Excerpt fromA Fierce and Subtle Poisonby Samantha Mabry
What is this?
I asked, holding the slips of paper between us.
How do you know my name?
The girl tilted her head as if shed misheard me.
Everyone knows your name.
Not everyone knows what room I stay in.
Yes, they do.
Its the haunted one.
Shed referred to it as her mourning jewelry.
I flicked at her last note.
Why did you call her this?
I overheard thesenoranext door say that.
Isabel still hadnt taken her eyes from mine.
She was talking to one of our neighbors about a girl named Marisol.
She said shed gone missing and that a boy named Lucas found her on the beach.
How do you know I know a girl named Marisol?
She paused for a beat.
I choked out a laugh.
Youre kidding, right?
How about on the nightbeforeMarisol and I werejokingoutside your house, you pelted me in the face with rocks?
Isabel finally broke eye contact.
Her thin lips twisted into a sneer as she reached up to tug at the hood of her sweatshirt.
You were bothering me, she muttered.
This is why you asked me to come here?
To rub salt in my wounds and tell me that Ive beenbotheringyou?
Its not like youre the first couple to ever go down there.
Isabel threw out her hand, gesturing toward the stone wall on the far end of the courtyard.
Im tired of being subjected to everyones amorous encounters.
Isabel thought for a moment and changed her course.
I wanted you to come so I could apologize.
I was playing tricks beforewith the other letters, and the stones.
I realize now it was all in such poor taste, considering all thats happened to you recently.
All thats happened, I echoed.
It was the first time Id said those words out loud.
In the next instant, my left temple burst with pain, and white light flooded my vision.
Youre not well, I heard Isabel say.
Im fine, I lied.
But if you wanted to apologize, there are better ways.
You could have just writtenIm sorryon one of your cards.
You could have knocked on my door.
You didnt have to formally request my presence and make me dive in here like an idiot.
Its not that simple, actually.
The pain in my head eased enough so that I could peer at Isabel through narrowed eyes.
Shed retreated away from me, dissolving herself into the shadows cast off by a canopy of leaves.
She was clearly so strange.
Why are you hiding?
She paused and threw her shoulders back.
What a terrible liar Isabel Ford was.
This is the second time Ive come here and made a fool of myself because of you.
She didnt respond, so I went on.
You knocked over that pot yesterday, right?
Her reply was maddeningly simple: a shrug and an uptick of her chin that meant yes.
Isabel scowled; her brief facade of cool confidence fractured.
She ran a hand roughly across her cheek and her chin.
Like I said, it was a gag.
Just a stupid prank.
I didnt think youd actually come.
I needed to getyou.
Her first finger emerged from the cuff of her sweatshirt to point at me.
She pointed at her feet.
Leaving the house for long stretches of time is not in my best interest.
So, youre contagious?
Thats not the way Id describe my condition, no.
How would you describe yourconditionthen?
When it flew roughly an inch from her face, Isabel turned her chin slightly in its direction.
She blew out as if extinguishing a candle flame.
For a split-second the wasp hovered in the air.
Then it dropped dead to the ground.
FromA Fierce and Subtle Poisonby Samantha Mabry, on sale April 12, 2016.
Courtesy of Algonquin Young Readers.
