Chapter 1
Four days until Nordic Ice Trophy competition
After a stretching session and a warm-up with quick squats and exercises for their legs, shoulders and back, they took their skates and stepped onto the ice, which seemed to have been waiting for them for a long time.
The coach stood nearby, impatiently watching their every move, and her sharp gaze made Alisa feel tense.
Fortunately, after a few minutes, the coach left on business that required confirmation with documentation and disappeared into another wing of the building.
Alisa sat down on the bench and began tying her skates, row after row, lacing each eyelet carefully so that they were secure but not too tight. She wanted to feel comfortable and relaxed, especially since this was her first time on this ice.
Lev sat beside her, but he tied his skates much faster. He stood up from the bench and walked toward the edge of the rink, near the boards of the hockey box, although for this championship the barriers had been removed. For now, they were not necessary until the official tournament began.
Alisa finished tying the last knot on her left skate and stood up, glancing at Lev. He was staring somewhere intently, clearly watching someone, probably assessing their rivals, she thought. She followed his gaze toward the rink.
Several figure skaters were already on the ice. Two pairs were practicing basic lifts and steps, simply gliding and getting used to the surface, while most of the others were singles. Apparently, it was a general trial day for all categories.
Then her attention was caught by a blonde skater whose curls moved beautifully during her pirouettes.
She spun with such lightness that she seemed almost weightless, as if she were nothing more than a feather floating in the air.
That effect could only be achieved through years of exhausting training, when something that required thousands of hours of practice appeared effortless to an ordinary observer.
Years spent trying to look like a piece of fluff, like a feather falling softly from the sky.
The blonde executed a triple salchow with such ease that Alisa’s mouth fell open in surprise.
As soon as the girl landed, their gazes met for a brief second.
Those blue eyes locked onto Alisa’s brown ones, and for a moment it felt as if the ocean itself had surged forward and covered the earth with cold, overwhelming waves. Goosebumps ran down Alisa’s back.
Another skater had just entered the ice from the opposite side of the rink and began clapping for the blonde. The blonde grinned slightly, and Alisa frowned.
Showing off? she wondered.
A second later, the blonde skated past her and rushed toward the one who had applauded. They met in the middle of the rink, laughing, embracing, and spinning together in visible excitement.
Maybe it meant something to her. Maybe it was her first successful quadruple. Or maybe they simply had that kind of atmosphere between them, the kind where every pirouette, every jump, every clean landing felt like a shared victory.
Alisa could no longer watch the pair hugging so sweetly. Something in her chest shrank alarmingly at the sight, and she turned her gaze toward her partner.
Lev was obviously just as shocked by what he had seen. His face reflected the same stunned emotion. His mouth hung slightly open, as if he had almost gasped, but only a quiet breath escaped his lips, which had frozen in a small O of surprise.
Suddenly, they both felt sharp slaps on the backs of their heads and, out of the corners of their eyes, noticed how the coach had crept up behind them.
The Pike looked at them menacingly and practically barked, “Go skate. You’re wasting precious time standing here with your mouths open at your rivals.”
“Yes, Coach,” they answered calmly, nodding in unison, and stepped onto the ice, first Lev and then Alisa.
They began their warm-up with something simple: half circles with a mohawk, then half circles with forward crossovers.
As they skated in wide, sweeping movements, they did not take their eyes off each other, as if they were holding onto one another not only with their gaze but with invisible hands and teeth.
Each movement had to look perfectly honed, even though it was only a warm-up to feel the ice.
Left, right, left, right, left, right.
Alisa repeated the rhythm loudly in her mind, gritting her teeth. She had never warmed up this intensely before, but today, in front of her rivals, she felt she had to be perfect, even during the very first glide across the ice.
The blades scraped against the surface, the familiar sharp sound making her heart beat faster.
Her blood seemed to boil with the intensity of movement, and her cheeks turned pink from the rush of circulation.
She was incredibly nervous. She had been preparing for competitions for years, yet for some reason this first appearance on the ice here felt overwhelming.
It made sense, she told herself. This was her first international competition outside her home country.
Everything was different, even if it was technically the same ice.
The judges were foreign. The rivals were foreign.
Everything felt elevated to a higher level than she was used to, and that thought alone tightened something inside her.
Lev called out to her, “Let’s try the split lift?”
He skated ahead and winked playfully, his black blades cutting across the ice with effortless elegance, scattering fine grains of frost with every stroke.
It was a forbidden element in championships, a lifted partner in an upside-down split pose, but it had always been one of their favorite elements when no one was watching.
Alisa glanced around. Not seeing the coach nearby, she accelerated toward him.
He extended his hand, and she took it without hesitation.
Other skaters began to glance in their direction, clearly assessing them. But there was not a trace of fear on Lev’s face, only excitement and that almost childish desire to prove themselves, to show everyone that they were capable of more, even of things officially forbidden.
He smiled with a hint of mischief, tightened his grip on Alisa, and they entered the element.
Within seconds she was lifted into an inverted split, her body extended perfectly as the ceiling spun above her.
The pair rotated on their axis, the world blurring into streaks of white and silver.
She could hear someone in the stands gasp, someone else hiss in surprise.
Even through the music playing in the rink, the reaction was audible.
And for that brief moment, suspended upside down in Lev’s hands, fear disappeared.
There was only the ice, the spin, and the intoxicating thrill of being seen.
They came out of the element smiling, breathing faster, returning to the ordinary rhythm of the warm-up with satisfied expressions on their faces.
Out of the corners of their eyes, they watched their rivals, who were staring at them indignantly, as if Lev and Alisa had just declared themselves the kings of this ring of ice, the rightful owners of the rink.
That look only fed the pride growing inside both of them.
They continued their warm-up without anything extreme. The first impression, meant to intimidate their opponents, had clearly worked.
They moved on to more exercises, a backward outside three-turn into a mohawk and push back, skating as if nothing unusual had happened. And yet the atmosphere on the ice had changed. It had grown heavier.
The blonde skater and her partner were preparing for something as well. Soon all eyes shifted toward them.
Then, in perfect synchronization, they executed a backflip, another forbidden element. They landed cleanly, each on one foot, so precise and controlled that for a moment the entire rink seemed frozen in shock.
Apparently, Lev and Alisa were not the only ones who enjoyed practicing forbidden elements when no one official was watching.
Other couples applauded the blonde pair. The tension thickened instantly. No one had applauded Lev and Alisa. They had been met with anger, with cold looks, almost disgust. It had been the kind of gaze that made you want to leave the ice entirely.
But instead of discouraging them, it only fueled the fire.
It meant the provocation had worked.
It meant the competition had already begun.
Tomorrow, a full training session awaited them, along with their new opponents. For now, they only had a few short minutes to rehearse parts of their choreography.
The blonde girl and her partner, also blonde, began skating closer to Alisa and Lev.
Both Alisa and Lev tensed immediately.
The blonde pair stopped in front of them and said something in Norwegian, sharp and fast, words neither of them understood.
“What?” Alisa frowned at the girl, clearly confused.
The blonde laughed and continued speaking in Norwegian to her partner, who also began laughing openly at them.
Then she switched to English.
“You came to Norway for a competition without even knowing basic Norwegian?” she asked, her voice edged with a light accent Alisa had never heard before.
Alisa’s frown deepened. The malicious smile on the Norwegian girl’s face was unmistakable. The four of them circled each other slowly on the ice, like kites caught in the same wind, waiting for someone to strike first, waiting for the perfect moment to attack.
Alisa swallowed the nervous lump rising in her throat but forced herself to smile.
“I don’t have to learn every language of the countries I visit,” she replied coolly. “I speak two languages already, and English is enough to communicate with the world.”
Her tone was bold, almost sharp. She was irritated by the pointless provocation, by the way the Norwegian had attacked her for no reason.
The blonde boy nudged his partner lightly with his elbow and said something to her in Norwegian, quieter this time. It seemed to sober her slightly, as if he had warned her not to go too far.
Strange, Alisa thought.
She did not take her eyes off them as they slowly skated away, and only then did she and Lev resume their warm-up, though the calm from before had completely vanished.
The blond man seemed to relax immediately and, with a more sincere smile, drawled in a pleasant accent, “This is Tora, and I’m Loke.
You’ll have to excuse her, she can sometimes be a pain in the ass.
We’re glad you came here. I understand… judging by your accent, you’re from Russia? Russians, right?”
Alisa tensed instantly.
“Yeah, something like that.” Lev said calmly.
Loke simply nodded and reached out his hand to Lev. Lev shook it without hesitation, and within seconds they were talking easily, as if they had known each other longer than a few minutes. Soon they skated off together, continuing their practice and leaving the girls facing each other.
Alisa and Tora remained where they were, staring at one another with such tension that it almost felt as if the ice beneath their blades might begin to melt.
“I just wanted to say,” Tora began coolly, “everyone can show forbidden tricks here. The only question is how well and harmoniously you skate professionally.”
“We’ll see tomorrow during the individual runs,” Alisa replied with a grin.
Tora seemed to follow her every movement as they continued skating, their paths crossing again and again.
Their exercises mirrored each other almost perfectly.
Neither of them broke eye contact. What had started as a joke, an attempt to show off, was no longer playful.
It had become something sharper, more serious.
It felt as if Tora were deliberately skating too close, as if she wanted to clip Alisa’s heels.
Alisa did not like that at all.
“You’re skating after us,” Tora said with a triumphant smile. “You’ll taste the ice after the champions.”
“Are you that confident?” Alisa smiled back, a flash of cunning lighting her eyes. The spirit of rivalry thickened the air between them.
“We’re one hundred percent sure. But about you…” Tora tilted her head slightly. “I’m not so sure.”
She winked, then made a smooth U-turn and skated back toward her partner, disappearing behind the other skaters. The rink had already begun to thin out. Training time was coming to an end, and many were preparing to rest and stretch.
Alisa exhaled slowly and looked around for Lev in the smaller crowd. Everyone was minding their own routines now. No one was attempting anything extreme anymore; they were clearly conserving energy for tomorrow.
Alisa herself felt exhaustion finally catching up with her. Her legs trembled slightly, fatigue settling deep into her muscles as the adrenaline faded.
When she found Lev and caught his hand, they skated together for a few more minutes, cutting quiet circles into the ice and repeating each other’s movements like reflections in a mirror.
Finally, they stepped off the ice and headed toward the locker rooms, each to their own.
It was time to rest.
Tomorrow would be important.