But Lazlo was not a prince. He was a god. And this was not a game to him.
He nodded to Minya, and the space where his legend was gathering up words grew larger.
Because this story was not over yet.
TO BE CONTINUED
Acknowledgments It’s thank-you time!
First: Jane. To my amazing agent, Jane Putch, for getting me through this year: Thank you. Remember that night in Pittsburgh when I had a second cocktail and told you the whole plot of the book? Your enthusiasm was like fuel, then and on so many occasions before and since. You are truly an incredible partner.
To the teams at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and Hodder & Stoughton, who didn’t bat an eye when this supposed stand-alone mutated into a duology, and changed main character and title. Um, yeah. Thanks for being cool with all that! And thank you for doing what you do so brilliantly, from beginning to end.
To Tone Almhjell and Torbj?rn Amundsen for several rounds of crucial feedback—including the all-important thumbs-up at the end, when I’d lost all context. Thank you so much. Tone, we’re going to figure out an easier way to do this book-writing thing, right? Any day now?
To Alexandra Saperstein for unwavering excitement and support. Tag! Your turn to finish a book next! (Also: adventure. Remember: A woman should have squint lines from looking at France, not just from writing in dim light. . . .) A couple of folks let me steal their cool names. Thank you, Shveta Thakrar, for the use of thakrar for my fictional term, and an even bigger thanks to Moonrascal Drave, whose name I put to a less noble use. Even on my final proof pass I was wondering if I should change my explosionist’s name because I felt terrible using Drave for such a creepy character! Please know that the real Drave is a cool guy and great friend to SFF. (Bonus points if you know the other recent SFF book in which his name appears.) Thank you to my parents, always and forever.
And most of all, to Jim and Clementine, my people. For fun and adventure and normalcy and silliness and sanity and coziness and constancy and book time and superheroes and creativity and inspiration and lazy days and crazy days and castles and cake and cats and dreams and toys and plays and home and so much love. You are everything to me.