Page 30 of The Artist
“Look at you. I like your style.”
“Thank you.”
With Holly now behind me, I was catching up to Isaac, who was white with snow and brushing himself off after a fall.
“You okay?” I asked him as I powered through.
“Yes, there’s something wrong with my snowshoe. It keeps tripping me up.” It was so typical of an A citizen to blame the equipment instead of admitting they sucked at something.
I touched the stick as I trampled around it following the trail Thor and the others had made on their runs before me.
“Now get your butt back here,” Thor shouted. “Be careful. Victor and Mason are right behind you. If they get close, you fucking elbow them, do you hear me?”
“Thor!What anawfulthing to say.” Several of the Motlanders were pointing out that throwing elbows was dishonest and dirty.
“I don’t care if she has to flash them her boobs to distract them, but we’re fucking winning this race.”
The idea of flashing my breasts broke my concentration and made me laugh. It was then that I heard laughter behind me. Looking over my shoulder I saw Victor coming around me.
“Yeah, show us your boobs.” He grinned with me because it was so stupid that we couldn’t take it seriously, but then Mason appeared and didn’t seem amused at all. Victor was no small man and he was fit but seeing Mason, who had started much later than the rest of us, come running through the snow like he was out jogging on a paved street amazed me. He was a giant and had to weigh twice what I did, which logically should make him sink down, but he didn’t. His technique was so graceful that it seemed like he was defying gravity and running on top of the snow.
“How does he do that?” I asked Victor.
“The Nmen are a different breed of human,” Victor joked and slowed down a little.
There was no need for us to chase after Mason. We would have to grow wings to catch up with the machine that was his body.
“Don’t you fucking give up, Belle,” Thor demanded, standing by the finish line with a scowl on his face and his hands planted on his hips. “I need you to give everything you have.”
“Hurry up, Victor.” Aubri held both hands to her mouth and made cheering sounds. “You can’t let a woman beat you.”
“Why would you say that when you’re a woman yourself?” I shouted at her.
“Because it always seems to spur men on. Get your lazy ass in overdrive, Victor. I’ll give you a kiss if you beat Belle.”
Victor accelerated and it motivated me to do the same, but I still heard Indiana go after Aubri for her comment.
“That’s not funny. You’re not kissing him in this lifetime.”
The last length was a sprint to the finish line with Victor and me pushing at each other while poor Aubri was being chastised by Thor, Indiana, and Mason, who threw his snowshoes on the ground.
“It was just a joke,” she defended herself.
“Do you see us laughing?” Indiana thundered.
We all watched them. Freya stood next to me and in between my panting I managed to ask, “Can’t you help her?”
“Don’t worry. Aubri can handle them.”
“Yeah, but still.”
Freya was wearing a white winter jacket with a hoodie that had soft fur surrounding her face. She had assured the Motlanders that it was faux fur, but I didn’t care about that sort of thing. We French were carnivores and plenty of people wore fur back home. Unlike Aubri’s red hair and creamy skin, Freya was a mix of her dark father and fair-skinned mother. She had a beautiful caramel color and dark hair, but my favorite thing about her was the intelligence in her green eyes. I’d always found Freya sophisticated in the way she argued her case. She used questions and tended to rope her opponents into a net without them knowing.
Seeing the plea in my eyes, Freya gave a silent nod of her chin before turning to the group that was arguing.
“Who won?” she asked and as if magical words had been spoken, Mason whipped his head around. “We did! My team won.”
“Thor, do you want to name the winning team, or should we just continue to the next challenge?” Freya asked in a level tone as if she hadn’t even noticed Aubri and the men arguing.
