I also wish to thank Sharon Ronck. When others asked her to not wave my flag quite so high, she proudly held up two. I’m honored to have fulfilled your predictions! We need more people in this world with a heart like yours.

To Leah, Miranda, Ashley, David, Angie, and Christie for the use of their names, and for allowing me to add fictional flair to their characters.

To authors Colleen Hoover, Karly Lane, Lani Wendt Young, Eyvonna Rains, and Tracey Garvis Graves for reading Red Hill and validating that I wasn’t absolutely insane for going with my gut and in a completely different direction. I so appreciate your time and enthusiasm.

Finally, I wish to thank my daughters for having such big, amazing personalities and letting me write about them. I learned what all-consuming, unconditional love is when you came into my life. Since 1999, my heart has lived on the outside of my body. Since 2005, that joy, fear, and suspense has been doubled. I hope if you choose to become mothers, your children might give you half the joy you’ve gifted to me. Maybe then you’ll understand why I look at you the way I do.

E, thanks for working on this with me, Taterbug. You are going to blow me out of the water someday very soon.

And to my little man: You are perfection. You are tied as one of the three best things I’ve ever done. It brings me so much joy that you’ll never know what life was like before our dreams came true, and I’m so thankful that, thanks to my fans, I work from home so I can spend as much time with you as I possibly can, because I wouldn’t want it any other way.

So much love to my readers! You’ve made the impossible possible for my family and me. A lost, small-town girl became a #1 New York Times bestselling author. If that’s not a miracle, I don’t know what is!

Additional Resources

If you or someone you care about has been a victim of sexual violence, consider visiting rainn.org to learn more about resources that are available to you. RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) is the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization and was named on of “America’s Best Charities” by Worth magazine. RAINN created and operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE and online.rainn.org) in partnership with more than 1,100 local rape crisis centers across the country and operates the DoD Safe Helpline for the Department of Defense. RAINN also carries out programs to prevent sexual violence, help victims and ensure that rapists are brought to justice.

You can also donate online at rainn.org/donate/ways-to-give.

© TRISHA JOHNSON

JAMIE McGUIRE is the New York Times bestselling author of Walking Disaster, Beautiful Disaster, and The Providence trilogy. She and her husband, Jeff, live with their children just outside Enid, Oklahoma, with three dogs, six horses, and a cat named Rooster. Please visit JamieMcGuire.com.

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2013 by Jamie McGuire

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First Atria Paperback edition October 2013

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Cover design and art by Damonza

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McGuire, Jamie.

Red hill / Jamie McGuire.

pages cm.

1. Paranormal fiction. 2. End of the world—Fiction. 3. Fantasy fiction. I. Title.

PS3613.C4994R43 2013

813'.6—dc23 2013027649

ISBN 978-1-4767-5952-4

ISBN 978-1-4767-5953-1 (ebook)

Book Rangers - PleX

Lectio Facit Liber

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

About Jamie McGuire