Thank you as always to Lexa and the Glasstown team, present and past, for believing in this story and making it come to life in my head and on the page. Lexa, you’ve been here since before “Once upon a time,” and here we are at “The End.” It’s been a wild ride, and I am so glad to have taken it. I am honored to have been trusted with this story, with these girls. I think we did it justice. Thank you.

Thank you to Brandie Coonis for your help and encouragement, to Maha Hussain for your hard work and creativity, and to Megan Gendell for making this book readable. Once again, I am sorry about all the commas. Thank you to the Inkwell folks for your thoughtfulness and input from the beginning to the end.

Thank you to Karen Chaplin for your eagle eye, to Rosemary Brosnan and everyone at Harper for caring as much about this story as I do, for taking my draft and nudging it into something that makes sense. Thank you to David Curtis—I can’t believe how beautiful this cover is. I don’t know how you managed to top Crier’s, but you did. Thank you to the marketing and publicity team for putting your weight behind this book about queer girls, I truly appreciate it.

And of course, thank you to the readers. I think the best part of the story is whatever the reader creates once they’ve closed the book—if someone cares enough about the story to start telling their own stories about it, in any form, that’s the best. A great many people did that with Crier’s War, and I am forever grateful. Yes, I am talking about your memes. And your incredible art, and fanfiction (I can’t read it, but I know it’s out there), and very cute “Currently Reading” threads, and headcanons and Iron Heart theories and all of it. I wrote Crier and Ayla’s story, but now it belongs to you, and you’re doing such wonderful things with it. Thank you for reading, thank you for caring. I hope this ending fits with whatever you needed it to be. I hope it made you feel hopeful. To the queer readers: I hope you feel loved. In this world, in every world, you are loved. By me and Crier and Ayla and the whole damn universe.

I love y’all. Thank you for supporting Crier, Ayla, and the rest from beginning to . . . well, not ending. Beginning to second beginning, I’d say. The happiest of beginnings.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for loving these girls like I do and beyond. I’ll wrap this up with what I said last time because it’s more important now than ever: I told you my story. Thank you so much for reading it. If you’ve been waiting for a sign to tell yours, this is it. Pretend we’re at a campfire—I’m scooting over to make room for you. I’m passing you a s’more and saying, “Welcome! We’ve been waiting for you! Whatever you have to say, whatever’s been collecting in your heart and the corners of your mind, the world is ready to listen. Let’s hear it!”