For a second, I didn’t follow the conversation. I thought he meant he and Declan could slow down, maybe date a while longer until I got used to the idea of them being together before they moved into their own little house and adopted eight children.
Of course he didn’t mean that, though.
He meant did I want to skate slower.
I shook my head.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
I had to clear my throat. “Yes, I’m sure. I’m fine now. And you’re skating better than I am.”
He looked a bit sheepish. “I’m used to it again now.”
“Great. I’m going to go and skate over there for a while.”
I practically tore myself out of his grip and nearly slipped right over as I left the safety of his embrace. But I didn’t. Sheer desperation to get away from him without crying and snotting all over him meant I got away and even managed to stay upright.
The world in front of me blurred as my eyes filled with tears. I blinked them back, and the world glimmered with silver and white, ice and snow.
My body moved rhythmically, instinctively keeping me going with long glides over the smooth ice. The chill air whipped at my exposed cheeks but Erik’s scarf kept my neck warm and cosy. The first salty tear spilled over my eyelashes and travelled down my cheek, feeling as though it froze on the way down.
I took a breath, trying to calm myself and stop any more from spilling.
And then the world beneath my feet cracked and jolted, the sound like a gunshot. I felt my body twist and plunge downwards, and then icy cold water encompassed me completely and there was no sound at all, only the dead silence of the freezing lake.
Chapter 8
Erik
Sonny had heard Mr Parker talking to Declan, I was sure of it. He had gone pale and I could hear him swallowing, as though he were swallowing down his tears. As he skated away from me, I wanted to shake him and blurt out, “He’s here on a date withyou, Sonny, he lovesyou,” but it wasn’t my place to tell him that.
I glanced over my shoulder to see Declan sitting on the bench. Even in the fading light, I could see that he was holding himself upright, which would be good for his back, and he was slowly easing his leg up and down to keep it mobile. He was such a good patient.
At least he was taking care of his body.
His mind and his heart were a different matter, though.
Declan was not a man who found it easy to talk about his feelings. I knew that from the first session we’d had together. But he felt things deeply, and his love for Sonny was as deep as the lake beneath our feet.
Maybe I should go over and shakehim, instead.
His eyes flicked between me and Sonny, and possibly nobody else would see that from this distance, but I could make out his expression perfectly. He was worried about something.
A sudden crack resounded around the lake, as loud as if the very earth was breaking in two.
Instinctively, I looked around for Sonny. He wasn’t there.
I scanned the lake, and saw the polished silver of the ice, criss-crossed with skate marks, and there, where Sonny had been, a jagged black patch. A hole.
I was moving before I’d fully processed what that meant. Behind me, Declan screamed, “Sonny!” and my worst fears solidified inside me.
Around the hole, the ice was cracked and broken, jagged and sharp. I heard it crackle under my skates as I neared it and knew it would break if I stood on it much longer.
“Erik!”
There was something in Declan’s voice I’d not heard before. Something that made my animal writhe inside me, rising to the surface, something inevitable. My eyes shifted and I saw in the blackness of the lake, where the evening light couldn’t penetrate beneath the ice, the thrashing form of Sonny as he sank deeper and deeper.
Without thinking, I threw myself onto my stomach and slid towards that hole, sliding straight through it and diving into the freezing waters.
