The MRI machine sounded like a dying robot.
Leo lay inside the narrow tube, his arms pressed against his sides, his left knee immobilized in a plastic brace. The machine thumped and clanged and whirred, a mechanical heartbeat that matched the pounding in his own chest. He'd been here before. Four years ago, a different shoulder, a different machine, a different fear.
He'd been seventeen then. Invincible. Stupid.
Now he was twenty-one. A senior. A national champion. A player who'd climbed every mountain and was afraid of what came after.
The technician's voice crackled through the speaker. “Almost done. Thirty more seconds.”
Leo closed his eyes. He thought about the championship match. The final point. The way his knee had shifted, then held, just long enough. He thought about the land
