Let's Kill Her (Book #1)

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Sejeong and I walked into poisons class and take a seat at our table. It feels like a medieval version of the chemistry lab back in Jeongseon. There are two students to a table with various metal instruments and glass jars. Only, instead of individual Bunsen burners, there is a fireplace used to heat things, and there are no safety glasses or plastic gloves to protect us. Sejeong says everyone learns the hard way what not to touch, which means I'm not touching anything I don't absolutely have to.

We're now in our second class of the day and there hasn't been a word about the guard's murder. No one's questioned us or announced that there will be an investigation. It's obvious the other students are on edge, too. Except for Rosé, who, as far as I can tell, seems to find everyone else's discomfort amusing.

Taemin stops in front of our table and picks up a glass vial of god knows what. He twirls it and studies the liquid inside like it's captured his complete interest. "Two murders since you've arrived, Suzy - and I hear one was right outside your dorm. Yet you're sitting here, while Jennie is in the dungeon." He looks over at me and I can see the threat in his eyes. He was close with Kai, but it's clear that what happened with Jennie is a much bigger deal to him and he'll make me suffer for it if he can. "But I'm sure that will be corrected soon enough." He drops the vial carelessly on the table, sending it rolling along the wood, and goes to take his seat.

Sejeong grabs the vial before it crashes to the floor, and by the look on her face, I know whatever is in it is definitely something toxic.

"Sit, my lilies," says Professor Hisakawa.

Hisakawa . . . Origin from Japan and can be broken down into two parts, hisa, meaning "a long time ago," and kawa, meaning "stream" or "river." I was intrigued by the name as a child because of one translation I found that listed the meaning as "river of forever."

Hisakawa stands in front of the fireplace humming while everyone settles. She's a beautiful, thin woman with curled bangs and hair that reaches all the way to her waist. "We often talk about poisons in terms of their specific formulas and intentional implementation, but today I would like to discuss poisons a little differently. You all know King George the Third, who was born in 1738 and held the British throne through the American Revolution? Well, it's been proposed that he had a genetic condition that caused him to suffer periodic attacks that the royal physicians at the time were treating with tartar emetic - an antimony-based medicine used to induce vomiting. Antimony is frequently found in nature with arsenic . . . and often contaminated with it." She pauses. "Ahh, I can see the lights turning on in those brains of yours. In the 1960s there was an analysis of King George's hair and it was found that arsenic concentration was seventeen times the lethal limit."

"The physicians' notes described both forcing the king and deceiving the king to take this poisonous medication. Wickedly fascinating, isn't it? Now, his medical condition at the time disrupted heme synthesis. And what does arsenic do?" She rolls up on her toes and back down again. "It also disrupts heme synthesis, making his condition worse and ultimately making the kind more dependent on the royal physicians who were poisoning him." She looks at all of us to make sure she has our attention. "Now, this is a curious situation because what outwardly appeared to be a caregiving tactic was slowly killing the king. And with the effect of the poison mimicking his preexisting condition, some might say it was a perfect crime."

Hisakawa smiles. "This is an example of a larger idea I want you all to think about. But let's talk about arsenic for a moment. It was wildly popular in the Middle Ages; everyone fell in love with the agony and romance of it all. Who knows why?"

I've never seen anyone so delighted by poison before and I really don't know what to make of it.

"The Borgias were the stars of arsenic poisoning," Rosé says from her seat next to Jimin. "It's said that arsenic improves the taste of wine, and the Borgias hosted a great number of dinner parties. Lucia Borgia carried the poison around in a secret compartment in her ring."