Page 9 of Born of Ice

“Good, good.” I nod, the tears still making their run down. Suddenly, he grabs my hand in his, pressing it to his mouth.

“It will be okay! You will walk—and soon. I don’t care what that incompetent doctor says.” It feels an awful a lot like he is trying to convince himself along with me. “You will walk and skate and we’ll make it to the Olympics! I know we can.”

Erik looks up to me for the first time, but instead of hope, faith, love, and determination, all I see in his dark eyes is fear, loss, devastation, contempt. Yet I somehow manage to twist my lips into a weak smile, comforting him.

“I’ll be here with you the whole time, no matter what. You hear me?” He slides the palm of his hand over my face, caressing the bruise on my cheek.

“I hear you,” I say quietly.

Erik gets up from the floor, his posture now with some sense of purpose as he kisses me on my forehead. “I’ll go call Jasper. He needs to find you another doctor, a better one!” He starts rushing out the door when I stop him.

“Can you find me my phone, please?”

“Yeah, it’s right here.” He pulls it out of his pocket, handing it to me and I see twelve missed calls from Stella on it, but before I can ask if anyone has spoken to her yet, he’s gone, and I’m dialing my old trainer myself.

“You little weasel! How dare you not pick up the phone when I’ve been calling all this time! You just wait till I get there, I’m gonna rip your limp dick off your body.” I can only assume those threats are meant for Erik and confirmation that no one did, in fact, call her yet.

“Stella.” The line goes dead silent for a few moments before a heavy but shaky exhale sounds through the phone and that might be the most emotion I’ve ever seen—or heard—from her.

“Electra,” she says softly. Well, as softly as Stella Gray can, which to all other ears would sound a smidge pissed off but for me, it means the world. “I saw it all.”Of course, she did.“How are you? What’s going on? How bad is it? I’m about to leave. I’ll be there in a few hours. That weasel hasn’t told me where you are this whole time, and I’ve had to call around to find out.” She’s going to come. That thought alone warms my cold blood. Especially when I know how difficult it is for her to get away from her club and students and I can’t ask that of her. She’s already done too much for me in my life.

“No, no, please, don’t worry. I’m okay here. Erik and Filip are here. You don’t need to come.”

“Nonsense! That weasel and weasel number two won’t do jack shit for you.” Yeah, so she’s not a fan of any men in my life…

“And it’s…” I continue without commenting on her statement and look to my legs, swallowing a thick lump. “It’s unknown still. I just woke up not too long ago.” Another swallow and my voice grows quieter. “They said I broke my sacral bone, and they had to put a long screw in there to hold it together.”

I hear her suck in a sharp breath on the other end. She knows. She knows what this means. I turn my head back to the snowfall, bracing for her next question.

“Anything?” Stella asks and a fresh wave of tears flows down as I shake my head, as if she can see me, choking down the sounds, but she understands what my sudden silence means.

“I’ll kill him.”

“It’s not his fault.”

“The hell it’s not!”

“Please,” I beg her. “Please, let’s not do this now.”

“Fine, I’ll be there by tomorrow morning at the latest,” she grits out.

“Please, Stella, I know how busy you are. And there is nothing happening here. They are just going to run more tests for now.”

“Do you really think there is anyone more important to me than you?”

“Mr. Thomas?” I attempt to joke, because Mr. Thomas is Stella’s cat who’s as old as time and has her whole heart.

“What makes you think I’d be coming without him?” Somehow, despite it all, I manage to laugh, and I even hear a slight amusement note pass through her tone too.

“I could use some extra hair all over my bed.”

“Well, all is not lost if you can manage to throw in stupid jokes.” Her no-nonsense answer draws another smile out of me. “Fine, I’ll let the weasels take care of you for now, but you better call me with any updates. You hear me?”

I must’ve drifted off after the extra tests Dr. Miles performed because when I’m woken up by a hushed, yet somewhat heated, conversation. I blink a few times, noting the dark skies outside the window.

“She won’t walk.” Erik’s cold voice filters though my sleepy haze, waking me up right away.

“The last test results already came through?” our manager Jasper asks.

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