Chapter 178

~ Franklin ~

The rain refused to let up; if anything, it grew more violent, a relentless onslaught that hammered against the jagged, twisted metal of the cabin wreckage. It was a deafening, percussive sound, like a thousand hammers trying to finish what the crash had started. Inside the hollowed-out shell of the plane, I was frozen. Every muscle in my body was coiled tight, ignoring the white-hot agony screaming from my mangled leg, because my entire world had narrowed down to the creature sliding through the wet leaves.

A pit viper.

It moved with a terrifying, silent precision that felt predatory and ancient. Its scales, dark and intricately patterned, caught the dim, grayish light filtering through the canopy. It didn’t belong in a world of humans and machines; it belonged here, in this green hell, and it looked lethal.

My knuckles went white as I tightened my grip on the thick tree branch I’d been using as a crutch.

"Fucking stay back," I growled, the words barely a rasp against the roar of the storm.

The snake didn’t care about my warnings. It kept coming, its body undulating over the debris. Just behind me, Raquel lay motionless.

She was still unconscious, her breathing shallow, completely defenseless. A cold knot of panic tightened in my chest. No. Not again. I had spent so much of my life losing people, watching things shatter because I wasn’t fast enough or good enough. I wouldn’t lose someone else to this jungle. Not while I still had breath in my lungs.

I shifted my weight, a move that sent a fresh surge of blinding pain up my thigh.

I bit my tongue so hard I tasted copper, swallowing the groan that threatened to spill out. I forced myself up, bracing against the cold metal wall, and locked my eyes on the viper. It sensed the movement. Its head lifted, swaying slightly as its forked tongue flicked out—tasting the air, tasting my fear.

The distance between us was shrinking. Five feet. Four.

I glanced frantically around the wreckage. A stick wasn’t enough to kill a viper. My eyes landed on a jagged shard of aluminum, a piece of the plane’s interior paneling that had been sheared off during the impact. It was long, narrow, and the edge was as sharp as a butcher’s knife.

I reached for it, my movements slow and deliberate. Every inch I moved felt like a mile. The viper hissed, a low, dry sound that cut through the rain. I finally closed my hand around the cold metal.

"Come on then," I breathed, dragging myself to a half-kneeling position between the snake and Raquel.

The viper coiled, its neck drawing back into a tight S-shape. My breath caught—and then it struck.

It was a blur of motion, faster than the human eye could track. I reacted on pure instinct, swinging the metal shard with a desperate, guttural shout. A sharp jolt vibrated up my arm as the metal connected with the snake’s midsection, throwing it back onto the wet ground.

It wasn’t dead. It thrashed violently, twisting its body into knots, hissing with a renewed, frantic aggression. My leg buckled as I tried to adjust my stance, and I nearly went down.

"Stay down!" I hissed back, my teeth bared.

The snake lunged again, fueled by agony. I didn’t give it a third chance. I brought the metal shard down with every ounce of strength I had left. Once. Twice. The second blow nearly severed the head.

The thrashing slowed, then stopped. The only sound left was the rain.

I stood there for a long time, chest heaving, staring at the dead thing in the dirt. I nudged it with the branch, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. No movement. It was over. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

The adrenaline, which had been the only thing keeping the world from tilting, evaporated in an instant. The pain rushed back, ten times worse than before. I looked down at my leg. The makeshift bandage I’d tied was soaked through—not with rainwater, but with a thick, dark warmth. I was losing too much blood.

I stumbled back, the metal shard clattering onto the floor. I collapsed against the interior wall of the cabin, my head spinning.

"Stay up. Stay awake," I whispered, the words sounding like they belonged to someone else.

I forced myself to grab the snake by its tail and drag its carcass out of the shelter, not wanting the scent of blood to draw anything else. By the time I crawled back inside to Raquel’s side, the edges of my vision were turning black.

I slid down beside her, my back hitting the cold, vibrating metal. My eyes drifted shut, heavy as lead. Stay awake. I couldn’t leave her. Not in this state.

I rested my head back and stared out at the rain. It blurred the jungle into a green-and-gray smear, making the world feel distant and surreal. My thoughts began to fray, drifting away from the Amazon and back across the ocean. I thought of the estate. The quiet library. My grandfather. Had he woken up? Had he opened his eyes only to realize his grandson was gone?

The guilt was a physical weight, pressing down on my lungs. "I should’ve stayed," I murmured to the empty air.

And then there was Octavia.

Her face appeared behind my eyelids, so vivid it was almost cruel. I saw the way she had looked at me during our last encounter—the walls she’d built, the guarded hurt in her eyes that I had put there.

"I’m sorry, Octavia," I whispered, my voice cracking. "I wanted to fix it. I was going to try...I was coming back for you."

The darkness was creeping in now, a seductive, numbing fog. The pain in my leg began to dull, which I knew was a dangerous sign, but I was too tired to care. My head lolled to the side.

Suddenly, there was a movement. A soft, pained sound escaped from Raquel’s lips.

I blinked slowly, my eyes struggling to focus through the haze of fever and exhaustion.

"Hey...you’re...you’re awake," I managed, the words slurring together.

Her eyes fluttered open. They were glassy, unfocused, and confused. But through my fading vision, the red tint of her jacket and the shape of her face shifted. The jungle vanished. The rain sounded like the fountain in the garden.

"Octavia?" I breathed, a sudden, warm rush of relief flooding my soul.

I reached out a trembling hand, my lips curving into a faint, delirious smile.

"Sunshine...you’re here. You came for me."

"I want to...fix what happened," I stammered, my heart swelling.

"Between us. Please...don’t leave me. Not again."

Reality flickered like a dying candle. The face in front of me shifted back—the eyes were the wrong color, the expression too sharp. It was Raquel, staring at me with a mixture of confusion and alarm.

But it was too late. The strength I’d been white-knuckling snapped. My hand dropped to the cold floor, my chin hit my chest, and everything faded into a silent, merciful black as the rain continued to wash over the world.