The Queen's Assassin Page 31

  All is serene as usual in the palace; a cat meows somewhere outside; feathers rustle in the dovecote. A horse whinnies softly in the stables. The kitchen maids throw old dishwater into the garden sluice and refill their pails at the well for tomorrow’s washing.

  Lilac’s thoughts wander to Cal, as they often do in moments like this. She wonders where he is. Whether he’ll ever return. Whether she’ll ever see him again. Most likely she will, but only as a servant to the throne. He is still the Queen’s Assassin, and she is his queen.

  She opens the book and carries it with her toward the bed. She’s looking forward to falling asleep with the fairy tales of Omin of Oylahn and Queen Alphonia. She, too, needs distractions.

  Lilac is almost asleep when she hears a soft knock.

  It is coming from the small door, the one that leads to the room next to her bedchamber.

  Another knock, a little louder this time.

  Her heart seizes. She can barely breathe. But hope springs to her chest before she can stop it.

  She thinks back to her last moments with Cal, her desperate request of him.

  You can come back, to be by my side . . . You will not be my husband, but I will be yours forever.

  Lilac runs to open the door, her heart beating wildly in her chest, filled with fear and hope and love.

  There it is again. A knock from the little room just off her bedchamber, the one that will be known in history as the Queen’s Secret.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  THANK YOU TO ALL MY amazing editors and queens: Jen Besser, who believed in the story, Kate Meltzer, who helped shape and guide it, and Ari Lewin, who polished it to perfection. Thank you to Anne Heausler, who has copyedited all my Penguin books and keeps my mistakes off the finished work. Thank you to the queens of Penguin: Jen Loja and Jen Klonsky. Thank you to PR queen Elyse Marshall, who keeps my books in the press and my tours always fun! Thank you to my marketing and sales queens: Emily Romero, Erin Berger, and Felicia Frazer.

  Thank you always to my assassins: Richard Abate and Rachel Kim, my 3Arts family. Thank you to Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Eddie Gamarra, my Gotham Group family.

  Thank you to my Spilled Ink family.

  Thank you to my DLC and Johnston families, my family of friends, and my family-family. Mike and Mattie, everything is for you.

  Thank you to my family of readers.

  I love you all. Thank you so much.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Melissa de la Cruz is the #1 New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and Publishers Weekly internationally bestselling author of many critically acclaimed books for readers of all ages, including the Alex & Eliza trilogy, Disney's Descendants novels, the Blue Bloods series, and the Summer on East End series. Her books have sold over eight million copies, and the Witches of East End series became an hour-long television drama on the Lifetime network. Visit her at melissa-delacruz.com

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