Page 64 of Sage Haven
I swallowed hard, my breath came in shallow gasps, and I couldn’t make them slow. Couldn’t make myself move.
This wasn’t just a field anymore.
It was a marker.
A grave with a message carved into the earth itself.
He was stripping it away.
Like he was slowly stripping me away.
Layer by layer.
Until there was nothing left.
The sun bled out as I stood there, streaking the sky in deep reds and purples.
Everything was silent.
Too silent.
The kind of stillness that made your skin crawl.
And then there it was— “Wildflower.” His voice cut through the quiet like a knife, sharp and intimate, sliding under my skin.
I froze, as a shiver crawled up my spine.
I turned slowly to see him there.
Reich.
Standing in the ruins.
His dark gaze held mine, unforgiving, like he could see every thought I didn’t want him to.
“Were the flowers I gave you not enough?” His voice was soft.
A taunting whisper.
Like we shared something private and dangerous.
I exhaled, but it shuddered on the way out. “Why did you do it? Ruin your field?”
His smirk deepened, slow and deliberate, and something cold unfurled in my stomach. “My field is fine. The flowers were just a departing gift—for staying off my property.”
A beat of silence.
Then his head tilted, like a predator curious about its prey, “But did you stay away?”
His voice was a hook, sharp and gleaming.
My stomach dropped.
I didn’t and he knew it.
We both did.
He stepped forward, slow, measured.
