From the Match (Scars of Ichor Book 1) by Adrian Tkaczyk

Author:Adrian Tkaczyk [Tkaczyk, Adrian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-04T16:00:00+00:00

23

DANTE

I TOOK A DRAG of my cigarette while sitting in the window of my bedroom; the acrid taste of nicotine washing a sense of calm over my body I was unsure was founded or not. I blew the smoke out from the open window, the thin slits of gray trailing off into the chill, winter air now taking hold of the Schaffer campus.

The season opener in which I would be facing my brother again for the first time since my branding was drawing closer, and even I was unsure how to deal with the imminent threat of facing him again. I suppose there was an irony knowing the vice he had gifted me would help me stand before him without spurning a complete and total mental breakdown. But the matter of keeping it a secret was infinitely more complicated than it was before knowing the truth of my addiction was shared between my uncle and me. It was no longer something I had given blood to keep from him, aware of the sobriety he would force me to see through should he lay privy to its truth. But the matter of being clean aside, I knew I had an inevitable choice to make. And that was either see through the cause of self-righteousness in terms of myself or in the terms of Celena Božović.

It was no secret what her declaration to make me something great in front of a national stage would come with. It would see me rule this kingdom she had built from the ground up, and I knew being trusted with such was not so much a matter of luck as it was a matter of respect. For some unknown reason, I had done something to earn an attribution of worthiness from, arguably, the greatest hockey players to ever live. I had done something to see Celena wish to take me with her on the world stage, helping her secure her place in the history books where an endless generation of girls would come to look up to her as what they, too, could one day accomplish. And even if I knew asking myself why I had been deemed deserving of such was pointless, it did not change that I had been. And I don’t think answering such a question would really, truly change its truth. After all, it was still something I had already been deemed deserving of, no matter how unworthy I would always think of myself as.

There was a knock on the door to my bedroom, and I did not answer it. Instead, it opened despite my lack of permission, and I turned to the wood to find Davi standing in the archway, leaning against the left edge to cross her arms. She stared at me, and I welcomed her inside. Davi then gave a nod before closing the door behind her to lean against it, a silence taking root between us.

I ultimately said, “Davi, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I talked with Robyn,” Davi said after a bit, almost afraid.

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