Chapter 79 - The Price of the Crown

​The official protocol of the medal ceremony dissolved under the weight of an atmosphere that kept vibrating with the intensity of an open war. As the main lights of the Skate America arena began to dim and the crowd evacuated the mechanical grandstands, the three singles skaters returned to the underground hallway connecting to the high-security locker rooms. The gold hanging from Bek's neck and the silver resting on Jake's chest gleamed under the fluorescent lighting of the concrete ceilings, but the brilliance of the metals failed to mitigate the dull cold ascending from the rink's surface.