Chapter 118

GIDEON

The cottage sat like a secret on the edge of nowhere.

Dark wood. Dead leaves. Silence thick enough to choke on.

I killed the engine, stepped out, and let the cold air bite into me. My boots crunched on gravel as I approached, every instinct screaming that this was it. That she was close. That I was finally standing on the line between hell and salvation.

The front door wasn’t locked. It