Thank you also to everyone who helped copyedit or proofread this book. As it turns out, the more books you write set in the same fictional universe, the more there is to look out for, and I am grateful to Erin Slonaker, Jody Corbett, Su Wu, Marisa Finkelstein （again!）， and Lisa Yoskowitz （again!） for their attention to detail and helping me keep the whole Inheritance Games universe in order!
To my agent, Elizabeth Harding, thank you so much for guiding and championing my career for nearly twenty years now. Having you in my corner means the world to me! Thank you also to Sarah Perillo, who has sold foreign and translation rights into a mind-boggling thirty countries so far, and to Holly Frederick for her work toward bringing the Inheritance Games to the screen. Thanks also to the rest of my amazing team at Curtis Brown, including Eliza Johnson, Eliza Leung, Madeline Tavis, Jahlila Stamp, and Michaela Glover.
Thank you to Rachel Vincent, who sat across from me at Panera once a week while I was writing this book and got me through the highs and the lows that go along with the writing process. And thank you also, Rachel, for being willing to listen to ALL THE SECRETS about what’s to come in the world of the Inheritance Games and for being such a brilliant, supportive, amazing, and genuinely kind friend. I don’t know what I would do without you!
The Brothers Hawthorne was the first one I wrote from scratch after leaving my day job as a college professor, and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my family for helping me through that transition. To my boys, my parents, and my husband—thank you!