Page 212 of Sage Haven
“Don’t.” The word cracked like a whip. Reich’s grip on my wrist tightened, almost painful.
He wasn’t pleading.
He was commanding.
“I need to say this,” I whispered, my throat tight, raw. “You need to hear it.”
His eyes burned into mine.
Something desperate. Something close to wild.
“No, I don’t,” he said. “Because nothing is going to happen to you.”
But I shook my head slowly, forcing the words past the lump in my throat. “But if it does…”
He closed the minimal distance between us, his breath hot against my cheek as he lowered his voice to something dark and feral. “Then I burn the world down.” His fingers brushed my jaw, tilting my face toward his. “Understand?”
I wanted to hold onto that moment.
I wanted to believe the fury in his voice.
The certainty in his promise.
But it slipped through my fingers like sand, vanishing before I could grasp it.
I was slipping away. Fading.
Being pulled back into the abyss, inch by inch.
But there was his voice again. Rough. Desperate.
“Stay with me, Sage.”
I clung to it. To him. To the raw desperation in his tone, letting it anchor me.
Just enough. Just barely. To sink into him. To feel the warmth of his skin and the steady beat of his heart.
“Reich, please,” I murmured. My voice was too small. “I just… hold me. Just for a little while.”
He exhaled, the sound of it heavy against my ear like he was breathing for both of us and then his arms closed around me, pulling me into the shelter of his chest. Tighter. Grounding me in a way nothing else could.
His head rested against mine and I buried my face in the warm curve of his neck, breathing him in.
Counting his breaths like lifelines.
For a moment, the world disappeared. The chaos quieted. The storm inside me stilled.
Just long enough to make me think maybe it could stay that way. Maybe I could find my way back to myself.
But then—Klay’s words echoed in my mind, “Reich kidnapped you to hand over to me.”
And a chill swept through me. Tightening my muscles. Banishing the fleeting calm.
The silence stretched between us. Pressed in. Suffocating.
“Reich…” My voice barely made it out. “Klay said you were planning to deliver me to him.”
He stiffened instantly like a wire pulled too tight.
