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“Their quad throw should be coming up,” Niko murmured at my side. “Any second now…”
And then there it was. The man lifted his partner high into the air, and she was airborne. She spun in four tight rotations. Her form was excellent, her landing beyond beautiful.
I could admit it was impressive to see. I stayed braced in my seat through the rest of the routine, admiring their poise and athleticism. I didn’t see a single stumble.
When they hit their final pose, I sagged backward with a whoosh of a sigh. “Wow. Theyaregood.”
Niko clicked his tongue. “You two were very good too.”
“I guess it comes down to what the judges think of it. The overall difficulty across all the moves is about the same, right?”
Our coach nodded. “No surprises.”
“I have no idea how this will go,” Jasper said. “They were stunning.”
Niko raised his eyebrows at us. “I think yours had more heart.”
I resisted the urge to squirm as we waited for the scores to be announced.
The announcer’s voice crackled through the speakers. “Oleg Baranov and Yana Andreyeva have earned in the free skate a score of one hundred and fifty-one point five three.”
My brain stumbled in its attempt to do math with the pressure of anticipation clouding my thoughts. All around us, people were clapping and leaning over to pat my and Jasper’s shoulders. Shouts of congratulations rained down on us.
“You won!” Niko crowed. “You two got the gold. I knew you could!”
A choked laugh broke from my lips, and tears that were all happiness sprang to my eyes. I clutched Jasper and then Niko in the tightest of hugs. “Díos mio. Oh my God. We really did it.”
Niko’s phone started buzzing. He let out a laugh of his own. “There are all the reporters wanting interviews. And maybe some new sponsors too.”
“Oh my God,” I said again. My mind was spinning too fast for me to form any other words.
I blinked away my tears and smiled toward the stands where my other two men and my first real friend were watching. This victory was for all of us.
And maybe not just the people I knew of. I had to hope that everyone in the Devil’s Dozen had been watching this competition, whether in person or on the TV. That they’d seen just how far my other interests had taken me.
If there were other heirs out there who weren’t sure that the path most directly in front of them was the one that was actually right, then I’d just shown them there was another way. They could be who they wanted and still triumph.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Six months later
Luciana
I leanedagainst the boards around the rink next to Jasper while our new coach rubbed his hands together, like he always did when he had something important to say. Niko had recommended Jerry Valdez to us, having worked with him for several months when Jerry was on an extended visit to Japan.
“Let me know what you two really think,” he said in his gruff but warm tone that reminded me in a bittersweet way of Coach Balakin. “But I figure that since you two can pull off that tricky transition smooth as butter now, it’s time to up the ante a little more. What if we added a throw at the end of the lift?”
My heart beat a little faster, considering how that would work. “It could be pretty fantastic. But we’ve only been really solid with the transition for the last few weeks.”
Jasper cocked his head at me. “Could be worth a try, though, don’t you think?”
I wet my lips and grinned. “Let’s give the new routine one more run-through, and I’ll imagine it to see how it feels in the moment.”
Jerry swept his arm toward the ice. “Have at it.”
We waved to Quentin, who’d also come under Jerry’s wing and was practicing his singles routines alternating with Jasper and me. He gave us a thumbs up and a cocky smile before gliding out of the way.
It’d taken a while to hone our new routine for the next competitive circuit. We could skip the qualifying rounds because of our success last year, but we still needed to compete at Nationals in a few months. That should be plenty of time to make one more adjustment, though.
