025— 'IT'S OVER.'

                     ~SLOANE~

I felt like myself for the first time in weeks when I laced up my skates.

Not completely. Not the version of myself from before the coronation and the passage. But the version that existed on ice.

I needed that version badly this morning.

The dining table was set when I came downstairs. Anton had been and gone — eggs, toast, coffee already poured. I sat down and started eating and two minutes later I heard footsteps from the hallway.

Kai.

Dark clothes. Always dark clothes. He sat at the far end of the table without looking at me and reached for the coffee. We ate in silence pretending the other wasn't there.

His eyes came up.

Mine did too.

We both looked away at exactly the same moment.

This happened three more times before I put my fork down.

"You invaded my privacy last night," I said.

"Good morning to you too," he said.

"You walked into my room without asking."

"You were having a nightmare."

"That's not an invitation—"

"You were on the floor," he said flatly. "Shaking. Talking to people who weren't there." He picked up his coffee. "I checked. That's all."

"You stayed," I said.

He said nothing.

"You stayed all night."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, with that energy of someone who knew exactly what I was talking about.

"My hand," I said. "Someone was holding my hand."

"You were probably holding your own hand."

"That's not how hands work."

"Isn't it."

I stared at him. He looked at his eggs. The corner of his mouth was doing that thing and I wanted to throw something at it.

"Of course," I said. "What did I even expect." I picked up my fork. "Don't ever put your head on my bed again."

"You wish," he said.

Silence resumed.

I ate. He ate. The morning light came through the dining room windows and the fountain ran outside and I thought about his hand over mine in the dark and I absolutely did not think about that.

"Kai."

He looked up.

"Thank you," I said. "For Elena. For getting her out. For the field medic treating her finger." I held his gaze. "I never thanked you properly and I should have."

He looked at me for a moment.

Then he nodded once.

That was it. No deflection. Just the nod — quiet and real, and somehow that was more than anything he could have said.

Loud footsteps erupted from upstairs.

Both of us looked at the ceiling simultaneously.

Elena appeared in the dining room doorway thirty seconds later, fully dressed, slightly out of breath, hair half done, wearing an expression of pure panic.

"Where are you going," she said, eyes fixed on my hockey bag by the door.

"Training," I said.

*"I thought you left." Her voice cracked slightly on the last word. "I woke up and your room was empty and I thought…"

"I wouldn't leave without telling you," I said. "Ever."

She breathed. "Can I come?"

"No."

"Sloane—"

"You need to rest. Your finger needs—"

"I've been locked in a room for months," she said. "Please don't lock me in another one."

I opened my mouth.

"She can come," Kai said.

I turned to look at him.

He was already standing, picking up his coffee, completely unbothered by my expression. 

"My people will be there. She won't be out of sight." He looked at Elena briefly. "Fresh air helps. Being outside helps." He looked back at me. "She comes."

Elena looked at him with an expression I recognized. Warmth.

"Thank you," she said softly.

"Don't mention it," he said, and walked out of the dining room.

I looked at Elena.

She looked back at me with those eyes that were too much like my mother's.

"I like him," she said.

"Don't," I said.

I picked up my bag.

Anya saw me coming across the parking lot and broke into a run.

She hit me with the full force of someone who had been worried for weeks and was expressing it physically and I grabbed her back and held on because I'd missed her more than I'd let myself acknowledge.

"You disappeared," she said into my shoulder. "You completely disappeared and all I got was a text saying you were safe—"

"I know. I'm sorry."

"Are you okay? Are you actually okay?"

"Getting there," I said honestly.

She pulled back and looked at my face and did the thing where she read it properly. Then her eyes went to Elena standing slightly behind me.

"This is Elena," I said. "My cousin."

Anya stared. "You have a cousin."

"Everyone has a cousin."

"You never mentioned…"

"Anya."

She grabbed Elena immediately — both arms, no warning, and Elena made a startled sound and then hugged her back.

Anya looked at me over Elena's shoulder with about forty questions in her eyes.

“Later,” I mouthed.

She nodded.

Niko appeared from the rink entrance. He saw us and smiled. Then his eyes landed on Elena and the smile changed and became something slightly less automatic.

He crossed to us. Looked at Elena's bandaged finger without being asked. "How is it?"

"Hurting less," Elena said.

"Good." He looked at the bandage for another second. "Tell me if it needs redressing."

"Okay," she said.

She followed him toward the rink entrance with pure enthusiasm. Like someone who had forgotten to pretend she wasn't following him. I watched them go.

Anya appeared at my shoulder.

"Interesting," she said.

"Don't," I said.

"I'm just observing."

"Stop observing."

We went inside.

                  …

The ice fixed something in me the moment I stepped on it.

That cold, the way my blades caught and held and my body remembered exactly what it was built for. I exhaled for what felt like the first time in days.

Then I thought about Crew.

Not intentionally. He just arrived. The way he always did, the way he'd been arriving since the coronation. His face in that video. Elena's muffled scream. The fingernail between his fingers held up toward the camera like it was nothing.

“Why does he want me back that badly?”

I pushed harder.

“What is he hiding. What did my father find. What did my family die for.”

Harder. Faster. The mark burned and I used it. Channeled the burn into my legs, my edges, my acceleration. I scored twice in the first ten minutes and barely registered it. I was somewhere else entirely. I was in the passage counting to five hundred. I was on the courtyard platform watching Crew's mouth form the word ‘no.’ 

I was everywhere except here and I couldn't stop.

"STOP."

Something grabbed my waist.

The world snapped back.

Kai. Both hands on my waist, pulling me to a halt, and I was breathing like I'd been running for miles. The rink was completely silent and everyone was staring.

He turned me to face him.

"It's over," he said quietly. Low enough that only I could hear it. "It's over."

He wasn't talking about the game.

I knew he wasn't talking about the game. I just stood there on the ice with my chest heaving and looked at his face.

His eyes.

I'd seen his eyes cold. Flat. Amused. Controlled. I'd catalogued every variation in the weeks I'd been in his house.

I had never seen them… worried.

They were worried now.

He held my gaze for a moment longer. Then he took my hand and skated us both to the bench and sat me down.

Anya appeared with an energy drink. Her face was doing something careful. 

"You okay?"

"Fine," I said automatically.

"You were—" She glanced at Kai. Back at me. "You were somewhere else."

"I'm… I'm here now," I said.

Kai sat beside me on the bench. Close. Too close. He was still looking at me with that expression I didn't have a name for and I focused very hard on the energy drink.

Coach Petrov appeared in front of us. He looked at me for a long moment.

"Morrison," he said carefully. "You scored six goals in twenty minutes."

"Good," I said.

"You also nearly took out three of your own teammates."

"Less good," I admitted.

He looked at Kai. Kai said nothing. Coach looked back at me and something in his face settled. The decision to let it go, for now.

"Alright," he said. "When you're ready." He turned to face the rest of the team gathering around the bench. His voice went up. "While I have everyone — announcement."

The team quieted.

"The annual cross-pack hockey gathering is this Saturday," he said. "Every team in the neutral territory league. It's not a game, it's a social event. Everyone is expected to attend."

Murmuring rippled through the team.

I looked at the ice.

Then I felt it. Kai's eyes on my face. I turned. He was already looking somewhere else.

"Saturday," Anya said beside me, in a tone that contained an entire conversation. "A party. With him."

She tilted her head toward Kai infinitesimally.

"In public. Together."

"We're not together," I said.

"Sure," she said.

"We're not."

"Saturday," she said again, smiling into her water bottle.

I looked at the ice.

My hand was still warm where he'd held it.