Page 135 of Sage Haven
How many had suffered because I didn’t finish the job?
“We need to find out what went wrong,” I muttered. “Now.”
Another pause. Then Castor’s voice—low and certain, “I’m on my way.”
I hung up.
Stared at the phone in my hand like it was a live grenade.
The weight in my chest was unbearable.
I had failed her.
I had failed all of them.
And now—Sage was in more danger than I’d ever realized.
I needed to get her out of the line of fire.
Because if I didn’t—She was going to burn with me.
31
SAGE
He couldn’t get outof the room fast enough.
As if my presence was unbearable now that he knew the truth.
As if the weight of my past, of what had been done to me, had contaminated the very air between us.
I could almost hear the phantom thoughts circling his mind—She tricked me. She’s broken. A filthy whore riddled with disease.
Even though I knew Reich wasn’t Klay, that he wasn’t built for cruelty in the same way, those words still clawed their way into my consciousness. They wrapped around me like barbed wire, impossible to untangle.
The nightmares had become my only constants—reliving moments that never let me breathe.
But God… would it ever end?
The question haunted me. A low, insidious hum beneath every thought.
I was running out of strength and when that was gone, I wasn’t sure what would be left.
The hollow echoes of a girl who used to be alive?
Or maybe… she had already left a long time ago.
Ipaced the room.
Over and over.
The repetitive rhythm of my bare feet across the cold wooden floor was the only thing keeping me tethered.
Until I caught sight of myself in the bathroom mirror.
I hadn’t looked at myself in days.
I hadn’t dared.
