Page 79 of On Edge

“It was on the seat. I was giving it back to you,” I blurt out, my eyes drawn to what fell out on his lap and shouldn’t have…

The vial of poison Nola gave me.

As soon as I know that’s what it is, my lungs stop working altogether. Every nerve in my body is in panic mode. I’m unable to move as Troy’s eyes drift down to what I’m looking at.

I switch my gaze to him instead.

But it’s too late, he’s spotted it.

He sweeps it up and takes a long, hard look, holding it to the light. I cling to the door card as his jaw clenches, but he doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t even look at me. He pockets the vial and his phone, then calmly sits back in his seat.

Thankfully, we soon arrive at the dock and the car parks up, so I don’t have to keep hyperventilating. But when Troy gets out, and Mundel too, helping him uncover a small motorboat from the reeds, I feel all the color drain from my face.

Troy comes back to the car and opens my door, pausing for me to get out.

I don’t move. “Where’s the water taxi?”

“It’s late, and we have a boat.”

I stare at the raft with an engine. It looks like the door Rose fromTitanicclung to dear life on; big enough only for one person. “That’s not a boat.”

“Trust me. It’s a boat.”

“We won’t all fit on that.”

Troy exhales, like he’s trying not to lose his patience. “Mundel is taking the cars back to the company building.”

What choice do I have?

Troy helps me get onto theboat. My heart is pounding, my nerves zipping with too much excitement, by the time he gets in and starts the engine.

It’s not that far. I can handle this until we get to the island.

As we glide through dark water, the sun sets, making the water burn scarlet beneath us. Birds chirp in the long grasses, and ducks honk as we pass. It’s all very Little Mermaid, although I’m too preoccupied with how cold it is on the lake at night. I wish I’d kept Kathy’s lined raincoat instead of Troy’s silk-lined suit jacket, which doesn’t go past my thighs. I can’t button it either, as I’m holding on for dear life, my mind racing to figure out if Troy believed me about the phone, or if he suspects what’s in that vial….

When he turns off the engine and stops the boat dead in the middle of the lake.

I’m at a loss as to why we’ve stopped, but when I look out to the island a stone’s throw away, there…on the dock ahead, sits a swan.

It’s hissing at us.

“Why have we stopped?” My chest squeezes tight.

Not for a bird, surely?However, the song comes back to haunt me.

One for the manor, dark and tall,

Two for the portrait on the wall,

Three for the earls who ruled this land,

Four for the blade in the dead boy’s hand,

Five for the swan upon the lake,

Six for the sins our fathers make,

Seven for treasures hid up high,