Ridley felt pretty good, for someone with a banged-up heart and a bounty on her head. Her ring tapped against the side of the car, but she couldn’t see if it was glowing, and right now she didn’t care.
Which was also the reason she didn’t see the truck coming right at them.
Sugarplum—
People said the gas tank alone burned more than two stories high.
Hot Rod, don’t you leave me—
The back of the Beater? Smashed like a dropped accordion.
Stairs. Flames. The sky.
“Stairway to Heaven” kept playing right up until the radio caught fire.
To be continued…
Acknowledgments
SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE WORKED together to bring our readers the continuing adventures of Link and Ridley and the Caster world in the Dangerous Creatures novels. The last six months have been nothing short of miraculous.
Our agents, Sarah Burnes (and everyone at the Gernert Company, on behalf of Margie) and Jodi Reamer (and everyone at Writers House, on behalf of Kami), have collaborated, as always, with grace and general awesomeness.
Our editors, Kate Sullivan (for Margie) and Erin Stein (for Kami), as well as our former editor, Julie Scheina, have been not just patient and brilliant but passionately #TeamLinkAndRidley from the start.
The publishing, sales, editorial, marketing, publicity, school and library services, art direction, and copyediting groups at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers have continued to work tirelessly on behalf of Casters everywhere.
The teachers, librarians, booksellers, bloggers, journalists, tumblr-ers, tweethearts, Facebook followers, cousins, aunts, uncles, friends, writer friends, YALLFestians, and most of all DEAR READERS (NOTE: THIS IS YOU) who make up the larger Caster world have become the GREATEST FANDOM OF ALL HUMAN HISTORY.
We offer up a giant, Wesley Lincoln–sized thank-you to all of you.
But most especially, we want to thank our families. You, darlings, are the collective loves of our respective lives. You Charm us every day.
Lewis, Emma, May & Kate, and Alex, Nick & Stella, we’ll save you the biggest cherry lollipops of them all.
XO,
Margie & Kami