Page 28 of Sage Haven

He grinned like he’d won something. “Enjoy the show,” he said. “Maybe I’ll see you later.”

And then he was gone, swallowed by the crowd.

I stared at the drink in my hand, the condensation slick against my fingers.

Was I being paranoid?

Overly cautious?

I wanted to not worry, to learn to trust again.

So I took a sip.

It tasted fine.

Sweet and harmless, but deep inside I knew better and for some reason I didn’t care if I risked it.

Before I could think too hard about the war in my mind, a voice cut through the noise. Low and unyielding. “You shouldn’t take what isn’t yours.”

I turned and found him there.

Dark hair. Eyes like a storm. Inked arms crossed over his chest. His presence was effortless. Commanding. Like the earth shifted to the ground beneath his feet and we all moved to his rhythm.

Before I could react, he reached out. Took the cup from my hand and poured it onto the ground.

“What the hell?” I snapped, adrenaline spiking.

His gaze didn’t flicker.

“A warning,” he said.

My stomach knotted, as I asked, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It was spiked.”

Flat.Certain.

Cold dread slithered down my spine. I tried to process it but before I could, the lights began to blur and the music swelled.

All of a sudden I couldn’t focus on what I was supposed to be doing. I could only focus my body towards him, away from the stage, and opposite to where everyone was staring.

He stood behind me. Close, like a wall between me and everything else.

Then his hand was on my arm, gentle but firm. He turned me toward the stage. “You came here to enjoy the music,” he said, his breath warm against my ear. “Let’s make sure you can.”

His proximity should have unsettled me, but it didn’t.

For the first time since leaving Sanele, I felt safe, safer than in the fields, even with Sam, and that continued for what I remembered of the rest of the night.

The night blurred.

Music.

Adrenaline.

His presence beside me, steady as stone, and when the crowd surged, when the mosh pit exploded into chaos, I found myself keeping close to him. Clinging to the strange foreign security he was offering me.

I felt alive, until something shifted, the end of the set and a song coming through the speakers that took me back to where I had come from. Back to that night.