Whispering Pines
Page 23
She opened her door and slid inside.
“Hello, Mrs. Matsuoka,” a voice said quietly.
Audrey started, jerking around, but there was no one there.
“You won’t be able to see me unless I let you,” the voice continued. “But I can see you whenever I want…”
“Who are you? What do you want?” She kept the quivering out of her voice.
“You know who I am.”
Audrey could feel a faint whisper of breath on the back of her neck, and she shivered. She did know who it was: Aiden Price.
“As for what I want?” the voice continued. “Well, just one simple little favor…”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The first seed of this story took root in our imaginations years ago, but it took the efforts of a lot of people to help it grow into the book you are holding in your hands now. Thank you to Sarah McCabe, our brilliant editor, who took our initial messy draft and helped us transform it into something much stronger. We owe so much to you, and to the rest of the Aladdin team who worked on this book, including Mara Anastas, Chriscynethia Floyd, Rebecca Vitkus, Tiara Iandiorio, Caitlin Sweeny, Alissa Nigro, Anna Jarzab, Savannah Breckenridge, Lauren Hoffman, Nicole Russo, and Christina Pecorale and her sales team. Also thank you to our truly amazing cover illustrator, Diana Novich.
We are fortunate in our writing friends, but we especially need to thank Alan Wehrman, who read the full draft plus multiple versions of the first fifty pages without complaining, and whose insight shaped the direction of the novel. And thank you to Maureen McQuerry, Stephen Wallenfels, Jeanette Mendell, Mary Cronk Farrell, and Amanda Divine, as well as our fellow Kidliterati writers: Suzi Guina, Katie Nelson, Jennifer Camiccia, Kaitlin Hundscheid, Liz Edelbrock, Taylor Gardner, and Tara Creel, who all had a hand in making this a better book.
We are very grateful for our agent, Jennifer Azantian, the best champion a pair of writing sisters could hope for. And even though it was years ago, we will always remember our Pitch Wars group: Liz Briggs, Stephanie Garber, and Teresa Yea—you encouraged us when we were first getting our author feet wet, and we couldn’t resist writing the three of you into this story. Sorry that only one of you made it through in one piece, but such is the way of horror.
One half of this writing duo had a baby right around the time this book was due and would never have been able to make that deadline without the love and support of our families. Thank you to our parents, Rich and Rose Bartkowski, who traveled across the country twice in order to help with baby care. And thank you to parents-in-law Lyn and Bruce Lang for all the care in between and every day since, not to mention daily home-cooked meals. Also thank you to our siblings, Rosi and Ed Reed, and Jesse and Ashley Lang, for all your encouragement.
To our partners, Sean Lang and Nick Chen, it goes without saying that your support has made all of this possible… but we’ll say it anyhow. And to Ember and Evelyn Rose, both of whom have taught us so much about time management.
Finally, thank you to our readers: we’re so grateful you decided to join us on this journey. Buckle up, there’s still a lot more story to come.
More from the Authors
A Pinch of Phoenix
A Hint of Hydra
A Dash of Dragon
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Photograph of authors copyright © by Portia Shao with Positive Vista Photography & Art
HEIDI LANG (RIGHT) & KATI BARTKOWSKI (LEFT) are a writing team of two sisters. Heidi is afraid of all things that go bump in the night but watches shows like The X-Files and Stranger Things anyhow. Kati enjoys reading about serial killers and the apocalypse but secretly sleeps with a night-light. They believe that the best way to conquer fear is to share it with as many people as possible, so between the two of them, they love creating stories full of all the things that scare them most. They are the coauthors of the Mystic Cooking Chronicles trilogy.
Visit us at simonandschuster.com/kids
www.SimonandSchuster.com/Authors/Heidi-Lang
www.SimonandSchuster.com/Authors/Kati-Bartkowski
Margaret K. McElderry Books
Simon & Schuster, New York
heidiandkatibooks.com
ALSO BY HEIDI LANG & KATI BARTKOWSKI
A Dash of Dragon
A Hint of Hydra
A Pinch of Phoenix
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.
MARGARET K. McELDERRY BOOKS
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
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www.SimonandSchuster.com
Text copyright © 2020 by Heidi Lang and Kati Bartkowski
Jacket illustration copyright © 2020 by Diana Novich
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
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Jacket designed by Tiara Iandiorio
Interior designed by Mike Rosamilia
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lang, Heidi, author. | Bartkowski, Kati, author.
Title: Whispering Pines / by Heidi Lang and Kati Bartkowski.
Description: New York City : Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2020. | Summary: “When otherworldly forces descend on their town of Whispering Pines, conspiracy theorist Rae, who’s searching for her lost father, and Caden, who’s haunted by the ghost of his brother, must band together to save their home”— Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019059084 (print) | LCCN 2019059085 (eBook) | ISBN 9781534460478 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781534460492 (eBook)
Subjects: CYAC: Supernatural—Fiction. | Ghosts—Fiction. | Conspiracy theories—Fiction. | Missing persons—Fiction. | Monsters—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.L3436 Whi 2020 (print) |
LCC PZ7.1.L3436 (eBook) | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019059084
LC eBook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019059085