Tormenting Lila Read Free Page B

there grinning at me like an idiot who’d just lost his spare brain cell.
    It was one of life’s many injustices that Jack was not only older than me and believed therefore that this put him in charge, but that his power indisputably beat mine (though I’d
sooner die a virgin than admit that to him). Jack could heal from any injury . . . as far as we knew. We hadn’t gone as far as shooting him in the head or hacking off a limb to find out
– though I had been sorely tempted on several occasions.
    I could make fire and water obey my command, I could move objects the size of elephants. I could probably even move an actual elephant (one day I needed to try that). But I couldn’t heal
myself from a bullet wound or bring people back from the dead. Jack had a miracle power. Mine was just kind of
meh
by comparison.
    Jack pushed past Alex into our room, stopping short when he saw the mussed up bedcovers on our four-poster bed. He shook his head and shot a pointed look in Alex’s direction. It was only
then I noticed something red out the corner of my eye. I spun towards the door.
    ‘Amber!’ I yelled, jumping off the bed and sliding past Alex, out into the hallway where a slope-shouldered Amber stood leaning against the doorjamb, her red hair flaming around her
head in loose curls.
    She smiled wanly at me. ‘Hey, Lila.’
    After spending six weeks with us on the boat, Amber’s colour had finally returned to her cheeks and the haunted expression behind her eyes had begun to fade. But grief left indelible
marks, that much I knew, and I wondered how long it would take for her to get over what had happened, or if in fact she ever would. I was glad that she had stuck around though, and I guessed a
little part of me was grateful that she was giving Jack something else to focus on besides me. He clearly had developed something of a crush on Amber, though I presumed she wasn’t anywhere
near ready for a new relationship.
    Alex greeted Amber warmly, hugging her tightly, then turned to Jack, his expression switching to inscrutable.
    ‘What are you doing here?’ he asked, in what I had come to recognise as his friendly interrogator voice.
    Jack shrugged, flopping down onto the bed. ‘Figured mum and dad needed some time together just the two of them and that maybe I should check in on my little sister.’ He flashed me
his most winning smile. ‘Make sure she was OK.’
    ‘Right,’ I said, holding my arms out to the sides. ‘Well, as you can see I’m fine. Absolutely one hundred percent perfect in fact. Or I was, until you showed up. So you
can leave now, fully assured of my health and general OK-ness.’
    ‘But we just got here,’ Jack said, eyeing the room and bouncing up and down on the mattress, testing its firmness. ‘May as well stay now.’
    A lightning bolt of panic shot through me. Was he suggesting he was going to be sharing our room? There was only one bed. I was absolutely no way making room in it for him.
    ‘You’ve got to be kidding?’ I hissed.
    Alex’s hand quickly found my shoulder and applied gentle pressure, whether in warning or to placate me I couldn’t tell.
    ‘Nantucket’s a dangerous place. I just want to keep an eye on you,’ Jack said, getting up from the bed and walking over to the window.
    ‘Nantucket? Dangerous? What are you talking about?’ I spluttered. ‘We’re on a tiny island in the Atlantic. It’s the least dangerous place probably in the whole
entire world. Though the murder count may increase by one very shortly.’
    Jack turned to face me, smiling smugly. ‘I can’t die, remember?’
    ‘That’s just a theory,’ I shot back. ‘I’m happy to put it to the test.’
    Alex was standing to one side, his mouth pursed in a sign I knew now to be bemusement. He usually chose to stand aside at times like these and let Jack and I battle it out on our own.
    ‘A girl got murdered here,’ Jack said quietly.
    I opened my mouth then shut it again.
    ‘When?’ Alex