Page 34 of On Edge

Oh, I said that last part out loud. Did I mean to? I think I did.

“Get a knife with a sharp, serrated edge,” is her follow-up tip.

Between Laine and Nola, Laine is the one who scares me the most. Serial killers will do that, I suppose.

“I will,” I hear myself say, as though this is the most normal conversation in the world.I can almost see her grinning back at that, fingers crossed over, signifying our pact.

Sighing, I hang up.

Above me, the sun pulses over the island, bleeding light across the sky, blurring with the water in the distance. It’s stunning, but it’s also getting late.

I walk away from the tower, to the edge of the terrace, and look down.

A sheer drop greets me, over thirty feet onto rocks slick with emerald moss, their jagged edges crumbling toward thelake below. I let the fear of falling zip through my veins, as if flirting with death might bring me closer to understanding what happened to my sister here.

Secrets don’t stay buried. They eventually spill out, trusted to someone in the dead of night. Or mistakes are made. Everyonefucks up, even monsters.

“You think you’ve gotten away with it,” I whisper, staring into the depths of the water. “You haven’t.”

For a second, I see something floating beneath a clump of reeds—a body. Cold dread snakes down my spine, coiling tight. I snatch back before I can think, but then it’s gone when I look again. There’s nothing there.

I force a breath.

It’s just a lake.

But the wind disagrees; it pushes against me so hard that I’m shoved against the support behind me. Only it’s warm and solid, and it moves. I stumble back.

A scream locks in my throat.

Everything rushes up around me.

I grab for something to hold on to, but there’s nothing. I fall…and land on my ass with a heavy bump.

“Seriously? Now you’re falling at my feet.”

I squint up into the glaring sun. He’s standing over me, but I can’t see his face. Not until he shifts, blocking the light.

Not that I need to see him.

I know that drawl anywhere.

Severin.

The sun behind his head glows like a halo…but there’s no niceness in his expression. He doesn’t even offer to help me up. Who watches someone fall over and just stands there? The monster who killed my sister, that’s who.

Lungs tight, heart hammering, I drag in a breath and get to my feet, making a fuss of straightening my dress, avoidingboth Severin’s gaze and the edge I nearly slipped over. Both are equally dangerous, but I can feel his attention, hot and steady, burning into me where I stand.

He waits, watching.

Finally, reluctantly, I meet his eyes. “If you’ve come to make me get on the boat, you’re going to be disappointed.”

His green eyes are dark, like a forest in the shade, as he looks at me intently, as though trying to make me out, dissecting me into parts. He steps closer, and his presence envelopes me like smoke, all leather and cedarwood.

I tell myself it’s suffocating, but it really isn’t.

It’s kind of nice.

“What the hell are you doing up here?” When he speaks, his voice is low, almost through gritted teeth.