Page 50 of Chasing Gold, Catching Her

Tora: Okay, I hope you made it and didn’t die somewhere along the way… see you at practice tomorrow… good night, I suppose…

* * *

The next morning they were already on the ice, running through their elements. Alisa had slept surprisingly well and felt none of the jet lag she had been so afraid of after reading endless articles online written by Europeans traveling to the United States. Somehow it had passed her by entirely. She felt good.

They were going into the Death Spiral element when Tora stepped onto the ice with Loke. The two of them began with a few easy laps around the rink, just rolling out, and Tora did not take her eyes off Alisa for even a second. She was angry that Alisa had never answered her messages properly, but now Alisa was here, in the arena, on the ice, very much alive, and somehow she looked infuriatingly good for someone who had just spent hours on a plane. Tora, meanwhile, felt exhausted. She had barely slept during the flight, everything irritated her, and for one awful moment she wondered if she was getting her period.

No, absolutely not.

With a soft, miserable groan, she forced herself to stop staring at Alisa and turned her attention back to her partner.

Tora and Alisa did not greet each other at all on the ice, as though they had never met, as though they had never known one another in the first place, and when Lev noticed the other pair entering the rink, the realization that they would now have to share the ice with their rivals made him visibly stiffen.

“One more time. Enter into it properly, you’re sliding here!” Pike shouted.

Alisa threw her hands into the air in frustration, and only then let herself glance toward Tora. By now Tora and Loke were skating hand in hand, beginning with basic backward steps and working on their synchronization. But it was the way Loke’s hand rested against Tora’s waist that immediately caught Alisa’s attention and refused to let go. It bothered her more than she wanted to admit. It made her jealous.

Why couldn’t girls skate together in pairs?

She was still thinking about it when Lev slid directly into her line of sight and stopped in front of her.

“Why are you yawning?”

“I’m not yawning,” Alisa protested. “I was catching my breath.”

“We don’t have much time, Alisa. Stop staring at her. The Pike’s going to kill you for getting distracted, and honestly, she’s already halfway there.”

Oh, shit….

Lev pushed off and dropped briefly to one knee on the ice, dragging a gloved hand over the surface and then over his face, trying to cool himself down. His cheeks were burning.

“Why are you both standing there like statues? Lower in the Death Spiral. You’re losing the center in the todes. Alisa, you’re too tense, your back is too straight. Again. Come on, come on, keep moving!” The Pike clapped her hands sharply, and at once all of Alisa’s attention was ripped away from Tora and forced back onto the element.

“Let’s go,” Lev muttered.

Alisa nodded.

They accelerated again, faster this time, and then Lev caught her hand and she dropped almost parallel to the ice, spinning around him in a smooth, dangerous arc.

“Hold her, hold her, center, center, Lev!” the Pike barked from the boards, watching them with hawk-like intensity.

“One more time!”

They came out of the spiral, separated, circled apart, and immediately began building speed for the next attempt.

After several more tries, the Pike finally seemed satisfied. During a short break, while they stood in the corner drinking water and watching pale vapor rise from the ice, Alisa let out a slow breath.

“There are so many incredible athletes here,” she said quietly. “Do you think we even have a chance?”

She looked over at Lev. His face was serious, his cheeks still red from exertion.

“Of course we do. We’ll get a quota place, definitely. I know we will.”

Yet even as he said it, Alisa noticed that his hands were trembling.

Without thinking, she reached out, took them gently between her own, and squeezed.

Lev smiled or almost smiled. It was there and gone so quickly that Alisa nearly thought she had imagined it.