A Fate Forged in Fire is such an apt title for this book because so much of the journey to publishing seemed like fate. I owe everything to my wonderful agent, Ciara Finan, for changing my life with one email. Thank you for being just as unhinged over fictional men in white-blond lace fronts as I am. To my UK editor, Alexa—thank you for believing in this book just as much as I do and for putting up with me constantly talking about future books and bringing my focus back to this first one. Thanks to my US editor, Mae, who understood these characters from chapter one. Thank you for allowing Aemyra to shine exactly as she was supposed to. I am so blessed to be able to have such a fantastic team of women working with me on this book. Thank you to the wider teams at Dialogue and Dell—Christina, Saida, Emily, Taylor, Brianna, and Mille especially—I couldn’t have asked for a better home for this book. To Alessia for your invaluable insight and initial developmental edits—Adarian is forever yours. Huge appreciation to my foreign publishers and translators; you guys don’t get enough credit for how hard your job is! Dewi Hargreaves for taking my terrible sketches and making the map of my dreams. Lauren for going through and fixing my rudimentary Scottish Gaelic to really bring the language to life within the story.
I would also like to thank the baristas at Gianotten Mutsaers for fueling my writing with flat whites and croissants. To my mum who sat on a boulder on a freezing cold Scottish beach and listened to me explain the entire 100+ page worldbuilding document—you have always been my biggest cheerleader and I would never have ended up with this much delusional confidence if it weren’t for you. To my husband and dog, thank you for the forest walks that gave me a break from writing, even if I complained about the rain and the mud the entire time. My wonderful gran gets the credit for turning me into a bookworm; how I wish we could take one last trip to the library together. To the unhinged A03 community and specifically Aaliyah, who asked me to write about a sapphire, this book would not exist without you. To my friends named and unnamed (Dee, Nadine, Emily, Alex, Ri, Manda, Dana, Mimi) I appreciated every phone call, podcast-length voice note, and message. Last, a huge thank you to every person who has picked up this book and read it. I am so unbelievably grateful for the time you have taken to get to know my characters, and I truly hope this is only the beginning of the adventures we will take together.