Page 76 of Grim

She stumbled backward, coughing, eyes burning, lungs screaming for clean air.

The Reapers were inside.

Boots thundered. Men shouted. Glass shattered. Something heavy slammed against a wall hard enough to crack it. The floor vibrated under her feet. The air tasted like smoke and metal.

Sophia turned to run and slammed straight into Switchblade.

He grabbed her shoulders, steadying her. “I’ve got you. Stay behind me.”

His voice was steady, but his eyes were wild, pupils blown wide and adrenaline pumping hard.

A loud crash echoed down the hallway — a door being kicked in. Someone screamed. A prospect shouted for backup. The fire alarm shrieked overhead, adding a piercing, disorienting wail to the chaos.

Switchblade pulled her with him, moving fast, weaving through smoke-filled hallways as the clubhouse shook around them. Reapers were everywhere, shadows moving through the haze, shouting orders, kicking down doors, firing shots into the ceiling to scatter the prospects.

Sophia’s ears rang. Her vision blurred. Her heartbeat thundered so loudly she could barely hear anything else.

Switchblade shoved Sophia behind him as three Reapers rounded the corner.

“Found her,” one snarled.

Switchblade didn’t hesitate. He charged.

He hit the first Reaper like a battering ram, slamming him into the wall so hard the drywall cracked. The second swung a pipe, and Switchblade blocked it with his forearm and drove his elbow into the man’s throat, dropping him instantly.

Sophia pressed herself against the wall, heart pounding, watching the chaos unfold in slow motion. Her ears rang. Her hands shook uncontrollably. She grabbed a broken piece of wood from the floor, ready to swing, but Switchblade threw out an arm, blocking her without even looking back.

The third Reaper raised a gun, a tattoo of a spiderweb crawling up his raised hand.

“Switchblade!” she screamed.

He turned.

The gunshot cracked through the hallway like the world splitting open.

Switchblade jerked, blood blooming across his chest like a spreading flower. He staggered, eyes wide with shock, then collapsed to his knees. He dropped hard, the impact shaking the floor beneath her — faster than she could process, faster than she could breathe.

“No, no, no.” Sophia dropped beside him, hands shaking as she tried to press against the wound. “Stay with me, please.”

Switchblade grabbed her wrist, blood on his lips. “I said I’d keep you safe.” His voice was barely a whisper. “Go. Please.”

Her breath broke. “Switchblade.”

“Run,” he rasped. “Run, Sophia.”

Rough hands grabbed her from behind, a fist tangling in her hair and yanking her backward so hard she screamed, kicking and clawing and fighting with everything she had.

“Let me go! Let me—!”

A cloth bag was yanked over her head. Her wrists were tied. She was lifted off the ground, thrown over someone’s shoulder like she weighed nothing.

Switchblade’s body hit the floor with a sickening thud. She didn’t see him fall — only heard the thud behind her as she was dragged away.

Sophia screamed his name until her throat tore.

The Reapers carried her out the back, through the smoke, through the chaos, into the night.

And the clubhouse burned behind them.