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I was still convinced it had all been my father’s doing, but there were holes in the theory. Like why he hadn’t just killed us. Enzo clearly still didn’t know we were alive, at least not until that day when he’d killed my father. But I couldn’t work out my father’s motivation.

Maybe he just hadn’t been able to pull the trigger on his only son.

Though that didn’t explain why Lynx and Dax were still alive. He would have had no trouble ending their lives.

Something about the whole thing just didn’t add up, but even with six weeks of thinking about it, I hadn’t been able to come up with an explanation that fit.

I shook off all those thoughts as the cold air and the smell of stale sweat hit my face. I wrinkled my nose. It didn’t matter how many times I came in here, it would always smell vaguely of feet to me.

I still couldn’t really understand the appeal of the game. But Lynx’s face lit up, like he was a school kid reunited with his friends after the summer break. He let out an ear-piercing whistle, and all the skaters on the ice skidded to a stop to look over at us.

Nobody said a word. Nobody moved.

Everyone just stared at us.

I cleared my throat and mumbled to Lynx, “Well, this is awkward.”

Lynx was clearly feeling it too, but tried to shake it off by clapping his big hands together. “How’s everyone doing?”

The silence was deafening.

French eventually skated slowly to the front of the group, facing off with us. He pulled his helmet off and stared at me like I was a ghost.

“We held a fucking memorial skate for you!”

I blinked at the pure anger in his tone. I’d never heard him talk to anyone like that. He was normally the most levelheaded guy on the team, a workhorse who did exactly as he was told and never complained.

But French was complaining now. “Are you seriously walking back into this rink after being gone for months with no word? How the fuck are you even alive? We all saw the news that reported your death.”

“The news was wrong,” I said dryly. “Obviously.” I glanced over at X, who was skating in stumbling little circles and definitely not paying attention. “You didn’t tell them?”

He had the decency to blush pink. “Hey! My girl had a baby, and I’ve got two kids, and a minivan, and I drew Levi in the family Secret Santa so I had to find a gift for that. Do you know how hard it was to find that Live, Laugh, Parole throw cushion? And most importantly, I was trying to grow my eyebrows back after a very terrible fire bubble accident. Can you not respect my privacy at this very difficult time?” He ran his fingers over his eyebrows that, to his credit, were kind of patchy.

We all just stared at him.

He shrugged. “All that to say, I might not have been around much.”

“No one has been.” French glared at us over that, rather than his teammates. “We had to forfeit two games because we didn’t have enough players. Jones quit. Strathmores paused their sponsorship. All things you’d know if you’d bothered to be around at all.”

“French requested a trade too,” X piped up, then gave a triumphant grin, seeming to entirely miss the hostile frost in the air that had nothing to do with the ice. “See? I know stuff!”

Lynx groaned. “Seriously, French? You’re the best player we have.”

“Insulting,” X huffed.

I looked over at him. “You aren’t even a player. You’re the mascot.”

“Then at least tell me I’m the best mascot.”

I raised an eyebrow at him, ’cause we all knew he was probably the worst mascot in the history of hockey games. “You can’t even skate, X.”

He slid forward on his skates, stumbling over a chunk of ice which really only proved my point. But he leaned over the rail to stab a finger into my chest anyway. “That is the meanest thing you’ve ever said to me, Luca Guerra. I’m not sending you a Christmas card now.”

“It’s February.”

“It’ll be December in ten months though! And then you’ll be sorry!”

I watched him skate away and shook my head, because any conversation with X was always baffling. Though I had no doubt he’d be back on the ice within ten minutes, practicing staying upright with that giant viper head that looked more dildo than serpent.