Chapter 28
SAGE
“Where are you going, little finch?”
His voice carries across the hallway, soft and full of venom. His words make my blood run cold, my heart beat a little faster, and shamefully, heat pool low in my belly as I sense him coming,
Run. I don’t, but my feet do move faster, carrying me toward the rear door in the East Wing.
Then I’m running across the frost-slick lawn toward the stone steps.
I don’t have a coat, only my cardigan, but I barely feel the cold, even though icy wind tears at my hair, kissing my cheeks with its cold lips.
And then I’m climbing up the stone-spiraling steps, taking two at a time, every inhale like dragging knives through my lungs.
My breath comes in ragged gasps as I reach the terrace. I have no idea if he’s behind me, but I dare not look back. Clutching at the parapet with my frozen fingers, I make my way to the edge of the walkway.
Without bolt cutters, this should be as far as I go, but I have a key. At the base of the tower, I shove it into the old lock with shaking hands.
Please, please, please…
It turns with a click, and the tower door swings open, squeaking in the wind.
“Sage!”
I stall at the entrance. Every nerve in my body is electrified when I hear him behind me.
He’s right there.
How did he close the distance so fast?
I turn around, my heart hammering in my chest. Troy is standing at the end of the walkway, backlit by the dying sun, looking like some dark god of retribution…the wind whipping his hair into wild disarray, his shirt fluttering open, his sleeves rolled up, revealing muscled forearms heavy with ink.
It’s raining now, small drops that land on my cheeks and lashes, running into my eyes.
He doesn’t seem bothered by it, continuing to stalk towards me slowly, fractured green eyes fixed on me with a mix of wrath and fascination—a lion closing in on cornered deer.
And I feel very, very cornered.
He’s enjoying this.
Aren’t you?
No.
But my heart pounds so hard I can feel it in my throat, my wrists…between my thighs. And I can’t tear my eyes away. I can’t even move.
I shouldn’t want him to catch me.
He’s a killer, whose hands have wrapped in my hair, whose mouth knows every secret place on my body, who had me gasping for him on the stairs, in his office, and the kitchen counter, who could have me anywhere, and I would let him….
He killed Tobias Ragg, and because of that, surely, Nell too.
But my mind can’t reconcile the Troy who makes me burn with one look, and the Troy who slits throats and hides bodies in freezers.
They can’t be the same person.
Except they are.
“You should have run when you had the chance, little finch.”
“Where? We’re on an island. There’s nowhere to go.” Still, I take a step back.
He takes another step closer. “Or you want me to catch you.”
My back hits the tower door.
“Last chance. Run, Sage. The tower’s open. Give me a reason to chase you.”
“I’m not running anymore.” In one hand, I clutch the swan key. In my pocket, the other grips the razor.
He cocks his head. “No? Your skin is flushed.” His gaze drops to my throat, then lower. “You’re breathing hard, and it’s not just from the climb.”
Heat floods my cheeks, spreading down the rest of my body like wildfire, as his eyes raze every part of my body. Then he’s on me so fast that I’m slammed into the wall. I thrust the razor at him, but the metal is hard to grasp in the rain, and he seizes my wrist, twisting until it hurts.
“There she is,” he murmurs. “My little blade.”
The weapon tumbles down, disappearing between the stones. Then he braces my hand on the wood beside my head, and the other wraps around my throat, caging me in.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” His stare could strip paint from the walls.
“I wasn’t looking for anything.”
“Don’t lie to me, Sage. The key. Now.” He squeezes my windpipe so that my fist loosens slightly, then he plucks it from my hand. “That’s my good girl.”
But he stays over me, his fingers digging in, my pulse racing as his hand gets tighter and tighter and the rain starts to fall like the sky is in mourning.
“You drugged me,” he says, voice dropping so low that it does things to me I don’t want to admit. “Went looking in places you shouldn’t.”
I gasp and claw at him, trying to breathe.
His mouth curves. “There are so many things I should do to you that you keep pushing me to. It’s like you want me to destroy you. It’s like…” He reaches up and brushes a stray curl of my hair away that’s managed to plaster itself to my wet face. “…you want me to hurt you.”
I shudder at his touch. I can’t help it, even as stars burst behind my eyelids. Even as my lungs burn and my throat convulses.
Everything sounds so far away.
Then he lets go.
I suck in the damp air, heaving.
“Please.” Rain lashes at my face. “I-I just wanted to see what was in the tower.”
“That’s all?”
I nod.
His hand slides from my throat to the base of my neck and down my back. I’m trembling as he pulls me closer, his voice in my ear. “The question is... what am I going to do with you now?”
“You could let me go.” I want to sound bold, but I’m practically shaking.
“No.” He exhales softly. “I’ll take you inside the damn tower. You’re freezing, and you came all this way.” He releases me, suddenly, unexpectedly, and gestures to the open tower door behind me. “Go. Get inside, you’re shivering.”
I stare at him.
“Now. Before I forget that I’m supposed to be angry with you.”
The loss of his body heat makes me colder inside, but I move away from him, stumbling into the darkness of the tower out of the rain.
He follows, blocking the only exit.
Outside, the storm can be heard, growing stronger by the second. I glance up at the tower as the wind pummels it, echoing loud enough to make me feel like I’m in a pinata. And in the darkness, his forest-green eyes cut into mine.
“Warmer?”
I bite my lip and nod.
“Good.” He takes a step closer. “So tell me, Sage, what are you looking for in here? Proof of what you’ve already decided is true?”
My mind tries to flutter away with anxiety, but I lock it down.
“No.”
“Then what, Sage? Something to take back to daddy? Did he take away your shopping allowance unless you did as you were told?”
“I don’t need evidence. I know what you are.”
He cocks his head, coming closer. “And what’s that, little finch?”
“Y-you’re a murderer.”
His bottle green eyes gleam. “Now, why would you think that?”
I blink at him, my jaw clenching, trying to stifle the sob in my throat. It’s a fair question, but I’m not quite sure how to answer.
Nell told me…doesn’t quite cut it.
Another step. “Do you know what I think? I think you and your father made this whole thing up to try and put me away again, so you can take everything I’ve damn near killed myself to rebuild.”
“Because Tobias Ragg’s dead body is in your freezer. You killed him!”
The muscle in his jaw ticks. There’s a beat and then, “You think I killed him.”
“I-I know you did it.”
“Do you now? And you’re telling me this when I have you trapped inside a tower during a storm?”
“Shit.”
He laughs, but there’s no humor in it. Then he comes too close.
I eye him warily and back away, trying to keep distance between us. The menace emanating from him is almost too frightening. I’ve never seen him like this before, not even when I woke up and he was glaring down at me in his bed.
This is the monster everyone warned me about.
“Are you going to get rid of me, too, like you did Nell?” My voice twists. I’m struggling to hold everything raw in check, to keep it from spilling out.
“Another accusation? And what exactly do you think I did to her? Come on, let’s hear it.”
I lift my chin, meeting his stare despite the terror coursing through me.
“You pushed her from this tower!”
It’s partly a guess. But I know precisely who Severin is now, the type of monster he pretends he’s not. And even if he says it’s not true, the evidence doesn’t lie. Her diary was found here, her letter, Troy was here when she fell, he said that.
And I know you’re the Swanley heir.
The newspaper clipping in his office about the fire, the dedication on the stable wall, his time in prison, and his burn scars. Why would he have them? Unless he’s Edward Swanley, the boy who killed his parents.
His eyes narrow. “What did you say?”
Wait. Did I say that last part out loud?
“You have burn scars.”
“I see. You have been snooping.” His voice is deadly quiet.
“I just want the truth?”
“The truth?” He comes right up to me.
I gnaw my lip, refusing to back away again. Not that there’s anywhere to go.
His eyes are dead of emotion. “Then…strip.”
I stare at him, fighting to control the storm of emotions inside. “W-what?”
The corner of his mouth twists upward. “You want the truth, then I’ll tell you.
After all, if you’re going to be my wife, you should probably know things about me that no one else does.
But…I want to see that you’re not wearing a wire or recording this on your phone, that you didn’t steal anything else. Trust goes both ways, little finch.”
A cold knot forms in my stomach. “I’m not doing that.”
“Why not? You’ve already accused me of taking a lot more. And I’ve already seen”—his eyes drag over me—“most of you, anyway.”
“No, I…” The word can’t is stuck in my throat.
“No? Then fly back home, little finch.” He shifts aside slightly and indicates the door, showing me that I could escape if I wanted to. Showing me that he’s not making me do anything.
But I don’t move. I don’t know why.
I should run far away from Troy Severin, but I stay so still that time seems to stop.
There’s a shameful part of me that doesn’t want to leave, that wants to see what happens after he turns into the monster.
It’s like watching a car crash from the driver’s seat, and not even bothering to step on the brake.
I’m insane.
I’m broken.
There’s no other reason why I am this way.
Because I’m so close. I can feel it.