Page 4 of Chasing Gold, Catching Her

The blond man seemed to relax immediately and, with a more sincere smile, drawled in a pleasant accent, “This is Tora, and I’m Loke. You’ll have to excuse her, she can sometimes be a pain in the ass. We’re glad you came here. I understand… judging by your accent, you’re from Russia? Russians, right?”

Alisa tensed instantly.

“Yeah, something like that.” Lev said calmly.

Loke simply nodded and reached out his hand to Lev. Lev shook it without hesitation, and within seconds they were talking easily, as if they had known each other longer than a few minutes. Soon they skated off together, continuing their practice and leaving the girls facing each other.

Alisa and Tora remained where they were, staring at one another with such tension that it almost felt as if the ice beneath their blades might begin to melt.

“I just wanted to say,” Tora began coolly, “everyone can show forbidden tricks here. The only question is how well and harmoniously you skate professionally.”

“We’ll see tomorrow during the individual runs,” Alisa replied with a grin.

Tora seemed to follow her every movement as they continued skating, their paths crossing again and again. Their exercises mirrored each other almost perfectly. Neither of them broke eye contact. What had started as a joke, an attempt to show off, was no longer playful. It had become something sharper, more serious. It felt as if Tora were deliberately skating too close, as if she wanted to clip Alisa’s heels.

Alisa did not like that at all.

“You’re skating after us,” Tora said with a triumphant smile. “You’ll taste the ice after the champions.”

“Are you that confident?” Alisa smiled back, a flash of cunning lighting her eyes. The spirit of rivalry thickened the air between them.

“We’re one hundred percent sure. But about you…” Tora tilted her head slightly. “I’m not so sure.”

She winked, then made a smooth U-turn and skated back toward her partner, disappearing behind the other skaters. The rink had already begun to thin out. Training time was coming to an end, and many were preparing to rest and stretch.

Alisa exhaled slowly and looked around for Lev in the smaller crowd. Everyone was minding their own routines now. No one was attempting anything extreme anymore; they were clearly conserving energy for tomorrow.

Alisa herself felt exhaustion finally catching up with her. Her legs trembled slightly, fatigue settling deep into her muscles as the adrenaline faded.

When she found Lev and caught his hand, they skated together for a few more minutes, cutting quiet circles into the ice and repeating each other’s movements like reflections in a mirror.

Finally, they stepped off the ice and headed toward the locker rooms, each to their own.

It was time to rest.

Tomorrow would be important.

Chapter 2

Three days until Nordic Ice Trophy competition

Alisa got up early in the morning, as usual, but the fatigue after the flights still lingered in her body, making all the sensations heavier than they should have been.

She quickly got ready in her hotel room and took a taxi to the arena. The hotel was not far away, so after just a few minutes of driving through the dark streets of Oslo, she arrived at the rink together with the coach and Lev.

At 5:30 a.m., their morning session on the ice began, and they were scheduled to practice various elements for three hours, which was quite standard, as the coach believed it was important to maintain the routine even during championships.

Strangely enough, today she did not see the pair she had confronted so aggressively the day before; perhaps they had a day off, or maybe they were training at another rink instead of the main arena, and Alisa even exhaled with relief when she did not find them on the ice, although they might still arrive later, but for now she chose not to think about it.

“So,” said the Pike with her characteristic menacing squint, as she adjusted Alisa’s training uniform so precisely that it almost made her uncomfortable, because even training clothes had to look perfect in the coach’s eyes, which was one of her peculiar habits, “today we are rehearsing the short program, you are given one hour to warm up and repeat spins and jumps, and then the rest of the time will be devoted to practicing the short program in pairs, exactly as in competition.”

Alisa and Lev nodded in agreement, accepting the plan for the next few hours.

Their short program lasted two minutes and forty seconds, and it required them to execute all the necessary elements within that time while maintaining precision in every movement, which always made Alisa anxious beforehand, but as soon as she stepped onto the ice and her blade touched its surface, all her worries faded, leaving only a cold focus and the determination to win.

They planned to take gold at this championship in order to prove to the Pike that they were ready for more, ready for bigger competitions, ready to qualify for the Olympics, and ready to be chosen to represent their country as the strongest and most promising pair in figure skating.

They went out onto the ice and began to roll out slowly, the blades gliding smoothly over the morning surface, which still held almost no marks, as if it were untouched, nearly virgin ice prepared for them overnight, and it felt incredibly pleasant.