by Rachel Burge
THE END
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
F
irst and foremost, a heartfelt thank you to my writing mentor, Lee Weatherly. Incredibly generous with her time, Lee chatted over my various plot ideas (and was the one who came up with the circus setting!) as well as offering feedback on my early drafts. Thank you for always pushing me to go bigger and bolder.
I must also thank my dear friend Maddy Elruna, a gifted shaman and tarot reader who introduced me to the Norse gods. She has been a constant source of encouragement throughout my writing journey, as well as providing a valuable link to Odin.
A lot of people are involved in the making of a book and I’ve been blessed with a great team at Hot Key, especially my editor, Felicity Alexander, and Leo Nickolls, who did the stunning cover artwork. Not to mention one of the best agents in the business, the very wise and ever-patient Amber Caraveo of Skylark Literary.
I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to the many beta readers who read early versions of this story. Each one gave me amazingly useful feedback that helped to shape the book. There are too many to mention them all, but a particular thank you to Charlotte of Myth-Take Reads, and Gemma Scammell, tutor on the Young Adult Fiction course at Cardiff University, and student Emma Carr-Ferguson, for her impressively insightful comments.
I’ve also been lucky enough to have wonderful support from family and friends (a special shout-out to everyone in the village!), for which I’m endlessly grateful. No one has read more of my work than my mum, Leoni, who has the dubious honour of reading my very first drafts. Thank you for all your help over the years.
It genuinely means the world to me that readers enjoy my stories. I’m grateful to everyone who has taken the time to chat to me at events, contacted me via social media or left a kind review. Writing can be a frustrating and lonely business, and there have been times when your enthusiasm has given me the boost I needed to keep going – so thank you.
Last but not least, a big thank you to my son Alfie, for allowing me to share my love of Norse mythology with you and just for being you. I love you to infinity. I also don’t know where I’d be without my partner, Andy. Thank you for your unwavering belief in me, endless cups of tea, and for always knowing the right thing to say.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rachel Burge works as a freelance feature writer and has written for a variety of websites, including BBC Worldwide, Cosmo and MTV. She lives in East Sussex with her partner, son and black Labrador, Biff. She is fascinated by Norse myth and swears she once saw a ghost.
@RachelABurge
RachelBurgeAuthor
RachelBurgeWriter
Burge0709
rachelburge.co.uk
Books by Rachel Burge
The Twisted Tree
The Crooked Mask
Thank you for choosing a Hot Key book.
If you want to know more about our authors and what we publish, you can find us online.
You can start at our website
www.hotkeybooks.com
And you can also find us on:
We hope to see you soon!
First published in Great Britain in ebook in 2020
This paperback edition published in 2021 by
HOT KEY BOOKS
80–81 Wimpole Street, London W1G 9RE
Owned by Bonnier Books
Sveavägen 56, Stockholm, Sweden
www.hotkeybooks.com
Text copyright © Rachel Burge, 2020
Illustrations copyright © Leo Nickolls, 2020
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
The right of Rachel Burge and Leo Nickolls to be identified as author and illustrator of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-4714-0919-6
Also available in audio
1
Typeset by DataConnection Ltd
Hot Key Books is an imprint of Bonnier Books UK
www.bonnierbooks.co.uk