Page 131 of On Edge

Soon, she’s breathing deeply, her gentle snores telling me she’s asleep. I’ll wake her up if I try to extract myself, and she should rest. So, yet again, I stay where I am, leaning back so I’m against the couch, while she rests her head on my chest.

I stay like that for hours.

I go through everything that happened. She saw Tobias’s body, so she knows now I killed him. He put my family through hell, and then he touched her, made her laugh, like he had a right to. There was no way he was going to leave my island after that. But I couldn’t outright admit it to her; she wouldn’t trust me, and I need her to. Especially as she blamed me for killing Nell.

That I did not do.

And I needed to prove it.

But this is not what I envisioned when I jumped off the tower with her. It was supposed to scare her into telling me the truth, for once. Make her wake the fuck up. The girl I thought she was could swim. Can you fake drowning? No, I doubt it. The shore wasn’t far. She could have swum. And the lake wasn’t that cold either, with it still being autumn. I don’t get her, unless…

She’s really who she says she is.

Sage Lovett.

The daughter of the man who burned my family alive and framed me for their murder.

30

SAGE

Iwake to the sound of rain, tinkling against the windows like a melody I can’t quite catch.

At first, I think I’m at home tucked up in bed, maybe with some soup left out for me by Claire, the housekeeper. My mother’s downstairs on one of her rare visits. My father’s in his study. And outside, a storm is subsiding…

It’s one of those days where the tree outside my bedroom window rustles in the wind, sounding as though it’s shushing me to sleep, and the fireplace crackles loudly, whispering at me that everything is going to be alright. But when I drag open my eyes, I’m not at home.

And I’m not in my bed.

I’m in Troy Severin’s sitting room, or rather, on the floor of it. I’m lying on his fur rug beneath a thick, cosy wool blanket, and someone, who I can’t see, is holding me. Their arms are enveloping me from behind, their body pressed close, all heat and solid weight.

But I’m too exhausted to care who it is. Everything is warm. Almost too warm, I’m bundled so tight. Slowly, though, theevening returns to me. Not all at once, but in flickers, bit by bit. One broken memory after another, until the haze begins to clear and everything clicks into place.

The dead body in the freezer.

Troy chasing me up the tower.

Then he tried to kill me.

At that, my breathing hitches ever so slightly, but I stay stock still as the memories come flooding back.

I remember sinking. And Troy crashing into the lake, diving down with me, though I’d started to flail uselessly, my limbs heavy with panic. I thought I was going to die. But he gathered me in his strong arms and dragged me up, back to the surface. And now, wrapped in his blanket, with his fire warming my skin, I feel…content. Like I can finally close my eyes and rest.

The thought should scare me more than the lake did. I should be hysterical. I should be running away screaming. But my body has gone soft and pliant, like I’m still dreaming.

Maybe I am.

Inside the fire is lit, its glow warming the room, chasing away the horrors of the night. But outside, it’s still dark, the rain beats the windows, making me want to curl up into a ball when I recall just how cold it was at the top of the tower, and then in the lake.

But not in Troy’s arms.

I’m scorching in his embrace.

It’s then that I notice underwear,my underwear, drying in front of the fire.

Wait. Does that mean I’m not wearing anything?

My nerves shake as I check beneath the covers, relief quickly washing over me to find that I’m wearing a shirt, one that’s soft and oversized.Hisshirt? Oh, God, I don’t even want to think about it. A second or two later, it gets even worse…