A Figure Skating Queen Who Can’t Be Lifted But I Was Born To Fly Chapter 05

A Figure Skating Queen Who Can’t Be Lifted But I Was Born To Fly Chapter 05

I looked at the hand Damien held out to me. The knuckles were defined, the palm lined with thin calluses

from years of gripping a blade.

There wasn’t a moment of hesitation. I placed my hand in his.

“Yes. I’ll go with you.”

Damien’s fingers closed around mine instantly, and warmth poured steadily from his palm into my skin.

Ethan scrambled up from the floor, clutching his wrist, his face ashen.

“Chloe, have you completely lost it?”

“You’d rather walk out of here with some random guy who showed up out of nowhere than stay?”

He stared at our clasped hands, his eyes wild with disbelief.

“Who do you think he is? He throws out a name and you just buy it?”

“Damien retired years ago. He’s washed up. There’s no way he’d be in a dump like this.”

Scarlett Brown chimed in from the side.

“Chloe, don’t let him fool you. He’s just some con artist playing professional.”

“If you apologize now, it’s not too late. Ethan will forgive you.”

I swept them both with a cold glance.

“Ethan, as of today, we have nothing to do with each other.”

“As for the ten years youowe me, I’ll collect on the ice.”

I tightened my grip on Damien’s hand, turned, and walked toward the door.

“Chloe! If you walk out that door, don’t ever think about coming back!”

Ethan’s hysterical screaming chased me down the hall.

“You’ll regret this! You’ll never set foot on real ice again!”

I didn’t look back.

The locker room door slammed shut behind me, cutting off every last disgusting sound.

Damien led me by the hand through the corridor and out the club’s front entrance.

The sunlight outside was almost blinding. I squinted against it.

“Scared?”

Damien stopped suddenly and turned to face me.

I shook my head.

“The only thing I’m scared of is that I didn’t wake up sooner.”

Damien let out a quiet laugh, a flicker of approval in his eyes.

“It’s not too late.”

“Your frame and muscle memory are both still in their prime window.”

He pulled open the door of a black SUV parked at the curb.

“Get in. I want to show you something.”

Half an hour later, the car stopped in front of a private training center on the outskirts of the city, disguised behind the shell of an old warehouse.

Damien pushed open the heavy door.

Inside, it was nothing like the rundown exterior suggested.

It was an international-standard private rink that Damien had built with his sponsors after retirement. The outside looked like a forgotten warehouse; the inside was a state-of-the-art high-performance training

center.

The refrigeration units hummed low and steady, and the ice surface was polished smooth as a mirror.

“This is…”

I was too stunned to finish the sentence.

Damien walked to the rink’s edge, picked up a pair of brand-new custom skates, and tossed them to me.

“Put them on. Show me what you’ve really got.”

I caught the skates. My fingers were trembling.

Since Ethan had started holding me back, it had been a long time since I’d worn skates that actually fit.

I laced them up and stepped onto the ice, and the moment my blades touched the surface, a rush of

familiarity flooded through me like coming home.

Damien stood at the boards, stopwatch in hand.

“Don’t worry about your weight. Don’t think about accommodating anyone.”

“Give me everything you’ve got. Jump a triple Axel.”

I drew a deep breath and began to glide.

The wind screamed past my ears.

I closed my eyes and felt it, that exquisite balance of resistance and glide as the blade carved through the

ice.

Crossovers. Turn. Takeoff.

I channeled every ounce of power in my body into my legs and drove hard into the ice.

The instant I left the surface, I felt like I was actually flying.

No trembling hands from Ethan. No constant terror of being dropped.

Just me, alone in the air, spinning perfectly.

The blade struck the ice clean and true, carving a flawless arc.

I glided back to the boards, chest heaving.

Damien looked at his stopwatch, and a satisfied smile pulled at the corner of his mouth.

“Height and rotation speed are both there. Axis is clean.”

He lifted his eyes, his gaze burning into mine.

“Chloe, that waste of space held you back for way too long.”

My eyes stung without warning.

Ten years of self-doubt shattered in that single moment.

Damien handed me a towel.

“Starting tomorrow, no more dieting. I need you building muscle.”

“I’m going to turn you into one of the few women in this country who can land a quad jump in competition.”

My phone buzzed.

A text from Ethan:

[Are you done throwing your tantrum? Be back at the club by 8tonight. I’ll see what I can do about getting you an alternate spot.]

I stared at the screen and felt nothing but revulsion.

My thumbs moved fast. I blocked his number.

The game was just getting started.