“They look so happy,” I whisper.
He stands a little closer to me. “What do you think will happen when Nick wakes up?”
He’s actually said Nick’s name, but I don’t comment on that fact. Instead, I tuck my hair into the collar of my coat. “He’ll be upset. He won’t remember Valhalla, so he won’t immediately realize the gravity of what I’ve done or why I’ve done it, you know? And I think I have to be okay with that-with the possibility that things might never be the same between us again-and just be grateful that he is here, alive.”
Astley, wisely, doesn’t answer. Instead, he takes my hand. I let him. There’s comfort there. He is, after all, my king. But more importantly, he is my friend.
“Someday, when we have time and life isn’t so dangerous-crazy, let’s just hang out, okay?” I stare up into his sad face. “Please… Maybe go sledding. I still haven’t done that.”
He clears his throat. “Anytime.”
I start to tug my hand away and then think better of it. My mother smiles at Issie in the kitchen. Nick stirs on the couch, beginning to wake up. I will have to go to him, tell him everything all over again, protect him as he has always protected everyone else.
“Odin said that I am the leader here, not Nick?” I ask. My stomach hardens. “Do you think he’s wrong?”
Astley’s fingers tighten around mine. “No, but we can pretend that Nick is the leader if it makes it easier on you.”
“If he’s not the leader, what is he?”
“A man. A warrior. Someone you and your friends love.”
Now they are all laughing inside, clanking their mugs and glasses together, toasting something… I don’t know what. My mother looks out the window again, and behind that smile is the look she has always had, the look I never recognized before-fear.
“We have to figure this out,” I say, turning away from the warmth in the house, turning away from the people I have left, and turning toward him, the pixie king with snow in his hair and sorrow in his eyes. “We have to figure out how to keep everyone safe, to stop the war.”
His grip tightens. “We will.”
Acknowledgments
Pixie kisses (the good kind) to Bruce Barnard, Lew Barnard, Betty Morse, Rena Morse, and Debbie Gelinas for being the best family and the goofiest family ever. Thank you for being made of awesome, Mom.
Thanks to Emily for making it a hard choice between Team Nick and Team Astley. You are amazing. Remember Heppy! I love you. You’re the best kid ever. And yes, I know how lucky I am.
Thanks to my own John Wayne. You are the only cowboy I could ever want and the best man in the universe. Thank you for giving me faith in how good men can be.
Thanks to Shaun Farrar for teaching me all about the beauty of chili cheese fries.
The magnificent Jennifer Osborn, Lori Bartlett, Melodye Shore, Kelly Fineman, Steven Wedel, Tami Lewis Brown, Devyn Burton, and Carrie Randall all earn a warrior’s place in Valhalla for giving me the confidence to keep writing. Special props go to Steve because he made me fall in love with writing all over again. And then again!
Thanks to Perry Moore for giving me the magical cowboy hat that allowed me to continue to write the series. Honestly, sometimes a writer just needs a magical cowboy hat to keep going.
Thanks to Marie Overlock for giving me the best surprise retro-kitty gift ever and for making me laugh when I’m being a big perfectionist goody-goody tool, and to Shaun Farrar, Amelie Bacon, Jim Willis, Ken Mitchell, Travis Frost, Lorraine Bracey, Leigh Guildford, Kevin Edgecomb, Lori Bartlett, Ryan Lawson, Jack Raymond, Debbie Hogan, Perry Moore, Alice Dow, Callie Cox, Matt Heel, Chad Campbell, Lori Bartlett, Dotty Vachon, Evelyn Foster, Bethany Reynolds, Stephanie Preble Vickburg, Bubba Duncan, Caroline Peters, Belinda Albee, Lea Feldman, Megan Kelley Hall, Rod O’Connor, Will Rice, Dale Jackson, and Karen Heaney. All of you have said something or done something that made this book into what it is and made me into what I am. You probably don’t know that though. Shh… Don’t tell.
To the women of the tollbooth and to Vermont College of Fine Arts: you all are the best, the best ever. Thank you for helping me to be a better writer. Special shout-outs to Tami Brown and Chris Maselli and The Awesome Emily Wing Smith, the Whirligigs, the PWs, and Tamra Wright and Robin MacCready.
There is no person I need to thank more than Edward Necarsulmer. This time it’s for being tireless, for letting me almost kill him on a road trip to the Outback, for wearing flannel, for being the best knight/agent a writer could ever want, and for actually being proud enough of me that he bragged to the waitress. You are golden. “Think of me as a place.” And to his awesome and amazing coworker/sidekick/human Christa Heschke, who is beyond wonderful.
Strong woman thanks to Michelle Nagler, who is an editor of awesome, for making this a book, a real book with a real structure, and for being delightful in real life. I am insanely jealous of your voice and yet I still adore you.
To the rest of the amazing, stunning, exceptional, and incredibly caring Bloomsbury U.S. crew-Deb Shapiro, Melanie Cecka, Caroline Abbey, Beth Eller, Kate Lied, Katie Fee, and the people I don’t actually get names for. You are all so incredible. Thank you for taking such good care of me and my books. I’m sorry if I sometimes make it hard. And thanks to the exceptionally awesome Bloomsbury UK staff as well. But most especially thanks to Deb for guarding my heart.
Special thanks to Nicole Gastonguay who makes covers that are so stunning that people pick up the books. You are an artist. I am in awe.
And thank you to all the people who read the books and love them enough to send me e-mails and message me on Facebook. You all make it worth it every single day.
Carrie Jones
