"The families of the victims all told the same story," Ava said, her expression grim. "Their husbands stood up to the mayor in some way—refused his 'arrangement,' questioned his authority, or tried to leave town. All disappeared without a trace."
"No bodies were ever found," I noted, connecting this to what the woman had told me.
"Because they're used in the ritual," Ava confirmed. "I spoke with an elderly man who's lived here his whole life. He showed me a journal his grandfather kept—records of disappearances going back nearly seventy years, all following the same pattern."
"Seventy years?" Cecilia looked shocked. "The same ritual for that long?"
"The journal mentioned that each mayor of Windmere has continued the tradition," Ava explained, her finger tracing lines in the old leather-bound book she'd brought with her. "Power passing from one to the next, along with the responsibility of maintaining what they call 'the barrier.'"
