Linger by Maggie Stiefvater Read Free Book Online Page B

around?”
    John nodded and retreated. He had only been out of the diner for a moment when Isabel slid back into the center to face Grace.
    â€œWow, Grace, you never told me you were born without a brain,” Isabel said. “Because that’s the only way I can figure you would do something that incredibly stupid.”
    I wouldn’t have put it in those terms, but I was thinking the same thing.
    Grace waved it off. “ Psh. I sent it the last time I was in Duluth. I wanted to give them some hope. And I actually thought it might keep the cops from looking so hard for her if they thought it was an annoying almost-legal runaway instead of a possible homicide-kidnapping thing. See, I was using my brain.”
    Isabel shook some granola into her palm. “Well, I think you should stay out of it. Sam, tell her to stay out of it.”
    The whole idea of it did make me uneasy, but I said, “Grace is very wise.”
    â€œGrace is very wise,” Grace repeated to Isabel.
    â€œGenerally,” I added.
    â€œMaybe we should tell him,” Grace said.
    Isabel and I both stared at her.
    â€œWhat? He’s her brother. He loves her and wants her to be happy. Plus, I don’t understand all the secrecy if it’s scientific. Yeah, the greater world would definitely take it the wrong way.But family members? You’d think they’d be better about it, if it’s just logical instead of monstrous.”
    I didn’t really have words for the horror that the idea inspired in me. I wasn’t even sure why it elicited such a strong reaction.
    â€œSam,” Isabel said, and I realized I was just sitting there, running a finger over one of my scarred wrists. Isabel looked at Grace. “Grace, that is the dumbest idea I have ever heard, unless your goal is to get Olivia rushed to the nearest microscope for poking and prodding. Also, John is clearly too highly strung to handle the concept.”
    This, at least, made sense to me. I nodded. “I don’t think he’s a good one to tell, Grace.”
    â€œYou told Isabel!”
    â€œWe had to,” I said, before Isabel could finish looking superior. “She had already guessed a lot of it. I think we should operate on a need-to-know basis.” Grace was starting to get her blank face, which meant that she was annoyed, so I said, “But I still think you’re very wise. Generally.”
    â€œGenerally,” repeated Isabel. “Now I’m getting out of here. I’m, like, sticking fast to the booth.”
    â€œIsabel,” I said, as she got up, and she stopped at the end of the table, giving me this weird look, as if I hadn’t called her by her name before. “I’m going to bury him. The wolf. Maybe today, if the ground’s not frozen.”
    â€œNo hurry,” Isabel said. “It’s not going anywhere.”
    As Grace leaned in toward me, I caught another whiff of the rotten smell. I wished I’d looked more closely at the photo on Isabel’s phone. I wished the nature of the wolf’s death had been more straightforward. I’d had enough mysteries for a lifetime.

• SAM •
    I was human.
    The day after I buried the wolf was frigid, Minnesota March in all its volatile splendor: One day the temperatures would soar into the thirties, and the next it would be barely twelve or thirteen degrees. It was amazing how warm thirty-two felt after two solid months of single digits. I’d never had to endure such cold in my human skin. Today was one of the bitterly cold days, as far away from spring as you could get. Except for the brilliant red winterberries that clustered at the edges of the trees, there was no color left anywhere in the world. My breath frosted in front of me, and my eyes dried with the cold. The air smelled like being a wolf, and yet I wasn’t.
    The knowledge both thrilled and hurt me.
    There’d only been two customers in the bookstore all day. I