Where The Ice Gives Way novel Chapter 72

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Where The Ice Gives Way

Chapter 72 Stealing The Air

Blake

I would be lying if I said I was focusing on practice for myself. My attention has been fixed on Charlotte the whole time. She’s out there on the

ice in those new skates, moving like she’s forgotten anyone else exists, and I don’t think I’ve taken a proper shot since we stepped onto the rink. The puck slides off my stick and taps uselessly against the boards while I watch her glide over the centre line, her arms lifting with the music like it’s pulling the movement out of her instead of the other way around. I love the way her eyes close when she skates. The way her smile lights up her whole face is like something in her finally gets to breathe. I think she likes the skates, and it’s not just Lex puffing his chest right now. We are good mates. She will praise us, he says smugly in my mind. I huff out a quiet breath. Settle down.

No. Charlie wasn’t lying either when he said you couldn’t help but stare when she skates. I see it now. I feel it in my soul. There’s something about the way she moves that pulls at you, drags your attention in and holds it there. It’s not just that she’s good. She’s otherworldly. The way she flows, the way her body moves, it’s as if the ice is listening to her. I lean my stick against my shoulder and watch her push out across the ice, her blade carving a clean line beneath her, body following. I can see Jess and her team have slowed down, too. They’re watching her, and I can feel the shift in Charlotte before anything happens. There’s a flicker of nerves under our bond. Doubled with the hesitation from her. Charlie must feel it too. Maybe it’s a twin thing. Or maybe he just knows her that well. He skates in beside me, slowing to a stop with a quiet scrape of his blades. His eyes are already on his sister, his jaw tightening slightly. “Are they going to be a problem?” he asks, low. I can tell he’s already half a second away from moving. I shake my head once. “Nah.” He doesn’t look convinced, and I don’t blame him. I know they’ve both had it hard with people being dicks. “They’re really nice,” 1 add. Charlie keeps watching anyway.

Jess pushes off from her group and heads toward Charlotte, hands settling on her hips as she slows in front of her. From here, I can see Charlotte go very still. I can sense she’s bracing for something she’s already decided is going to hurt. Charlie’s shoulders tense beside me, too. but I don’t move. Instead, I listen. My hearing sharpens, and the rest of the rink dulls around the edges while Jess’s voice carries clean a£7665 the ice. “What do you think you’re doing over here?” I feel it in my chest, that sharp little drop in Charlotte that breaks my own heart. Charite swears under his breath, and I tap his stick with mine. “Give it a second,” I say quietly. Jess rolls her eyes, and then she smiles. The tension

way; it turns more into confusion as Jess points across the rink and says something about her bein Charlotte doesn’t disappear straight the wrong side. Charlie’s head tilts slightly as he looks between his sister and me. “…What?” he mutters. Jess grabs Charlotte’s arm and starts towing her back toward the group, and Charlie straightens beside me, ready to go. I reach out and catch his arm lightly. “Walt.”

I force him to watch with me. Jess is talking fast now, something about rhythm and skating with people who can keep up with her. The rest the group gathers around them, and Jess says something else. Then Charlotte turns, and her eyes find mine across the rink. There’s uncen four y there. A question. Like she’s waiting to be told what to do. For a second, I forget how to breathe. Reassure our mute, doment! Lex all but yells at me, pulling me out of my moment of surprise. She needs me to tell her it’s okay. That she’s safe. I grin like an idiot and lift my hand ghung her the biggest thumbs up I can manage. Do it. Go. You’ve got this. It must work because, a second later, less claps once, excitente music!” The speakers crackle as the song shifts and the figure skaters drift back, forming a loose circle around Charlotte. The crea to quiet in that strange way where nothing actually stops, but all the attention pulls to one place. She pushes off and font like that the way the air from my lungs.

The first glide she makes is smooth and easy. Then she turns into it, her blade cutting through the we as she shits her ass through the movement without breaking stride. By builds speest without looking like she’s trying the step tows in the week crossing, uncrossing, Coning, her body following like it knows exactly where it’s going betere she shoe bis dras tit with the ten at d home, and her head tilta just slightly like she’s listening to something that no se vise car far I get the rest of the në ranks. We dips low, spinning Tight to the wi, fat maugh that her bad blast and has take that the caprio out at it potting shungin tres ng that fade wwe think she mught be a fairy she lands cheat and lamps wing us to the mapat didn 1 chen winch her, fratch fest way enter had she sed one of the guy at her lets st a quel tess.”

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Where The Ice Gives Way