The Demon's Covenant

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Someone very wise once told me the second book is harder than the first: If the last one took a village, this took a city. But luckily I had a wonderful city to hand, and to thank!

Thanks to Kristin Nelson, agent extraordinaire, and the whole fabulous team at the NLA.

Thanks to Karen Wojtyla, otherwise known as the mistress of my soul, who, ably supported by Emily Fabre, stopped me babbling and using Terrible Romantic Clichés. Thanks to my UK editor, Venetia Gosling, who quite agreed with her, and my copy editor, Valerie Shea, who agreed with both of them!

Thanks to Simon & Schuster in their entirety, both in the US and in the UK, and to all my lovely foreign publishers as well. Your amazing support of the first book means that I trust you all absolutely with this one!

Thanks to Nicole Russo and Anna McKean, for organizing the best US tour ever, and Scott Westerfeld for making every day of it fun. And to Kathryn McKenna for going around England with me, and the whole publicity team at S&S UK! Thanks to all the librarians and booksellers I met and have yet to meet—it’s an honor and a privilege!

Thanks to Saundra Mitchell, who read the second draft and told me I would get there, and to Justine Larbalestier, who read the fourth draft and told me I had.

To Team Castle: Ally Carter, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Sarah Cross, Carrie Ryan, Diana Peterfreund, Robin Wasserman, Maureen Johnson, Holly Black, and Cassandra Clare, in memory of kittens, murders, and snickerdoodles.

To the S Club, Susan and Sinéad, due to much writing and more cupcakes.

To the Clique, who know who they are and keep me sane(ish).

To my friends and family, who showed up at events, cheered me on, and (shockingly) still answer the phone when I call, despite suffering through all that.

Thanks to Natasha, who never stops believing, and Jenny, who wishes we both would.

And thank you so much to the fans of The Demon’s Lexicon, whose response to the book has awed and delighted me. The emails, the art, getting to meet and talk to you guys—I would still write if nobody read the books, but you all make it ten times more fun.