My Hockey Alpha Chapter 287
Nina
The Luna held her ghostly pale hand out to me with the promise of letting my
friends and the town of Mountainview survive so long as I agreed to become
her puppet. I reached out to take it despite the fact that everything in me was
telling me not to do it; but I had to try to save my friends.
I couldn’t bear the
screaming and agony that surrounded me; I couldn’t live with myself knowing
that I hadn’t at least tried.
But suddenly, I saw a flash of someone behind her. Dark hair, blue eyes, the
silver glint of a knife in the moonlight. The Luna had forgotten someone when
she cast her spell.
I heard the sound of the knife piercing flesh. The Luna shrieked and whipped
around, clawing at her back where the knife protruded. She faced Selena, and
in one swift movement, she thrust her hand out and made a motion that
blasted Selena backward, against the stairs with a thud.
Everything that happened next happened all at once. The Luna ripped the knife
out of her back with another shriek. Blood spurted everywhere and she fell to
the ground. At the top of the stairs, Lori and Jessica fell, no longer suspended
by the Luna’s magic. All around me, my friends started to move again. The
rogues writhed in pain, in unison with the Luna as she died in agony at the
base of the stairs.
I leaped to my feet.
“Selena!” I shouted. I ran to her; the Luna’s spell had bored a hole into her
chest. It would only be a few moments before she bled out, and there was
nothing that I could do. As I fell to my knees beside my twin sister and
scooped her up into my arms, I could hear the sound of her chest squelching
and a soft whimper escaping her lips.
“N-Nina…” she whimpered. Her trembling hand reached up and touched my
face. I held it there with my hand, feeling the sensation of my own hot tears
streaking down my face. “I-I…”
“Shh,” I whispered. “It’s okay.”
Selena shook her head. She swallowed hard, and as she did, blood bubbled
out of her mouth. It stained her teeth and ran down her chin, and her eyes
started to turn glassy. “I’m sorry,” she croaked. “For everything… I’m sorry.”
My vision became clouded with tears. “I’m sorry, Selena,” I replied as a
choked sob caught in my throat. “I wish we could have had more time
together.”
Selena let out a tight laugh that turned into a cough. “It’s my fault,” she
whimpered. “I was such a bitch.”
I shook my head. At that moment, I didn’t care anymore about what Selena
had done. She had changed. It was clear to me now that the Luna was dead,
now that I saw the clarity on my sister’s face, that she had been under the
Luna’s spell. And now, she was free.
She had saved all of us by killing the
Luna… I wished that I had time to tell her that.
But she was already dead.
As I held my sister, I started to rock back and forth. A sob escaped my lips,
then another. My chest heaved as I watched her face relax, and her eyes
stared lifelessly up at the full moon. Her hand, which I still held pressed up
against my cheek, suddenly became incredibly heavy.
“Nina!” I heard someone shout. I didn’t know who it was; everything sounded
so distant, so foggy. I heard footsteps running toward me. Someone grabbed
my shoulder and turned me so that I was looking up at them; it was Enzo. His
face was full of fear as he looked back and forth frantically between me and
my dead twin.
Behind him, the battlefield was still and silent. The rogues were all lifeless,
unmoving. The Luna’s white dress was turning red, and her white hair was
matted with blood as she lay in the dirt at the bottom of the stairs. I could see
the recruits getting up and moving, although I couldn’t tell through my tears
how many had survived. Had all of them survived, or only a few?
I felt more hands on me and looked up to see Lori, Jessica, Matt, and Luke
crouching over me, circling around me.
Someone tried to pull me away from my sister, and that was when I snapped
back to reality.
“No!” I snarled, clutching Selena more tightly. “Don’t touch me! Don’t touch
her!”
“Nina, you’re in shock,” Enzo said gently, holding me firmly by both shoulders.
“We need to check you. Your sister… The twin bond… Remember?”
I furrowed my brow, feeling confused. The twin bond… My mind felt too foggy
to comprehend what Enzo was talking about at first, but finally it began to
dawn on me.
The twin bond.
If one dies, then so shall the other.
Was I going to die now that Selena was dead? I didn’t feel any physical pain…
I felt fine. But the prophecy said that it would happen. Surely it had to be any
minute now.
Enzo hauled me to my feet and began to inspect me, his blood-stained face
wrought with worry. I felt limp as he turned me this way and that, like I was
just a lifeless doll with bundles of straw stuffed in where my limbs would go,
like a scarecrow. Empty inside… Just straw and dirt and muck.
But I wasn’t. I was alive, somehow. I looked back down at my sister as
Jessica hunched over her body, checking her vitals.
“Is she alive?” I whispered.
Jessica touched Selena’s neck with her forefinger and middle finger, feeling
her pulse. She touched her wrist next and closed her eyes, counting. After a
few moments, she looked up at me with horror and slowly shook her head.
I felt even more numb than before. All I could do was turn around and stare
wide-eyed at Enzo as tears streamed down my face. He pulled me in tightly,
his arms wrapping around me like a blanket. I buried my face in his chest and
sobbed.
I was going to die. That was what the prophecy said. One twin could not live
without the other… It was what saved me from being assassinated by the
Crescents when I was an infant, and it was what was going to kill me now.
At least I could be happy that Selena had saved everyone. Even if I died… I
was just happy that it was over. The Luna was dead; her genetically
engineered rogue army was dead right along with her. The Crescents were
weakened, and my father…
My father had to have been released from the Luna’s spell.
I wanted to talk to him one last time. I wanted to have a chance to meet my
father and talk to him, just once, but I didn’t know how much time I had left,
and I didn’t want to leave Enzo’s embrace.
But as Enzo held me, I still didn’t feel any pain. My heart continued beating,
and my lungs continued to draw in air. Slowly, I tilted my head up and met
Enzo’s gaze. I wasn’t dead.
Why wasn’t I dead?
