Rise from Fire and Steel

“I admit it. I had tampered with your car.

“This championship meant nothing to you, but Jack is about to retire, and this was his final chance.

“Once the race is over, I’ll marry you to make it up to you. Is that all right?”

Before I died, I never would have thought that Alanna Johnson would agree to marry me.

But it was too late.

The out-of-control car plummeted hundreds of meters, and the moment it struck the sea, darkness claimed me.

When I woke up again, I stood at the rally’s award ceremony.

The crowd surged around me, immense and unstoppable.

Jack and Alanna stood at the center of the championship podium, holding the trophy, their fingers entwined, speaking their acceptance speech to the cameras.

“Standing here, I must thank Alanna. She’s not only my navigator, but also my anchor, the person who keeps me grounded.”

Alanna lowered her gaze, smiling shyly.

“It’s Jack who has the skill. He practices every day and knows every curve of the terrain by heart.”

Her praise drew cheers from the crowd.

“What a couple!”

“Go on and kiss her!”

Jack raised an eyebrow and leaned forward playfully.

Alanna buried her face in embarrassment.

“There’ll be time for that later,” Jack said sheepishly.

The audience erupted in a wave of cheers sweeping through the stands.

I clenched my fists so tightly it hurt, though I no longer had a body.

My heart ached fiercely.

The championship trophy should have been mine.

Alanna should have been mine.

But now, I had nothing.

Even this life had been left behind in that race.

And the architect of it all—the one I trusted most—had betrayed me.

I should have seen it coming.

The night before, Alanna had asked if I would give up the championship for her.

I had been puzzled by how childish it sounded.

She was a professional navigator, and I was a professional racecar driver. We both treated the race as if it were our lives.

I assumed she was testing me and replied that I wouldn’t.

She had been uncharacteristically insistent.

“What if I asked you to lose on purpose?”

I was baffled and asked what she meant.

She brushed it off and changed the subject.

Only before I died did I understand.

Alanna had wanted me to lose the race to boost Jack’s racing career.

I had been Jack’s long-time rival.

For years, he had tried every trick to surpass me but had always come second.

So she tampered with my car to ensure his victory.

Yet she had always hated cheating in races.

During her navigator training in the racing team, she had excelled, but because an opponent had cheated, she lost the opportunity to work with a better driver.