Chapter 84: Championship qualifier
Aveline’s POV
The night before the match arrived too quickly. The house was suffocating as always.
Evelyn pushed a plate of hot food forward, looking up with a sad, distant smile. “Eat up, Asher. Tomorrow is the biggest game of your life. Your father would have been so proud to see you play out there.”
The words cut deeper than any physical hit on the ice. The pain was sharp. A mother looking right at her own daughter, yet only seeing Asher's ghost. The food remained completely untouched. A swift exit to the bedroom was the only escape from the suffocating pressure.
The next morning, the atmosphere inside the Crestwood Arena became electric. Bright television lights heated the cold air above the ice rink. Large cameras on heavy cranes hovered right over the thick glass panels.
The Crestwood team marched straight into the rink. The silence between Kieran, Theo, and the rest of the line was heavy enough to crush a skull. No one spoke a single word.
Coach Hale paced back and forth across the locker room floor, drawing fast lines on the whiteboard. The coach remained completely oblivious to the real war happening right under his nose. The helmet went on, and the metal cage clicked shut. The dark reflection in the visor showed a tense face. The countdown clock showed only minutes left.
The televised game began with a blast. The crowd's roar was deafening, and the camera flashes were blinding. On the very first play, the betrayal started. Theo refused to pass the puck, intentionally cutting me out of the play to ruin my stats on national television.
From the benches, a glance upward revealed Silas and Barrett. The two stood in the crowd, smiling down at the ice with wicked satisfaction.
Kieran skated up alongside during a brief stoppage, his eyes fierce behind his clear visor. He whispered, “Ignore everything out here. Just play your game.”
The referee raised the black puck for the next face-off. The first period raged on with high intensity. Theo continued his sabotage, intentionally missing key defensive blocks to make "Asher" look weak to the national scouts in the stands.
The extra effort was exhausting. It required skating twice as hard to make up for Theo's massive gaps. Lungs began burning fiercely under the tight chest binding.
Seeing the sabotage happen in real-time, Kieran took a massive risk. He ignored his own offensive positioning to skate back fast and cover the open blind spot.
Kieran pulled off a stunning assist, forcing the puck directly onto the stick. A hard slam sent it flying into the back of the net, scoring the first goal of the game as the crowd went completely wild.
The scoreboard timer counted down: five minutes left in the first period. The television cameras panned directly to me celebrating on the ice.
As the team lined up for the next face-off, Theo skated past, brushing his shoulder hard against the jersey. He mouthed the words, “You should hasten, cater".
A glance up at the media booth revealed the red lights on the television cameras. They felt like hot lasers aimed directly at the forehead.
The loud horn sounded, ending the first period. Crestwood led 1–0, but there was zero celebration on the ice.
The team skated off toward the locker room tunnel. Kieran intercepted Theo in the narrow hallway, putting his massive frame between him and the exit.
“What the fuck, Mecer?” Kieran growled. “It is a fucking championship qualifier. You're destroying your own future along with ours.”
Theo sneers. “My future was destroyed the second you turned Asher Carter away from me, captain. We used to be close friends. Now I don't even know what we are.”