The Impossible Girl by Lydia Kang

Author:Lydia Kang [Kang, Lydia]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9781503903388
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Published: 2018-09-17T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

As soon as dawn broke, the spell was also rent.

Theo and Cora still hadn’t spoken about what Cora was building up in her mind as the all-encompassing why—why she had played two lives and lied all these years. She took her head off his shoulder, which had been her pillow for the last half hour, and he kissed the top of her head.

“I must go,” she said, and he nodded. “Turn to the wall.”

Theo obeyed, and Cora quickly dressed. She was sitting in a chair and tying her boots on, when Theo turned around and propped himself against the wall, his bedsheet tangled around his waist and legs.

“When shall I see you again?” Theo asked.

“Soon.” She didn’t know what to say. The less the better.

“That’s not soon enough.” He began dressing, and Cora turned around to face the door, wishing she could watch but not letting herself. She listened to fabric rustling, shoes being put on, and the steps behind her. Theo slipped his hands around her waist and kissed her cheek. “I have two lectures this morning at the university. Come with me.”

“What about the dissection? The lady we just dug up?”

“This afternoon. Do you want to go?” Theo asked.

Cora wrapped her hands around her arms and shivered. “No, I don’t. But I have work too. I have to go home and change.”

“Don’t. Come with me. And then in the afternoon, you can go home and work. I’ll tell my schoolmates you’re looking to enroll.”

“I can’t.”

“It’ll be safer for you not to be alone,” Theo said. He rubbed his stubbly cheek against her soft one. “I could keep you company for a little while.” He gently bit the cartilage of her ear instead, and she laughed and laughed, and finally rumpled his hair.

“All right! You win. I’ll come.”

And so they left. Even though the sun had barely risen, the street was already awake, with people opening up their storefronts and sweeping the dirty sidewalks. But to Cora, the whole city was somehow brighter, fresher.

As the boardinghouse keeper hadn’t yet begun cooking breakfast, they paid a few pennies for a crusty loaf of bread, tore it in half, and chewed on it all the way to the new university building. Students were already spilling through the doors, and at the sight of the light-colored building, Cora stopped.

“Do I look all right?” she asked him, adjusting the hat on her cropped hair. “I’ve no makeup on to hide my face.”

“It’s all right. You just look younger; that’s all. Very boyish. I’d kiss you to show that I meant it, but that wouldn’t go over well, would it?”

Cora hid a smile, but then frowned. “I saw your name,” she said, forcing down her last swallow of bread. “In the library there.”

“Yes, I was there a few days ago.”

“What were you looking up?” she asked.

“Dr. Grier’s journals. Duncan’s claim about the woman with two hearts seemed so outlandish, I had to know if it was true, or a rumor. I mean, maybe Dr.

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