into my throat.
“Kai, you need to ease off the fuel mix,” I warned.
“Are you trying to trick me, little comet? Playing dirty just to get ahead?”
He could joke, but this was dangerous. This was what Al had warned him about, and why it wasn’t used in the ASL. Kai was aware of the dangers, but was so captivated by the boost of speed, he’d forgotten the risks.
If he wasn’t careful, he wouldn’t be alive to claim the reward.
“I’m serious, Kai,” I snapped, accelerating until we were wheel to wheel. “Your exhaust is smoking. If you keep going, the engine will explode.”
“Wait, what?” He turned his head to glance in the wing mirror, spotting the dark cloud in his wake. “Shit. Fuck!”
“Relax—”
“What do I do?”
There was genuine panic in his voice, something I’d never heard from Kai. He was a ball of bulletproof optimism, the human equivalent of my parents’ relentless cheer. Nothing had ever seemed to rattle him.
Until now.
“Fuck, I need to pull over.”
His speed bled off as fear muscled its way past the adrenaline. The reckless driver who’d barrelled past me thanks to an illegal fuel mix was gone, replaced by someone desperate for something solid, predictable, safe.
“Kai!” I barked. “You can keep going.”
“I can’t. The car will blow!”
“Mercer,” I said, trying to stay calm. He wouldn’t respond to my anger. Would think I was being combative rather than trying to help. “Switch back to your main fuel tank and press the button for ‘water.’ It’ll let some coolant into your engine and lower the temperature.”
“No way, I’m—”
“Kai,” I urged. “Trust me.”
I heard him exhale over the radio, and I wondered if he’d do as I said. If he’d trust me like I asked. I hadn’t done anything to earn it, but I didn’t want to see Kai leave the race.
Holy supernova. Things had changed.
“I swear to fuck, Rev,” he growled. “If I die, I’m coming back just to take you down with me.”
“Don’t threaten me with a good time, starboy,” I snapped back. “Now do it before we have to deal with each other for eternity.”
The sound of water sizzling over a smoking engine was loud, cutting above the usual noise of a vehicle built for racing. But the black smoke cleared, replaced with pure white clouds of steam, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Oh my god,” he exhaled.
“Told you,” I mumbled.
“That you did, little comet. That you did.”
