My Hockey Alpha



Chapter 0701

But for what purpose?

A few minutes later, my neck prickled as we emerged abruptly into a massive cavern, firelight reflecting off of what looked like polished obsidian. Far overhead, stalactites dripped onto intricate tiles spanning a dizzying distance.

This had to be an impossible buried fortress... or maybe a palace?

Suddenly, harsh unfamiliar words rang out. Masked guards crossed spears to block our path, their ax blades unwaveringly targeting our hearts. Our guide pleaded desperately in lilting phrases that I couldn't understand.

Apparently we were on thin ice.

Luke pushed me partly behind him as the man spoke to the guards. I couldn't make out what he was saying, but he was gesticulating wildly and speaking frantically, and kept pointing at my belly.

At first, the guards' expressions remained impassive. But then, after an agonizing few moments, they finally stepped back. Our guide visibly relaxed his shoulders, motioning for us to follow him again.

But this time, he spoke in a hushed whisper: "Hurry!"

Luke and I raced to match pace with the strange man down endless obsidian passages... I gradually made out the swell of noise raucous screams and inhuman roars that raised the hair on my nape.

"We're close," the man said. "Hurry, hurry!"

Before Luke and I could collect our bearings, the man broke into a run. Luke and I followed suit, sprintling recklessly around countless corners until stumbling through an archway into sudden shocking carnage.

Because there, across an arena slick with dark gore, swayed Mila in her half-open gown... hovering in front of my battered husband. My breath caught in my throat when I saw him. He was spattered in vivid crimson, silver ropes circled around his wrists and neck as he kneeled in front of her.

Nearby lay a mutilated corpse, vacant eyes eternally staring at nothing. And up above, a curious crowd looked on. An invisible icy hand clenched my chest. What had happened here?

"Mila!" our guide bellowed. Everything froze.

Mila whirled around, surprise written across her face. The surprise, upon seeing me, quickly melted into a pure and unbridled rage. Enzo's head lifted slowly but his once-burning eyes were empty, sending ice shooting down my spine. What had she done to him? What was this carnage?

"How dare you interfere!" Mila spat. Emerald daggers speared us each in turn. "Guards!"

Suddenly, armored boots clinked across the floor. The man shouted something in that language again, his hands waving wildly. Mila stared at him with wide eyes, her irises blood red and her pupils stretched into lizardlike slits. She stared like that for a while.

Just as the guards were clamping their hands around mine and Luke's wrists, the man pointed-straight at my belly. Mila's face fell.

In an instant, her hand raised and the guards froze. Luke shuffled closer to me, his arm looping protectively around me as his free hand began to spark with electricity. Mila just stood there, hand raised still, as her snakelike eyes darted back and forth between me and Enzo, who was still out of it.noveldrama

"Very well, then," she finally said after what felt like an impossibly long time. "I will consider it."

With that, she lowered her hands. I let out a breath I didn't realize I had been holding, but it seemed it was futile; the guards clamped their hands around me. I screamed, and Luke shouted obscenities, and Enzo was hauled to his feet.

The rest was a blur of screams and nails and teeth. No matter how hard I fought, the guards were too strong; and then, the arena faded. Torches lined narrow passageways, and then spiraling stairs going down...

Next thing I knew, I was being shoved into one of three cells with Luke and Enzo on either side of me. Iron slammed, and then there were voices, and then... silence.

"Enzo," I breathed, scrambling to my feet once I had come to my senses.

"Nina. Oh my god, Nina..."

We slammed into the bars between us, reaching for each other despite the silver searing our flesh.