“Hearing you say it…every time…there’s nothing in the world like it.” He lifted his face back to mine, showing me that familiar devious smile.
“What?” I asked.
Zach brushed his hand across the freckles on my cheek, revealing the faded Mark of Myriana from under his shirt cuffs. “I want you as my partner. For love this time, as my wife. Forever.”
I want you as my partner. The same words I’d used that morning, after I’d seen him fight for the first time, after realizing that our Kiss could change the world. I had been right about that. In a way.
I leaned in for another kiss, echoing his reply from years ago, “I thought that had already been decided.”
Acknowledgments
I’ll never forget the words of my critique partner, and one of my favorite people in the whole world, Melissa Jackson, when I told her the concept of this book and she responded with: “So they’re like…making out on a battlefield?”
As crazy as this idea is, and as impossible as it was to describe without cracking up, Melissa didn’t try to dissuade me from it. Instead, she was its golden champion. Thank you, Mel, for reading it, editing it, obsessing over it with me, and being a pillar of support while I dissolved into tears and incoherent text messages throughout my book journey.
Thank you to Judi Weiss for finding my tiny #pitmad tweet among literally thousands of amazing pitches and believing in it. I can never thank you enough. And of course, to my brilliant and sweetheart of an editor, Lydia Sharp, whose never-ending patience, dedication, and expertise helped make this book something I could be proud of. All of the hugs and cupcakes in the world couldn’t express how grateful I am to you.
To everyone at Entangled Teen, y’all are rock stars and deserve to rule the world.
A special thanks to Vicki L. Weavil for her ongoing encouragement and feedback. Your prose is so gorgeous I could cry sometimes. Thank you for the introduction to my agent, Frances Black, at Literary Counsel. You are both spectacular women.
A huge shout-out goes to my local critique group made up of some of Baton Rouge’s greatest writers. Season, Russell, Nick, Lee, Bridget, Andy, and Sean—because of y’all I can look forward to Mondays. Paula, thank you for spending every Sunday editing with me, while watching me consume a hundred green tea frapps and listening to me freak out over the latest round of edits.
To my darling Meaghan Mulligan, with whom I spent hours walking up and down the aisles of Barnes & Noble only the second time we met because we could not stop talking about YA books—you are a perfect, wonderful, precious treasure. You somehow knew this book would be published way before I did.
To all of the book bloggers, internet/twitter friends, beta readers, critique partners, author mentors—every single lesson I learned and step I took in my writing and publication journey can be traced back to you. I speak for debut authors everywhere when I say that we couldn’t do this without your sharing, tweeting, teachings, and support. The writing community is truly magical.
I owe one of my oldest and most precious friends in the world, Bridget Clark, a debt I can never hope to repay for being my first writing partner and making me realize that this was my true passion.
Jason, my big brother, thank you for starting me on the road to becoming one of the biggest geeks on the planet. Watching cartoons, reading graphic novels, and playing video games with you since childhood has cultivated and inspired the imagination I have today.
Finally, how can I begin to thank the two people in my life who pushed me day after day, rejection after rejection, to pursue my dream no matter what? Thank you, Mom and Dad, for everything you’ve ever done and everything you will continue to do even after I told you stop like a million times.
And to Mim and Pap, you both are the reason I know True Love exists.