Unsteady (The Undone #1)

Prologue Three Months Ago Rhys

I can’t breathe.

The icy cold seeps in through my jersey. I can feel it on my stomach— fuck, I’m on my stomach on the fucking ice. Did I pass out?

“Son, you’re doing fine—can you lift your head for me?”

Everything is black. I shut my eyes and open them again. Nothing. I keep blinking; at least, I think I am… Fuck, how long was I out?

“Koteskiy, I need you to breathe,” another voice says, before there’s a hand gripping my arm. “Don’t move him, Reiner, not yet.”

A scrape of a blade against the ice, then my best friend Bennett’s voice: “What’s wrong? What happened?”

I want to call for him. I try desperately to push his name through my mouth, but it feels like my lips have been fused together.

“Back up, everyone. Back up!”

“I can’t see,” I manage to wrangle out. “I can’t see.” The second one comes out like a choked sob.

“Calm down,” Ben offers, his voice soft, soothing the fear and adrenaline coursing through me. “Take it easy, Rhys—just breathe.”

“Where’s my dad? I can’t see anything.”

My voice is like this foreign thing echoing in a cavern. Am I speaking or is it in my head? Why can’t I see?

Everything starts to muddle together again, and the pain throbs in my head even harder.

I want to open my eyes. I want to push my tongue against my teeth to check that they’re all there, and swear I’ll wear a mouth guard next time.

I want to go back and pay attention, keep my fucking head up against that hit. I don’t want to be here.

I don’t want to be here.

I don’t want to be here.

The voices around me start to muddle to nothing as I slump into the thick darkness entrapping me.