My Hockey Alpha

Nina

Enzo held my hand until the last moment, only releasing it just moments before the portal closed. I wanted to hold onto him and jump through the portal with him, but I knew that it would never work. And he was right: I needed to stay here. There was still much to do.

“Are you gonna be okay?” the Fullmoon girl, Myra, asked.

I nodded, blinking back my tears. “I’ll be fine,” I said. “Thank you.” I couldn’t bear to have anyone look at me, however, so before anything else was said I quickly turned on my heel and walked away.

A mist had settled on the forest that morning. The air was cold and almost damp, and the sound of the leaves crunching underneath my feet was a comfort. As I painstakingly walked back to campus, I just kept focusing on that sound to keep my mind off of Enzo.

He would be okay. At least, that was what I kept telling myself. But if he wasn’t okay… I didn’t know how I would get to him. I knew that he told Myra not to open any portals for me in case I got any grand ideas, and she was loyal to him as his cousin and as a follower of his father. She wouldn’t budge if I asked; I was sure of it. Therefore, if anything happened and Enzo didn’t come back, I would have no way of finding him. Even Luke was still missing after he saved Enzo from Edward. I didn’t even know if Luke was still alive. For all I knew, he was a pile of dust somewhere. At least his curse would be over, but it still pained me to think about that.

When I finally returned to my apartment, Lori and Jessica were waiting for me. They instantly saw my puffy face and my red eyes, and stopped me before I was able to go and hide in my room.

“We’re not letting you lock yourself in your room and cry in bed all day,” Lori demanded, folding her arms across her chest. “Come on. We’re going to the infirmary.”

My face went pale. “The infirmary?” I asked. Even just the thought of going there made me sick. It reminded me too much of Tiffany.

bit more gentle than her girlfriend. She reached out and rubbed my arm with a sad look in her eyes. “Students

can’t waste any time looking for that antidote recipe,” Lori added. “Don’t worry.

wanted to go right now, they weren’t wrong. There was still much to

my best to hide the tremor in

the three of us made our way over to the infirmary in the cold morning air. When we arrived, the main window was still shattered, so the first thing we did was sweep up the broken glass on the inside and outside of the infirmary. After that, we slowly began to make our way around the infirmary and pick up scattered supplies, putting them back in their

for us to listen to, and after an hour of cleaning, I had to admit that I was feeling a

the task of tending to students’ injuries, checking their temperatures,

students slowed to a trickle, and eventually

gently as we finished cleaning

friend’s kind words, and without saying anything, I wrapped my arms around her neck and hugged her tightly. Lori came over too and hugged both of us at once. When we pulled

I said as I wiped the tears away with the back of my hand. “I

Lori said, gesturing around at the cleaned-up infirmary. “She’s

the floor and let out a deep sigh. If only Tiffany were here… Her death had been so sudden, so quick. I didn’t think she suffered in those moments, thankfully, but it was such an unnecessary death. Tiffany was the sweetest, kindest,

to see one more injured student standing in the doorway with

hope I’m not too

all,” I replied,