Free The Blood Racer (The Blood Racer Trilogy Book 1) by Matthew Winchester Page B

even beginning to pull ahead. Her ship was very fast. I could see the air rippling with heat coming off her engines. She was at max throttle like I was, but she was quickly pulling away.
              “No, you don’t!” I shouted, stomping on the valve for my thrusters. Instantly, I felt myself pushed back in my seat, and Rigel gave a cry of surprise next to me. I ignored him, though, and gritted my teeth, holding the trembling yoke in my hands as I started gaining on her. I was making some progress, but it wouldn’t be enough. If we had miles and miles of open air, I could probably overtake her with my thrusters, but I just didn’t have that much hydro. I did, however, have one more trick up my sleeve, one that would shoot me past her.
              If it worked.
              “All right, Rigel,” I said. “Let’s kick the tires!”
              Bracing myself for the next acceleration, I slapped the button for the Leap engine and held on…but nothing happened.
              “No, no, no!” I cried, hammering the button with my fist. I tried priming the fuel line, but it was working fine. The Leap just didn’t want to function. I growled in anger and punched an empty spot on the console.
              “Ellie,” Rigel said, his voice soft and sympathetic. “It’s okay. We’re almost there, anyway.”
              I huffed an enormous sigh and kicked off my thrusters, watching up ahead as Audra pulled away, doing a celebratory barrel roll just to taunt me. Both Rigel and I were silent for the rest of the ride. Even when we had landed and were strolling up the Rainier docks, we only exchanged muted parting words before I took off towards the center of town. I didn’t know where Rigel was off to, and I wasn’t really in the mood to ask.
              It wasn’t until that moment that I realized I didn’t know exactly where I was going. I hadn’t bothered to check the address. Lifting up the box in my hands, I located the address scrawled in Nichols’ handwriting and felt a small jolt of surprise. This particular package was going to Grace Buchannon, daughter of the Archon Merrick Buchannon, the man who ran the city of Rainier. I wondered what Grace had ordered from Nichols that she couldn’t have got from her wealthy hometown. As the daughter of an Archon, she had more money than just about anyone, so what had she ordered from a town like Adams?
              I made my way through the city streets, sticking to the center, where there seemed to be fewer people. I had to dodge the occasional rickshaw, but it wasn’t so bad. The worst part was the decoration. Rainier was a city that was always shining. Bright lights in windows, polished metals on the towers, it always had a glimmer about it. But now, the clean sparkle of lights had been replaced with a mind-numbing hodge-podge of colors and banners. Cloth posters hung from storefronts, and massive flags with pilot and ship names waved in the wind from tower windows. The cobblestone streets, which were always so clean and spotless, had been attacked with colored chalk, and featured all sorts of drawings and words that the local children had no doubt had a hand in. People here loved the race, and with the commencement only one day away, they were at the height of their madness. I wondered how much money in bets was currently being wagered. More than I could imagine, surely.
              After a bit, I reached the address of Grace’s apartment, which was in a ten-story building made of glass and stone. It was one of the most opulent structures I had ever seen, and I couldn’t believe that people actually lived there. There were pillars and carved molding, and windows high enough to stand in. This was one of the reasons I hated coming to Rainier. I always ended up feeling inadequate in some way. Even the back half