PART I
LIGHTNING
Prologue
Drop.Flash.Rumble.Crack,crack, crack…
Suddenly, the raindrops that were beating against the glass are now piercing straight through me like bullets.
They keep hitting me in rapid succession for minutes, hours, days…I no longer know.
They keep tearing at my heart and soul from every direction, and I let them. I let them take me. I let the howling wind, the whip of lightning, and the legion of thunder take it all.
Take everything buthim…leave enough forhim…
“You can’t have him.” The words on my lips are swallowed by the darkness of the night and the storm that has come to claim us.
“You can’t have him…”
Drop, drop, drop, drop…the sound now slow and steady.
I thought the rain has stopped.
I thought everything has stopped.
Only I wasn’t aware the storm has just begun.
1
Two Lines
Aurora
5yearsago
“Aurora! The my ray of sunshine, what in the ever-loving-hell was that?”
I wince as my trainer’s voice snaps at me, the sharp, frustrated tone carrying all the way from across the entire rink as my blades hit the ice after a spectacularly awful jump.
Stella Gray—also known as terminator, ice general, skating ward, and more along those lines—always snaps and yells and demands perfection that is out of this world, but today I can’t blame her for wanting to kill me. I’ve messed up my routine more times than I can count.
“Ouch, I don’t envy you right now,” my best friend Electra winces next to me as she stretches to start her practice. She knows as well as I do that our trainer is about to hand it to me big time. Because she, like me, was taken in by Stella Gray at a young age and proceeded to make figure skating stars from us. And when I say, taken in, I mean that literally.
Neither Electra nor I had anywhere to go. Two broken girls, with broken lives and a one-way ticket to success.
Success I’m allowing to slip through my hands right now.
“Care to enlighten me what’s filling that head of yours today?” Stella asks, her brown hair in a no-nonsense bob swaying over her shoulders as she taps her foot on the ice, watching me skate over to her with a matching no-nonsense expression on her face.
“I’m sorry, I know that was bad.” I wince again.
“Bad?” If not for that perfectly pointed, arched brow of hers that displays her irritation, you’d think she was an angel based on her nonchalant tone.She’s not.“No, that wasn’t bad at all.” She keeps on in that same tone, and I brace, knowing the next part will be yelled out so loud, the ice I’m standing on will shake. “IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO BECOME AN ICE SWEEPER!”
Yep, there it is.
Inhaling a deep, steadying breath, Stella closes her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose with her fingers. “Aurora, you very well know that Filip Masso has his eye on both you and Electra. And this weekend he’s coming to audition you. This is it! This is your time to shine! But all I see is a flop after flop! You know better! I trained you better! So, I repeat, what’s filling your head today? And ice gods help you if it’s anything other than getting a spot at Filip’s Olympic skating program.”
So, where do I find those ice gods, because Filip Masso’s Olympic training center is the last thing I have on my mind today. After years and years of spilling sweat and blood into ice skating, dreaming of the day I’d get to represent my country on a world stage—a dream that was a reality and I could practically feel it with the tips of my fingers—it was all but slipping into nothing.
