You don’t have your mother’s skill, but the answer to that question is obvious. Every rider will reach the second pass at the end of the first day. It’s incredibly narrow and you know the designers are hoping for tight racing, even a few falls. The well-bred phoenixes, like yours, will be able to ride for another five minutes if they get through the clustered valley cleanly. Even then, it’ll be a nightmare trying to secure a good position on the plain to let a phoenix die. The answer’s clear: The designers want havoc at the end of the first day.

So if that’s what they’re drawing our attention to, what are they trying to hide?

“Contestants,” an official announces. “You’ve one more clockturn. Use it wisely.”

You shake yourself. What is it? What secret does the map hide? Your eyes trace hills and valleys, creeks and dead ends. As the seconds tick away the final clockturn, you finally see it.

There, at the very beginning of the first leg, is an almost invisible trail. It hooks left and up the plateaus, into a separate section that feeds into a completely different canyon. While everyone else is hunting for a place to protect their phoenix, you and Bravos will be taking a path none of them ever noticed. It will give you an advantage most people wildly underestimate in the Races, the advantage of sleep.

Satisfied, you smile as the officials begin covering the map and the other contestants take their positions once more. Bravos glances back at you once and you give him a tight, imperceptible nod. An advantage doesn’t guarantee victory, but it will separate you slightly from the rest. It will give you and Bravos exactly what you need to win the Races, together.

Chapter 15: Disharmony

I’m pacing the hotel room like the world’s coming to an end.

“What else?” Ayala asks. “Come on, while it’s still fresh in your mind.”

“It’s not fresh. It was never fresh. I don’t remember any of the map. There were…creeks? Three of them, maybe? And another one running down the right side. I don’t know. It—it was hard to take all of it in. I told you I got distracted. The land around the highlighted course looked so familiar. So I sat there staring and forgetting and staring and forgetting.”

Ayala takes a measured breath. “How many rebirths?”

I shake my head. “Four? I don’t even know that. I forgot everything you told me to do.”

“That’s okay,” she says calmly. “But you need a plan. You have to use what you have and at least make a plan, Imelda. The other riders walked out of that room knowing what they were going to do, where they would ride.”

“Good for them. I don’t have a plan. I just don’t.”