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His words struck me like a punch to the gut, leaving me winded and reeling. A bitter laugh bubbled up from my throat, but it was strangled before it could fully form, crumbling into a harsh sigh.
"Sorry," he breathed out, wincing as he clutched at his side again. He looked away, his gaze fixating on the charred remains of the cabin. "We should...we should look for them."
"Yeah," I agreed, swallowing past the lump in my throat. I choked back a cough and wiped the sweat off my brow with my sleeve. "Yeah, we should."
Gritting my teeth against the twinge of pain, I pushed myself off the ground and beckoned Grayson to follow. He gave a curt nod, his gaze hardening as he tried to suppress his own discomfort. It was a poor attempt, but I couldn't blame him.
We began our slow and painful trek towards the ruins of what once had been the Viper’s sanctuary. The structure had been blackened and grazed by trees, but it stood, stubborn and defiant, like an ugly scar in the midst of paradise. The windows were darkened, the glass shattered, their frames distorted from the heat. An eerie stillness clung to the place.
"Teo," Grayson's voice a whisper. His eyes were fixed on a patch of earth near the edge of the woods.
He didn't need to say anything more. Following his gaze, I saw a distinct set of footprints leading into the dense underbrush, muddied and overlapping but unmistakably there. But what caught my attention were the smaller ones — uneven and staggered like whoever made them was running…or being dragged.
“Victor? Or Jace?” I asked.
Grayson thought for a second. “These are Victor’s boots.”
I squinted at the set of footprints, trying to make sense of it all. Victor’s boots were indeed larger and broader than Jace’s. The unsettling thing wasn’t his footsteps, it was the ones right in front of them, as if someone had been dragging Victor along. He was one of the scariest people I knew, I didn’t know how someone could just…grab him and drag him, unless he was fully knocked out. And Sofia had been dragged along with him during the confusion of the blast.
"That's... Sofia's. Next to Victor's," I said, tracing the smaller, delicate footprint with my eyes. I could almost see her - terrified, struggling against her captor, her ankle boots scraping against the earth as she was dragged away.
"Shit," Grayson muttered, his face paling even further. "That means..."
"They've got both Sofia and Victor." The words tasted like acid in my mouth, the gravity of our situation sinking in even further. We had to find them.
Before we could start on the trail, a low groan sounded from behind a pile of debris. We turned in synchrony, both of us on alert instantly. A hand emerged from the rubble, followed by a head covered in charcoal dust.
"Jace," I breathed out, relief washing over me for the first time since waking up from this nightmare.
He coughed violently, trying to clear his throat of dust and soot.
“God, my head…” his voice was rough, his words slurring as he tried to sit up.
"Easy," Grayson warned, rushing over to help him. "You've been out cold for a while."
Jace grimaced, rubbing his temples. "What happened?”
"Explosion," I filled in, my gaze drawn back to the footprints. "Sofia and Victor...they've been taken."
The information seemed to sober him up instantly. He turned his gaze to me, wide-eyed and pale. "Taken? By the Viper?"
“Yeah.”
“Sam?” Jace asked between coughs.
"We don't know yet," I admitted, the uncertainty gnawing at me deep inside. "Haven’t seen him."
Jace cursed under his breath, pushing Grayson away as he tried to stand. His legs buckled, and he would have fallen had Grayson not caught him.
“You might need to sit down,” Grayson said.
"No," Jace spat back. "We need to find them. We...we need to bring them back."
"That's the plan," I said, my voice hoarse from the smoke and gravel grinding in my chest.
Grayson helped Jace to his feet, steadying him as he swayed on unsteady legs, a grimace twisting his blood-smeared face. He spat onto the dust-scorched ground next to him.
“We can follow their trail now,” I said. “But we have to be careful. This terrain is dangerous, and his people…”
