At Logan Airport, a landing aircraft completely missed the runway and careened toward the bay. Air traffic control shouted to an unresponsive pilot before turning its attention to the radio reports of other planes dropping out of the sky across the globe.
In a very stuffy school office, Matthew Lynch put a hand to his burning-hot cheek.
“Are you all right, honey?” asked the school secretary.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered, and then he fell fast asleep.
In Declan Lynch’s apartment, Declan Lynch watched in astonishment as Lock stopped speaking midsentence and fell to his knees, followed by two of the other Moderators. In the shock, he leapt for the gun beneath the table. Ripping it from its place, he pointed it at one of the three remaining Moderators.
“What’s going on here?” Declan demanded.
But the others, too, swayed against each other. They were asleep before he got his answer.
Their sleep was the answer.
In a Connecticut picnic area, Bryde sat up, shaking leaves off his body and memory-cobwebs from his mind. He reached into the pocket of his gray jacket and looked at the sweetmetal he had stolen off Lock weeks and weeks before. It was not very strong, but it was enough. For now.
He looked then to Ronan Lynch, who still slept, leaves across his face.
“Wake up,” he said, but Ronan did not.
On the sidewalk in front of Declan’s apartment, Jordan stood with her head tilted back, listening to sirens wailing. In front of her, a bird plummeted thoughtlessly to the sidewalk with a surprisingly quiet flomp. She crouched beside it. It was a beautiful little thing, jeweled and impossible. She touched its chest softly. It was not dead. It was fast asleep.
Her heart was beating very, very fast.
She could feel the ley line sucking away from her. Away from everything. It was like feeling the air leaving a room. It was like that day all those weeks ago when Hennessy had dreamt an entire ocean into the room and she’d suddenly found herself inhabiting a world that wasn’t meant to support her. One couldn’t argue with an ocean. Either you had an oxygen tank or you didn’t.
At the end of the sidewalk, the door to the apartment building burst open. Declan stood in it, his jacket half-pulled on, his keys dangling in his hand. She didn’t need to be told that he had been coming to look for her. She could see it in his body language, in his face.
“Jordan,” he said. “You’re—”
She could see another bird falling from the sky, a larger one, at the end of the street. It set off the car alarm when it hit the windshield.
With wonder, she said to Declan, “I’m awake.”
She was very, very awake.
It really was a nice day.
END OF BOOK TWO
David: you accompanied me as I painstakingly planned the perfect heist over a series of months and then scrapped it for a completely different one with eighteen fewer steps. This is a metaphor. Thank you for the metaphor.
Sarah: you patiently held the canvas as I threw paint at it, splattering you, the walls, the floor, the ceiling, bystanders. You always just sighed and handed me another tube of paint when I ran out. This is a metaphor. Thank you for the metaphor.
Ed: you’re my sweetmetal, baby. This is a metaphor. Thank you for the metaphor.
MAGGIE STIEFVATER is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels Shiver, Linger, Forever, and Sinner. Her novel The Scorpio Races was named a Michael L. Printz Honor Book by the American Library Association. The first book in The Raven Cycle, The Raven Boys, was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and the second book, The Dream Thieves, was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. The third book, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, received five starred reviews. The final book, The Raven King, received four. She is also the author of All the Crooked Saints and Call Down the Hawk. An artist and a musician, she lives in Virginia with her husband and their two children. You can visit her online at maggiestiefvater.com.
Also by Maggie Stiefvater
The Dreamer Trilogy
Call Down the Hawk
The Raven Cycle
The Raven Boys
The Dream Thieves
Blue Lily, Lily Blue
The Raven King
The Wolves of Mercy Falls
Shiver
Linger
Forever
Sinner
All the Crooked Saints
The Scorpio Races
Copyright © 2021 by Maggie Stiefvater
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
First edition, May 2021
Cover art © 2021 by Matt Griffin
Cover design by Christopher Stengel
e-ISBN 978-1-338-18838-7
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