Page 15 of Sage Haven
Someone that didn’t quite belong.
Her bracelet caught the morning light again, the gleam pulling at my focus like a lure dragging a hook through dark water.
I should have looked away.
Should have walked back inside, but I didn’t.
I couldn’t.
Something about her kept me tethered.
She was the ripple across still water.
Something I didn’t want to acknowledge but yet couldn’t ignore.
She moved slowly, with a kind of peace and gracefulness that I didn’t understand, and then I watched her as she laid back in the grass, letting her body sink into the earth.
She stared up at the sky and smiled softly.
Quiet. Serene.
And I stood there, watching, frozen by the weight of something stirring inside me.
I didn’t understand her peace or this illusion of it.
Before the thought could settle, Castor’s voice cut through the quiet.
“Hey, Reich…”
I didn’t turn.
I felt him step up beside me, his gaze tracking where mine was locked.
His presence was grounding.
His tone, less so.
“What do we have here?” he asked, casual but probing.
“Just another tourist,” I replied, flatly.
The words were more for me than for him.
Castor arched a brow, his suspicion bleeding through, “You need me to take care of it?”
The question hung there, heavy with implication.
It would be easy.
Quick. Clean.
And the temptation was there.
To hand it off and let him deal with this new found complication before it unraveled into something worse.
But not this time.
Not with her.
