Enchanted Hill by Emily Bain Murphy

Author:Emily Bain Murphy [Murphy, Emily Bain]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Just before dawn, Cora stood outside her room, smoking a cigarette in the dark.

She could still feel the panic of almost having been caught by the guard, dizzying and electric behind her eyes. But, thanks to Jack, she had made it back to her room without being seen.

Jack had drawn the attention to himself. Sacrificed himself for her.

And not, she admitted to herself, for the first time.

She inhaled sharply and the cigarette bloomed with light.

She hadn’t thought of the Gasper in years, but she still remembered what it felt like to be in his presence. He would laugh at off times, an unnatural sound that would send a surge of ice water through Cora’s veins. It felt like seeing a broken limb that had been twisted the wrong way.

She remembered little flashes from that fateful day in late spring, sharpened to a crisp point. The way the Queen Anne’s lace shivered against the rock. Wearing her new dress with its dark plaid tailoring. She had tied a grosgrain ribbon in her hair.

When she had approached the fence, someone had been there. His head was bent, his back turned, in the Pelican blue chambray shirt. Cora had noticed his scrawny shoulders first, and the words “I’ve just read a good one, you’re really going to like—” died on her lips when the man turned around.

It was him.

Her breath had caught in her chest.

He looked at her with interest. One of his fingernails was long and sharp—the index finger on his right hand. A stringy dark hair was growing out of the mole on his cheek.

“Hi, little lady,” he had said. His voice was high and thin. “You’re a pretty thing. You remind me of a rabbit. What’s your name?”

Lightning-fast, he’d seized her wrist through the fence, bending it at an angle that hurt. She had made a noise and thrown a panicked look toward the silent guard tower, with its dark, blank windows. When she looked back, drawn by some impossible force, Gasper had cocked his head. “Are you afraid?” he had asked, and smiled. His voice had turned low and hollow. He looked pleased, relishing it, as if Cora’s fear had a taste, and he liked it.

Cora had tried to pull away, but his grip was too strong. Her eyes began to burn and water with terror that she tried to hide. She didn’t even blink.

“Your daddy a guard here?” Gasper sang. “5576. Head Guard McCavanagh, innit?”

He reached through the fence with his other hand and traced his index finger with the long nail across her cheek. He whispered “I could kill him if I wanted.”

And then he had smiled.

Cora had made a noise. Terror pressed a heavy foot at the base of her throat, cutting off her air.

And then she had heard a voice.

“Cora?”

Her head whipped around. When she saw Jack, a grateful sob erupted from deep in Cora’s chest. Jack took one look at her face and his body had gone rigid. He dropped the cluster of weeds that were in his hand.

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