Then she’s gone, out of the light, like she was never there. Archie panics, despite himself. He steps off the path and hurries across the grounds, toward the lake, toward the place where she had been. He scans the tree line, black foliage, the odd angles where accent lights cut through the darkness. He’s not sure what he wants more—to see her and know he’s not crazy, or to not see her and know he is.

He stays off the paths, stepping around plants, trying to stay in the dark.

As he gets closer to the empty spotlight, he sees a faint greenish glow through the trees and knows where he is. Two gargoyle lamps light the entrance down to the pool and boathouse. Archie stops. The music is muffled; the party seems distant. He peers around one of the lamps, but the stairs down the hillside are dark. The pool glows luminescent green. More gargoyle lamps light the path from the pool to the boathouse. Each throws a circle of light on the stone deck, leaving the gargoyle on top in shadow, a hunched silhouette, like a carrion bird waiting for meat.

Archie thinks he sees a shape dart past one of the lamps—a flash of red.

He steps back into the darkness, heart pounding.

Why would she be here, on the island?

But he knows she has come for him.

He is supposed to go down there. He is supposed to follow her.

And then, in a moment of clarity that surprises even him, Archie thinks, no.

He looks back in the direction of the house. The lights are just visible through the trees.

Susan is back there somewhere.

Along with a host of dangers: Razor Burn, who was practically wearing a lanyard that said sexual predator; the Russian, who looked like he knew how to kill someone with his kneecaps; and Jack, who had a billion-dollar drug business to protect. Then there was Leo. He had choked Archie unconscious. Who knew what he was capable of?

Susan, Archie knows, will not be safe until she is off that island.