Thank you to the many people who gave me a kind word or a bit of necessary advice, and who I am going to kick myself for not including right here.
A massive thank-you to everyone at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for returning to Elfhame with me. Thanks especially to my amazing editor, Alvina Ling, and to Ruqayyah Daud, who provided invaluable insight. Thank you to Crystal Castro for dealing with all my delays. Thank you as well to Marisa Finkelstein, Kimberly Stella, Emilie Polster, Savannah Kennelly, Bill Grace, Karina Granda, Cassie Malmo, Megan Tingley, Jackie Engel, Shawn Foster, Danielle Cantarella, and Victoria Stapleton, among others.
In the UK, thank you to Hot Key Books, particularly Jane Harris, Emma Matthewson, and Amber Ivatt.
Thank you to my publishers and editors all over the world—those who I have had the pleasure of meeting in the past year and those I have not. And thank you to Heather Baror for keeping everyone on the same page.
Thank you to Joanna Volpe, Jordan Hill, and Lindsay Howard, who read versions of this book as well and kept me feeling as though I was on the right track. And thank you to everyone at New Leaf Literary for making hard things easier.
Thank you to Kathleen Jennings, for the wonderful and evocative illustrations.
And thank you, always and forever, to Theo and Sebastian Black, for keeping my heart safe.