I made it through without a lapse, grinning to myself when I did, and then his hand again swept in to play the climbing and falling section.

After that, the both of us played, each of us carrying a half all the way to the point where the end of the song came to mirror its beginning.

And then, when we were done, as we always did, we began anew.

Acknowledgments

Over the course of several years, this book has transformed many times and each version, each draft, revealed more and more to me regarding the story I truly wanted to tell. This is that story. As a result of this journey, which has brought incredible rewards—not the least being that I get to share this book with the world—I have many people to thank.

An enormous and heartfelt thank-you goes first to my incredible agent, Janna Bonikowski, who worked tirelessly to help me refine this book and also to find the perfect home for it. Janna, I want to thank you for believing—in me as well as this story. Your guidance, dedication, passion, and tenacity paved the way for this project to become a reality. I am immensely grateful for all you have done and, as well, to have you in my corner.

Additionally, it has been my great honor to collaborate and conspire with my incredibly talented editor, Dana Leydig. Dana, your leadership, thoughtful input, ideas, and love for this story have helped to shape it into all I have ever hoped it would be. Your direction, dedication, intuition, and expertise enabled me to polish (and, at times, reign in) an ambitious retelling. Thank you for encouraging me to dig deeper and also to chip away and let go of the things that didn’t belong. You heard the music of this story so clearly, and it now sings because of you.

On that note (yes, all my puns are intended), I would like to thank my incredible team at Viking for their talent, time, and attention. Books always bear their author’s name on the cover, but each page within bears the invisible yet invaluable influence of those working behind the scenes. I am deeply appreciative to you all for working so hard to usher this dream of mine into the realm of tangible reality. Thank you to my copyeditors, my authenticity readers, my design team, and to all who have lent their minds and magic to push Phantom Heart toward success and to deliver it to the hands of readers. For your input, thoughts, time, and artistry, I am profoundly grateful.

When I began writing this book, Stephanie’s voice came quick, easy, and fast. Zedok, on the other hand, lurked onto the page in a far more mercurial and amorphous way. My dear friend Katie McGarry was the first to agree with me regarding his potential. What was more, she did so with an enthusiasm that fed my own. I am indebted to you, Katie, for encouraging me to follow my phantom through his dark world, to seek after his voice, and investigate his past. In particular, thank you for your help in shaping THAT chapter. You know the one. The one that changed more times than Zedok has masks. And thank you also for believing in my monster. You were right about him. As always, you were right.