Glorious Rivals(102)

The end. For the first time, Lyra wondered if her father had killed himself to prevent someone else from doing the job for him. A woman in black. The Omega. The end. The Hand.

A Hawthorne did this.

Lyra thought about a woman, calling her a poor thing. You should not be here. But who is to say that you were?

“What about the third?” Lyra said. “The Monoceros.” The Omega—the Hand—had been hiding her from someone, and Odette had already been clear: These women answered to no one.

Again, Lyra’s question received no reply, and again, Grayson filled in the blanks. “Monoceros,” he said. “It’s a mythical creature and a constellation and, it seems, the Judge.” He looked back down to the chips. “Calla Thorp. Alice Hawthorne. Who’s the third?”

“If I knew that,” Odette replied, “I suspect that I would not have received a warning all those years ago.”

“A warning,” Lyra repeated. “A calla lily.” She glanced at Grayson.

“What does it mean,” he said, “if there are hundreds of them? Calla lilies.”

This time, Odette’s silence was not measured in seconds. Neither Lyra nor Grayson moved. Neither said a word.

“It means…” Odette reached for her pin and used it to fix her long hair back once more. “That something very big is about to happen.”

Epilogue

AVERY

I woke up in a white room. White ceiling. White floors. White walls. The room had no windows. It had no doors. My first thought was of Jameson.

My second was of Alice.

And my third was that the white room wasn’t just white. Etched into every surface, there were indentions—twisting, turning lines that connected just so.

It took me longer than it should have to realize what I was looking at. This room had no windows. It had no doors. And built into the walls and ceiling and floor, there was a very complicated maze.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am beyond grateful to the incredible team who helped me bring this story to life and to the readers who have given me the opportunity to dream （and plot） big as the Inheritance Games saga comes rushing toward its finale.

Thank you to my editor, Lisa Yoskowitz （to whom this book was dedicated）。 Lisa, working with you is such a joy at every stage of the process. Thank you for your insights, your support, and your passion for these books. They mean the world to me.

Thank you, Elizabeth Harding, for being my agent of more than twenty （twenty!） years now. With every new book, I think back on all the others and about how very grateful I am to have had you in my corner with each and every one.

I know I say this in one form or another with every book, but I feel like the luckiest author in the world to work with the incredible team at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, led by Megan Tingley and Jackie Engel. I cannot imagine a more passionate, creative, and effective team or express how much I truly enjoy working with you all. Thank you, art director Karina Granda and artist Katt Phatt, for another incredible cover. Thank you, Danielle Cantarella, Leah CollinsLipsett, Rachel Nuzman, Allie Stewart, Katie Tucker, and the rest of the sales team, for your yearslong efforts to bring new readers to the Inheritance Games saga. Thank you, Marisa Finkelstein, Andy Ball, Jen Graham, JoAnna Kremer, Mary McCue, Marissa Baker, Kimberly Stella, Becky Munich, Jess Mercado, Victoria Stapleton, Christie Michel, Orlane Dubreus, Margaret Hansen, Erin Slonaker, Jody Corbett, Su Wu, Janelle DeLuise, Hannah Koerner, and everyone else who had a hand in bringing this book into the world and getting it into the hands of readers.

Special thanks to Alex Houdeshell, whose editorial feedback on the first draft of this book was incredibly helpful in nailing down what I wanted Glorious Rivals to be; to Savannah Kennelly for all things social media （including cards, reveals, and riddles!）; to Kelly Moran for （among many other things） helping The Grandest Game to become a Good Morning America Book Club pick; and to Bill Grace and Emilie Polster for working your marketing magic! I cannot tell you how much I enjoy working with you all. It is truly a dream.

While I was writing this book, I was lucky enough to be able to visit the United Kingdom and spend some time with my publishing team at Penguin Random House UK. It was so lovely to meet you all, and I am grateful to all of you for your work on these books as well. Special thanks to Anthea Townsend and Sarah Doyle for taking such good care of me while I was there, as well as to Michelle Nathan, Charis Lowe-White, Harriet Venn, and everyone else who has worked on this book!

At last count, the Inheritance Games books have been translated into more than thirty languages. I am so grateful for the support of my publishers around the world—for the beautiful editions you have published, for the innovative ways you’ve found of bringing readers to the series, and for your enthusiasm for the world and characters in these books. I very much wish my life allowed for more travel right now, because I would very much love to visit you all and to meet my readers around the world. A huge thank-you also goes out to all the translators who work tirelessly （and creatively!） to translate the puzzles, riddles, and codes into their respective languages. Every time I think I’ve written puzzles that won’t be too diabolically hard to translate, I realize that actually, this puzzle—and maybe that one—are a little bit fiendish. Thank you for playing this grand game alongside me!

I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to my entire team at Curtis Brown! Thank you, Holly Frederick, for continuing to be such an advocate in film/TV; Karin Schulze, for helping me bring these books to readers around the world; and to everyone who has been helping me stay on top of all that goes into the business side of things, especially Jahlila Stamp, Eliza Leung, and Alexandra Franklin.