where Odette or Theo are. I haven’t seen them all morning.”
“I hope everything’s all right,” I commented.
Emma made a face and said, “They had to deal with something. I’m sure it’s fine.”
Her words carried a heavy weight, but I didn’t challenge them. I had to focus on winning the game. Emma and I parted to go to warm-up; she kissed me lightly and whispered, “Good luck.”
My chest lightened. I went to the locker room and laced up my skates, ignoring the slight pounding in my head.
“We need to concentrate on defense,” Elijah bragged from the other side of the locker room. “If we can get Team C on their guard, it’ll be easier to score goals. Do as I say and we’ll win.”
Gods, could he shut up? He was a shit leader. A couple guys had clustered around his bench to listen in, but most of the team was ignoring him.
We’d been divided this season. Not much of a “team” to go on.
The crowd roared as we stepped on the ice to take our warm-up. The announcer in the stands was blaring our names player by player, but I tuned out the noise and focused. I saw Emma sitting in the corner of the rink with all our friends— she mouthed good luck as I skated by, and I smiled.
“Hey, keep your head on the ice,” Stefan said as he skated past. “You can bang your girl later.”
I shoved him. He gave me a cocky grin, and skated off.
Team C looked confident and prepared. They were gathered on one side of the rink against the boards, listening carefully to their coach’s pep talk.
My own team looked torn. Lucien shouted out instructions, but nobody was listening. The practice shots my team took missed.
As I skated around, I noticed a couple of Team C players looking at me, though they averted their eyes when I sent them a glare. Most people were shocked that I still played hockey after I lost my leg. When I skated on the ice, the bottom half of my prosthetic was exposed for everyone to see, as my shorts didn’t go past my knee and there was no use for pads on the prosthetic itself.
Yes, it was uncomfortable to be different. The first day back at practice had been horrible after I’d become an amputee. People had stared. But I’d since put up enough points on the scoreboard to shut people up, so anyone who doubted my capabilities as a player could kindly fuck off.
The practice ended, and I skated to center ice to face off. I knelt down and focused as the referee dropped the puck, and the game began.
Team C didn’t hold back. I immediately snatched the puck, but a brawny griffin body-checked me so hard he sent me sprawling to the ice. My shoulder throbbed as he stole the puck away. I cried out for one of my teammates to intercept him before he could reach our goalie, but he didn’t skate fast enough.
The griffin shot the puck. Our goalie reached out to snatch the puck out of the air, but was seconds too late. The puck nailed the net, and the buzzer went off, signaling Team C had scored a point.
“Dammit!” I smacked my stick onto the ice. We’d only been playing for a few minutes, and already, Team C was ahead of us. I skated off the ice and took the bench as Lucien sent out a fresh line to play. Stefan took a drink out of his water bottle— beside him, Elijah ranted.
“If you hadn’t been such an idiot we could’ve stopped him!” Elijah bellowed at Yan. “It’s your fault he got past!”
Yan stared at the ground, unsure of what to say. Lucien stepped in.
“We’re a team, Eli,” he said forcefully. “If we lose, we lose together.”
“If we lose at all, it’s because these useless fucks couldn’t keep up with me!” Elijah elbowed Yan. Yan took several deep breaths as his face turned red. I knew he was trying not to get mad, because he feared the repercussions from Lord Zlodia if he reacted.
Lucien scowled. “If you had been paying attention to our own corner of the ice, instead of everyone else’s, you would’ve seen you had a chance to intercept the puck long before it got to our side of the rink after we lost the face-off.”
Elijah gaped. He didn’t have anything to say after that— he just punched the boards and sulked. Lucien’s eyes returned to watching the game.