Pennyroyal Academy (23 page)

Rumpledshirtsleeves stood with Hazelbranch, waving farewells. Evie smiled and waved back as the coach began its descent down the hill. The sun painted the trees at the border of the Dortchen Wild a deep orange. Evie was quite sure she had never seen that particular shade ever before.

As the horse team pulled the coach through the wall and into the trees, she reached into her dress and pulled out the dragon scale. She pried her father's portrait from the concave side and ran a finger, scarred smooth by a witch's brew, across his laughing face. She kissed the rough hatching of the canvas, then kissed the coarse ridges of the scale itself. With a smile, she slipped the portrait back inside the scale and let them both fall gently over her heart.

S
O MUCH GRATITUDE:

To Mom for taking me to the library.

To Dad for taking me to the movies.

To Brooks for taking me everywhere else.

To Anthony Minghella for giving me an ideal to strive for.

To Yvonne Millar, an excellent psychologist, for helping me with the adolescent mind.

To my exceptional editor, Jennifer Besser, and everyone at G. P. Putnam's Sons.

To Rowan Stocks-Moore for the stunning cover art, and to Ian Wasseluk for many hours spent plotting this world on a map.

To my wonderful literary agent, Alexandra Machinist, and to Mark James for helping me find her.

To my wise and incredibly tasteful film agent, Sally Willcox, and to Bryan Lourd for helping me find her.

To Reese Witherspoon and Bruna Papandrea for being fierce and passionate and the perfect match for this book.

To Kimberly Jaime and Deborah Klein for navigating me through treacherous legal seas.

To Dr. Allan Thexton, a limitless resource for information on castles and medieval arcana and pretty much everything else.

To Tracey Becker, Denise Stewart, Kim Ohanneson, Gemini Adams, Robert Braudt, and the Ron Book Team, the earliest readers.

To all the assistants and editors whom I have not yet met who helped along the way.

And to Lilah, who I hope will approach the world the same way as Evie: with wonder, with strength, and with the knowledge that she is never alone.