Hunting November

One

When I was a little kid and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I gave them all sorts of wild answers. I told a teacher I wanted to be a couch potato so I could spend my days snuggled up under blankets in the living room. I told my best friend Emily s mom I wanted to be a cookie taste-­tester because that s what Emily wanted to be. And I told my dad I wanted to be a knife so I could cut my grilled cheese sandwiches in two perfect triangles instead of the four dinky squares he always prepared. Of course this answer earned me raised eyebrows and an explanation about how a girl is a living, breathing thing that can be cut; and a knife is a sharp piece of steel that does the cutting. But now that I ve discovered most of my childhood was a lie, I m starting to think my younger self was onto something with the knife answer. Because in the past few weeks at Academy Absconditi, I ve come as close to being a knife, or being stabbed by one, as anyone can get.

 

I shut the door to the infirmary behind me and head down an empty hall that s lit by torches. I roll my sleeve down over the bandage on my forearm, where the nurse slathered my wound with some kind of strong poultice that smells of pine needles and clay. She kept telling me how lucky I was to have survived the fall from the tree in the courtyard, and with no broken bones. She tsked a lot and said, You young people take everything for granted. I doubt she would have used the word lucky, though, if she knew I was thrown from the tree because the Lion Family wanted me dead.

 

As I turn the corner into another silent hallway, I notice the torches have burned down, leaving the corridor ahead of me almost completely black. I slow to a stop, eyeing the dying embers on one torch suspiciously. Shouldn t someone have replaced them? And where are the Academy guards? There s usually one posted in every hallway. I frown, wondering if I should head back to

In addition to her novels How to Hang a Witch and Haunting the Deep, Adriana Mather is also a full-time producer and actor. She owns a production company called Zombot Pictures, which has produced the award-winning Honeyglue, among other films. She lives in Massachusetts with her family. Follow her at @AdrianaMather or @adrianamatherauthor.

Praise for Killing November:

"Adriana Mather deftly combines cinematic action, relatable characters, and wicked twists in this riveting boarding school thriller."  Karen M. McManus, New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying

"Mather has built a dark, intriguing universe. Between the boarding-school setting, the lessons in espionage, and the murder mystery, there's plenty to grab readers."  Booklist

"Subterfuge is the name of the game at an elite and secretive prep school. Revelations are well-paced. . . . Anything is possible in this world of cloaks and daggers. A strong beginning that will leave readers hungry for more."  Kirkus Reviews