I give her a shameless smile. “Which one won’t earn me a slap in the face?”
“I’m just trying to gauge whether or not you’re planning on stealing it.” She runs a slender finger over the stone. “You are a pirate, after all.”
“True,” I say. “But then, so are you.”
Lira looks down at her outfit. The navy pants that puff out at the thighs and the knee-high brown boots with enough gold on the buckles to buy a kingdom. She laughs, and the ruby glows against her bust. Salt and magic.
She pulls me closer to her, her fingers held tight over mine, and together we dive.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
YOU’VE MADE IT TO the end! Thank you for reading Lira and Elian’s story and then turning the page to find out a little bit more about mine （unless you’ve skipped straight here without reading. In which case, spoiler alert: everyone dies）。
This book became a real thing outside of my imagination because of a bunch of amazing people, and so I’ll try my best to make sure they all know just how great they are.
To my parents, who never once told me to stop dreaming. For being hilarious and weird and not just great folks, but also really great friends. Mum, thanks for ringing me every day to check that I’m still alive and for being someone I can talk to about absolutely anything （but not for always picking out the exact wrong paint. Every. Time）。 Dad, thanks for always being the smile in the room and fixing any problem I have, no matter what it is （but not for thinking you can Artex）。
To the rest of my family （and, man, there’s a lot of you） for being a constant source of encouragement and wackiness. And to Nick, especially, because I promised I’d name a character after you that one time and then I totally didn’t.
To my friends, who are the most uplifting bunch in the world. Jasprit and Rashika, you two are the best kind of people – the ones I couldn’t do without and can’t remember not knowing. Thank you for supporting me in everything I do, being endlessly on my wavelength, and making me laugh more than I ever have. And to Siiri, for being a burst of positivity and one of the first true friends I made in the blogging world （and for being someone I can gush to about K-dramas whenever I’m procrastinating. Which is always）。
To Charles and Alan, two of the most bizarre and talented creative writing professors. You guys made me forget everything I thought I knew about writing and learn all the fun stuff instead.
To the folks at Feiwel & Friends for being the dream team and giving me the most amazing cover! And to Anna, for helping me to iron out the kinks and tell the story that needed to be told, and for making me feel right at home in this whole process.
To the team at Hot Key Books, for being such an awesome, passionate crew to work with and for helping this book find its way to the UK. Now everyone at home can believe me when I tell them I really do have a book out!
To my agent, Emmanuelle, whose love and excitement for this book kept mine from ever wavering. Thank you for championing Lira and Elian so much and for seeing potential in their story. And in me. And to Whitney, for making sure that Lira and Elian truly got to travel the world!
Lastly, to the readers, all of you, for continuing to inspire and throw yourselves into new stories each day. For believing in magic and wonder, both in the real world and the not-so-real worlds.
Thank you for choosing a Hot Key book.
If you want to know more about our authors and what we publish, you can find us online.
You can start at our website
www.hotkeybooks.com
And you can also find us on:
We hope to see you soon!