Page 111 of Haunt Me

I sit with that longer than I want to admit.

“I wasn’t trying to make him love her.”

“Weren’t you?”

I don’t have an honest answer for that, not one I’m ready to say out loud, so I let the silence answer for me instead.

The Light doesn’t push. It rarely does.

I don’t know what tonight means. I don’t know if one storm and one stopped hand is the beginning of something I should want, or the first crack in something that was never built to hold this much weight.

But I find myself hoping anyway.

I’m terrified of exactly how much I want that.

Samuel

I don’t sleep much, which isn’t new, but tonight it’s less about the nightmares and more about the anger I haven’t managed to let go of since I drove away from the cabin.

By the time the sun’s up, I’ve spent hours rehearsing what I’m going to say to Knox, and none of the versions end well.

I find Knox in his office at the clubhouse a little after noon. He’s hunched over paperwork with what I’m sure is at least his second coffee of the morning.

The door bangs against the wall hard enough that he looks up fast.

“You let a damn stranger move into Raven’s home.”

He doesn’t ask how I know. He just sets his pen down, slow and deliberate, the way he does when he’s bracing for a fight.

“Sit down, Wolf.”

“I don’t want to sit down. I want you to explain why you rented out my cabin, Raven’s cabin, to some stranger that wandered into town.”

“Astra’s not a stranger anymore.” His voice stays level, infuriatingly level. “Would you rather it just sit empty?” Knox’s jaw tightens. “Is that really what you think Rae would’ve wanted? A shrine nobody’s allowed to walk into? Or somebody loving it the way she did?”

“That’s not your decision to make for her.”

“No?” He stands now, hands braced on the desk, and I see the temper under his calm begin to show. “You haven’t been inside that cottage since the funeral. You gave me the keys yourself and told me to do whatever the hell I wanted with it. Those were your words.”

“I didn’t mean rent it out to a stranger.”

“Then what did you mean?”

I don’t have an answer for that. I never actually pictured an answer, if I’m honest, never let myself think past handing him the keys and driving away from this town like I could outrun everything.

“You should’ve asked me first.”

“I tried. You didn’t answer your phone for three weeks straight. What was I supposed to do, wait forever? Pop made the decision, and I agreed with him.” Something cracks in his voice. “You weren’t the only one who lost her. I lost my sister. My father lost his daughter. And we’ve all spent months watching and waiting for you to decide you’re ready to exist again.”

That lands harder than I want it to.

“That’s not fair.”

“None of this is fair.” He drags a hand down his face, and for a second he looks as tired as I feel. “I watched Astra clean out the dust and open the windows. I watched something in Pop come back to life that I thought we’d buried with Raven. It happened to me, too. If you want the truth. I’ve looked forward to spending time with that girl more than I have anything in months.”

“So this is about you feeling better?”

“Don’t.” His jaw tightens. “Don’t twist it into something small like that.”