Parting is such sweet sorrow. Or, you know, sometimes it just plain sucks.

To Noah, for being my own piece of eternity in a broken world. To Elena and Jonah, for bringing endless light and joy into my life. To my parents, for always believing in me. To my siblings, for being my friends down to their DNA. To my in-laws, all eleventy-billion of them, for loving and supporting me (especially when that support is babysitting). To my friends, who are many, for putting up with me both in real life and online.

To Natalie Whipple, who started this journey with me and without whom I never would have made it past the starting line. To Stephanie Perkins, who keeps me company in humorous insanity and understands everything, always, just the way I need her to. To everyone else who has read any of these books in any of their forms—especially Shannon Messenger and Scott Tracey, for racing me through an impossible draft—thank you. So, so very much.

To Michelle Wolfson, my fabulous, tiny, spitfire of an agent, for being my partner in all this and the engineer of my dreams. To Erica Sussman, my brilliant and insightful and ever adored editor, for choosing Evie. Heigh ho!

To my team of mild-mannered Superhero Alter Egos at HarperTeen: Christina Colangelo, Casey McIntyre, Tyler Infinger, Lauren Flower, Megan Sugrue, Alison Donalty, Michelle Taormina, Jessica Berg, and everyone else whose tireless efforts give Evie the prettiest covers and the best copyediting and marketing and publicity, and get her from my head to your bookshelf (or e-reader, I’m not picky).

To Evie for being a bright voice in my head, even through dark times. To all the music that helped me slip into that voice, as always Snow Patrol but especially Florence + the Machine, whose haunting weaving of fantasy into music fed this entire book. To dreams and stories and wonder, and all the writers and musicians and artists who have fed my inner dreamer through the years.

To you, my readers, without whom none of this would matter. Thank you for embracing Evie in all her pink-loving exuberance. Thank you for reading. I bleeping love all of you.

The end.