Read The Elder Blood Chronicles Bk 1 In Shades of Grey for Free Online

world around her slowly came back into
focus, and she didn’t recognize any of it. Everything was black.
The house was gone, the yard, the tree she had been in a moment
ago, all of it, gone. The ground around her was covered in ash, a
thick layer of it, with more falling from the sky like grey snow.
She stood slowly on shaking legs and scanned the area around her
frantically. Vast, black, and empty. No sign of her mother or her
father or even Cap. It was all simply gone. Her mind labored to
digest what her eyes were seeing. Light filled the sky once again,
followed by a heavy rumbling that actually sounded like thunder
this time. Rain began to pelt down over her. She knew she should
find shelter, but there was nothing. She felt herself begin to
tremble from both fear and chill due to the icy rain. Too cold for
this late in the spring. She scanned the horizon again, pleading
with any of the gods that would listen, to see her father. “Daddy!”
she called into the pitch, her voice quavering loudly. A low rumble
of thunder was her only answer. “Momma!” she called, her voice more
frantic. She strained her ears for anything, a bark from Cap, a
yell from her father. Desperate, she called again. “Momma! Daddy!”
Another sob burst from her chest and her tears ran down her cheeks
as much as the icy rain.
    She stood for what seemed like hours sobbing
and staring, and feeling all hope drain away. She was alone, and
she didn’t even know what had happened. There had been a flash and
then this. How could an entire world just vanish? Maybe she had
been taken instead . It made more sense to think she had been
stolen by magic, than her entire world had been stolen. Easier to
believe she had been whisked off. Her mind froze. Whisked off,
to where? She looked around again at the bleak, empty landscape
covered in ash. She sniffled heavily again. In all of the stories
she had ever heard at the hearth, from her father or from the
Walker boys, the only place this reminded her of was the Darklands.
Father said those who are dark and cruel of heart went to the
Darklands when they were dead. The Walker boys said demons roamed
the Darklands tormenting the souls of the damned.
    She felt herself tremble again. She wasn’t
dead, though, and she wasn’t dark of heart. She might be dead if
she had fallen wrong and landed on her head or neck. She didn’t
feel dead, but then she didn’t really know how death felt. She
shook her head in dismay and sought her mind frantically for
another reason. She wasn’t dead she decided firmly. And if this was
the Darklands, Father would come and get her and fix everything. He
always fixed everything. And he had been a soldier. He had said so.
So no demons would stop him. He would cut them down and ride up any
minute. All she had to do was wait.
    She sat down and tried to ignore the icy
rain, and forced herself to be brave. That itself was getting
harder to do. She couldn’t remember ever being so scared, and no
nightmare she had ever had was half as frightening as this. She
couldn’t remember ever being alone before. Even at night, she had
Cap with her. He was trying to warn me , she realized with a
sniffle. Blackjack had run, but Cap had stayed and tried to warn
her. She felt tears grow heavy in her eyes again and bit her lower
lip.
    Be brave and wait, Daddy will fix it ,
she whispered to herself. Maybe if she had stayed with Blackjack
instead of climbing the tree, he would have carried her away from
whatever spell had brought her here. It had to be magic. That was
the only thing it could have been. A dark evil spell, just like in
the stories.
    She folded her arms across her knees and
rested her forehead on her arms. She closed her eyes and shivered,
trying to force herself to think of something other than the cold
and how scared she was. She wasn’t sure what else she could do, and
mother always said when you are lost, stay in the same spot and
someone will find you. By now, she was sure she was lost.