Pia turns away from the sunset to look at me, and I look back, unflinching. I see myself reflected in her goggles, the new scar a black slash down the side of my face.
“I’m sorry, Julia,” she says, and her voice is soft, as I’ve never heard it before.
But my own voice is like a knife when I answer her: “Don’t be.”
No more trying to hold on to the girl I hoped I was. I’m finished with the business of atonement. I’m coming for you, Dek, and I am bringing the whirlwind with me.
Sitting down to write this makes me feel lucky, just like sitting down to write every morning makes me feel lucky. It takes a little book-loving army to turn a story into a book that works and isn’t riddled with errors and inconsistencies, to make it look beautiful and enticing (and readable!), to get it out into the world and try to persuade readers to give it a try. I know just how tremendously lucky I am to be working with such kind, brilliant, dedicated people. Thank you a million times over to my agent, Steve Malk; to my editor, Nancy Siscoe; to Amy Black in Canada; and to everyone at Knopf and Doubleday Books for giving Julia a home and taking such good care of her. I am beyond grateful.
Thank you also to my generous and insightful beta readers—Dana Alison Levy, Kip Wilson Rechea, and Samantha Cohoe. I owe you all the chocolate in the world.
I dread to imagine where my stories and I would be without my band of stalwarts. Thank you to my beloved brothers; my inspiring grandmother; the people who didn’t start out as family but became so—Jon, Giles, Mick; and my parents, who gave me calm waters, a blank map, and bright horizons to start off with, and built my heart into an unsinkable ship fit for the stormiest seas.
CATHERINE EGAN grew up in Vancouver, Canada. Since then, she has lived on a volcanic island in Japan (which erupted while she was there and sent her hurtling straight into the arms of her now husband), in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Beijing, on an oil rig in the middle of Bohai Bay, then in New Jersey, and now in New Haven, Connecticut.
She is currently occupied with writing books and fighting dragon armies with her warrior children. You can read more about her at catherineegan.com and follow her on Twitter at @ByCatherineEgan.
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Julia Defiant Page 33
