AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter One: Teo
Iwoke up to the taste of copper and dirt in my mouth.
A cascade of pain hit me like a freight train, muscles seizing, bones screaming in protest. The world swirled around me, a whirlwind of blurred shapes and unnatural brightness. Just breathing felt like I'd been stabbed in the chest. My leg hurt so much, I was barely able to move.
But it wasn’t just my leg. Everything hurt.
"Sofia," I rasped, voice barely above a whisper as I pushed myself onto my elbows. A flurry of dark spots danced across my vision, blocking out the chaos around me with temporary blindness. I couldn't see her - couldn't see anyone but the snarling faces of our enemies and the fallen bodies of my brothers.
"Grayson! Jace!" My calls echoed through the now eerily quiet battlefield. Fragments of our last fight flashed through my mind - the clang of steel against steel, gunshots ringing in my ears, that last desperate struggle...and then nothing. “Victor!”
The Everglades heat clung to me like a second skin, humidity pressing down on my already heavy chest as I tried to get my bearings. I could taste the salt of sweat and blood on my lips, mingling with the bitter echo of fear lodged in my throat. The scent of gunpowder and burnt earth was overpowering, stinging my nostrils and bringing tears to my already aching eyes.
"Grayson!" My voice cracked on the second call, the strain of yelling causing a sharp twinge in my ribs. No response.
Slowly, painstakingly, I hauled myself upright, using a fallen log as support. My pulse throbbed at the base of my skull, thundering in tempo with the wild beat of my heart. Each breath was an excruciating effort; I could practically hear my lungs wheezing with the strain.
"Sofia!" Her name echoed hauntingly through the eerily quiet battlefield. Nothing but silence. I fought off a wave of nausea as I got to my feet.
My muscles trembled as I took a step. Then another. And another, my legs threatening to collapse beneath me with each painful move. I staggered through the wreckage, my eyes scanning the bodies strewn about. I wanted to remember each face, commit them to memory, but my thoughts were consumed by one name. There was too much debris to really see the blood, which I was strangely grateful for.
"Sofia!"
The world around me began to spin again, but I forced myself to stay grounded. "Pull yourself together," I gritted out, swallowing down the panic threatening to choke me.
I stumbled over a fallen branch, the ground rushing up to meet me. My hands met the unforgiving earth with a jarring thud, sending new waves of pain up my arms and into my already aching head. I saw stars.
"No time for this," I groaned, pushing myself up despite the world spinning around me.
"Sofia!" I called again, feeling the knot in my stomach tighten with each passing second. Time was slipping away from me, every tick of the clock bringing Sofia further into enemy hands.
My heart pounded in rhythm with the throbbing pain in my leg, fear and adrenaline fueling me forward. There was no sign of her - no hint of familiar brown and golden hair or bright eyes amongst the wreckage.
“Victor! Grayson!” I looked at the destroyed cabin in front of me. "Jace!" The name was ripped from my throat, raw and desperate.
Smoke rose from the ruins, obscuring my vision. My foot caught on something; I stumbled, nearly losing my balance. Looking down, I recognized a familiar blade half-buried in the ash and debris—a Blade’s blade. My heart clenched.
Grayson coughed from my side. “I was looking for that,” he said.
I turned, my heart lurching at the sight of him. Grayson was a mess, his hair matted with blood, one side of his face caked with dirt. He was holding his side, blood seeping through the fabric of his torn shirt. I tried to hold back the wave of nausea as my gaze darted away from his face. “You look like shit.”
“Yeah, back at you.”
"We need to find Sofia," I croaked out, the words laced with desperation. My gaze flicked back to Grayson, the gravity of our situation reflected in his ashen face. It was a stark reminder we were standing in the middle of a battlefield, the aftermath of a violent clash that’d left chaos in its wake.
"Victor? Jace?" Grayson asked, following me as I hobbled towards the cabin. His own steps were uneven, pained.
“I don’t know.”
“Sam?”
I shook my head. “Sof was in there. What about my cousin? His men?”
Grayson shook his head, his eyes hollow and grim. "Gone. Bash is all gone, so are Zane and Skylar. Evaporated into the damn swamp like they were never here."
“But Sofia was with her dad.”
“Yeah,” he said. “She was.”
