Page 24 of Sage Haven
But the truth was, I wanted to go.
If only to prove I could still do something normal.
If only to feel something else for a little while.
“Fine,” I muttered. “I’ll be there.”
Castor’s grin was fast and sharp, satisfaction flashing across his face. “Good,” he said. “You won’t regret it.”
He turned to leave, pausing at the door.
“Oh,” he added, almost as an afterthought, “I still haven’t found anything on the last Ovitt son. Slippery bastard.”
The mention of the Ovitts sent something sharp twisting in my gut.
A familiar burn.
“Keep searching,” I said, voice low. Steady. “No one’s beyond our reach.”
And I meant it.
I would find him.
No matter how long it took.
No matter how far he ran.
Even if I had to drag him from the depths of hell, I’d make him face what he’d done.
This wasn’t just a mission.
It never had been.
This was personal.
Harry Ovitt had poisoned everything he touched. A man who treated his daughters like garbage and forged his sons into monsters. I had started with Harry. Severed the head of the snake. Then I took his sons. One by one. Five pieces of shit. Until there was only one left. The youngest and the one who’d managed to stay ahead of me.
For now.
But sooner or later, everyone answers for their sins, and his time was coming.
Castor disappeared back inside the house, leaving me alone with the valley and the ghosts I’d made here.
I turned back to her.
She moved differently today, lingering longer than usual. Her gaze fixed on the sky in a way that felt heavier. Her fingers tightened around the flowers in her hand, as if she was holding on to something she didn’t want to lose.
And for the first time since I’d started watching her, I wondered—Was she running toward something or was she running away from something?
The question stuck in my throat.
I exhaled, slow and steady.
But the emptiness she left behind when she finally turned and disappeared into the woods was sharper than I expected.
I realized then that I didn’t need the festival for the music.
Or the noise.
