As Fifer and Dev struggled to survive at Ashguard’s palace, and as Thisbe and Rohan ran for their lives toward the forest, something incredibly sad and horrible yet tremendously important had just occurred. And it changed everything for Aaron. For his future. For his life… and for his death.

Ishibashi Junpei, grandfather, scientist immortal, had died. But in the midst of deepest, darkest sorrow, grief, and loss, Aaron could squint and barely see a tiny ray of light. Leading Ishibashi home.

The Revinir broke free from her ghost-dragon prison. The two traitors were out of sight in the forest, but she could smell them easily enough. It would only be a matter of time before she had them back in her grasp. The question now was what she would do to them. As the Revinir rose up above the trees to track them, her eyes narrowed in anger and her heart grew colder than ever before. She’d let Thisbe in, and the girl had cruelly turned on her. How dare she? The dragon-woman wouldn’t make that mistake again.

As Thisbe and Rohan stumbled through the forest, fleeing for their lives, a faint, desperate whisper of a single word fought to bridge the distance and found its way to Thisbe’s ear. But then a furious roar from the Revinir revealed that she was closing in, and the word was gone on the wind.

Water.

Acknowledgments

I want to thank Brian Luster, the copy editor of so many Unwanteds books. If anyone knows my books better than me, it’s you. You save me from embarrassment by suggesting I should change gristly to grisly (good call). You fix my comma issues time after time after time. (Or is that time, after time, after time?) We have a strange relationship—we’ve never met, and we don’t communicate directly. But I’ve come to rely on you. And I’m really grateful that you’ve stuck with this series all these years. Just one more book to go! I don’t know if you’ll miss these characters, but they’ll definitely miss you. An extra-large thank you to all the others who make my manuscripts shine. In the publishing world, authors don’t often meet the people who make our books better, and we hardly know just how many hands touch these words to help tell the best story we can. I’m so grateful for all of you.

Thanks to Liesa Abrams at Aladdin, who guides the ever-growing big picture of these books. This penultimate book felt especially daring to me, and your support gave me the confidence to go for it. And thanks to the entire team at Aladdin, from editorial and education to sales, art and design to publicity and marketing. Special thanks to my publicist, Lauren Carr, for making everything easier, especially around tour time.