By the time Zofi looked up to see the fire dying, she realized she’d accumulated as big an audience as her mother normally would. This time, though, Mother knelt with the crowd at Zofi’s feet, a broad smile on her face as she watched her daughter lead.

That night, well after Essex set, when they finally called it a night, Mother stopped Zofi on her way to her new tent, the one Akeylah had given her.

“I’m proud of you,” Mother said.

“For what?” Zofi asked, joking. “I didn’t play my cards right; I didn’t win the throne.”

“No,” Mother admitted. “You didn’t win. You did something better.” She squeezed Zofi’s shoulder. “You changed the whole game.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Readers: If you made it this far, thank you for sticking with Akeylah, Ren, and Zofi to the end of their journeys. Watching so many of you venture into the world of Rule and fall in love with these sisters has been an absolute dream come true. As a friend said, “It’s like all these readers have visited the inside of your brain now.” I hope you enjoyed the trip, because I certainly loved sharing this story with you!

But it takes more than just one writer to bring a book (or two) to life. This series wouldn’t exist without my wonderful teams at Alloy and Little, Brown, and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to everyone at both companies.

Thank you to the Alloy crew: Annie Stone for this initial idea; Joelle Hobeika and Joshua Bank for championing it; Eliza Swift and Hayley Wagreich for keeping it moving; Sara Shandler for her assistance all along; Romy Golan for helping it reach foreign markets; and Viana Siniscalchi for expertly taking the helm of this project, and for talking me off the ledge when the sophomore book fears hit hard.

Thank you to everyone at Little, Brown: Hannah Milton for all of her tireless help in every area; Kristina Pisciotta for fielding one million and more publicity questions; everyone at NOVL for getting the word out about Rule; the LBYR marketing crew—Jennifer McClelland-Smith, Emilie Polster, and Valerie Wong—for making sure this series found its way into the hands of our readers; Annie McDonnell, Allie Singer, and Brandy Colbert for ensuring every word on the pages is right; Virginia Lawther for making Rise a beautiful final book; Marcie Lawrence for her fantastic cover art (I didn’t think she could top book one’s cover, but I love this one even more); Alvina Ling, Megan Tingley, and Jackie Engel for giving this duology the green light; and Pam Gruber for falling in love with Rule in the first place, as well as for her whip-smart edits that made Rise a (hopefully!) worthy follow-up.