Loving everyone means you can’t love just one.

“I’m not supposed to,” I finally say. “I’m not supposed to get too close to the ones I’m protecting. Or anyone else. It would get too . . . complicated.”

“Oh,” he says again. He takes a step backward. “I didn’t even—I didn’t know I was going to do that.”

I smile. “So it was a surprise to both of us.”

He smiles back. Grateful that I broke the tension. “Yeah.”

We’re quiet for a minute.

“Well,” he says. “I should go. I just wanted to thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

He turns. His steps crackle in the leaves. “See you around.”

“See you.”

I watch him walk away. Around the house, back down the drive. I hear his car start. The sound of the engine drones and fades away into the woods.

I make one last check of the circle of stones, ringing Aunt Mae’s house with protection. The circle is unbroken. Moss grows around the white rocks, soft and green. Here and there are tiny, starry flowers.

I slide my arms through the straps of the backpack. My father is down the river, a few days’ ride away. I’ll find him, or I’ll find the next one who needs me. There’s more to do. Always.

I climb onto the old blue bike.

And I’m gone.

Acknowledgments

Last Things and I owe huge thanks to:

Universal Music Center of Red Wing, Minnesota, including founder Mike Arturi, instructor Mark Woerpel, and all the guitar students who let me lurk around their lessons and ask a thousand questions.

Phil Hansen, librarian/guitarist/metalhead/all-around awesome person, for giving this book an early and careful read.

My critique group: Anne Greenwood Brown, Lauren Peck, Connie Kingrey Anderson, Li Boyd, and Heather Anastasiu, for just the right mix of encouragement and evisceration.

My brother Dan, for being my go-to source for answers to odd medical questions.

The amazing Danielle Chiotti and the rest of the team at Upstart Crow Literary, for supporting this book from the very start.

My editor, Martha Mihalick, and everyone at Greenwillow, especially Lois Adams, Anne Dunn, Virginia Duncan, Bess Braswell, Audrey Diestelkamp, Gina Rizzo, and Haley George. This book and I are so unbelievably lucky to have you on our side.

Leo Nickolls and Paul Zakris, for this gorgeous cover.

A whole lot of bands: Opeth, In Flames, Trivium, DragonForce (Anders plays an Ibanez because of Herman Li), Chelsea Wolfe, Killswitch Engage, Mastodon, Type O Negative, Tool, Alaya, and Source. In my daydreams, Last Things sounds like a mixture of all of you.

My family, for the endless support and for all the babysitting.

And to Ryan—who, like this book, is all of my favorite things in one place.

About the Author

JACQUELINE WEST is the author of the award-winning and New York Times–bestselling middle grade series The Books of Elsewhere, as well as the middle grade fantasy The Collectors, and the teen novel Dreamers Often Lie. Her poetry has garnered honors, including two Pushcart nominations and a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prize. An occasional actress and sometime musician, she lives in Red Wing, Minnesota, with her husband, son, and dog.