He stuck out his hand. There was dirt caked under his nails and the black dust of charcoal smudged on his skin. “I’m Rowan. What’s your name?”
There was power in names. To give your name to a stranger was to give them a little piece of yourself. Years ago, Echo would have hoarded her truth, clutched it tightly, afraid to share it, afraid that breathing a part of her soul into the air would cheapen it. But Rowan was safe. Like Ivy and the Ala and Dorian and Jasper, Rowan was home. He would take that little piece of her and cradle it with gentle hands.
She took Rowan’s hand in hers, committing each old callus and fresh scar to memory. His wounds told the story of who he was and who he was becoming, just as hers did. Her mind was already churning with plans to do the impossible, and she knew she wouldn’t have to do it alone.
There was power in names, and power, she had learned, was to be shared, not hoarded.
“My name,” she said, “is Echo.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
When I was twelve years old, I scribbled some awful poetry in a Winnie-the-Pooh notebook and decided I wanted to be a writer. There were many people who told me it was a silly dream, a waste of time. Some of those comments stung, but they just made me want it more. I owe those people as much as I owe the people who supported me, in a weird, twisty sort of way.
But only one of those groups merits being mentioned by name.
First, I want to thank my agent, Catherine Drayton, without whom Echo and her friends would never have found a home. She took my dream and cradled it in her hands and made it come true.
My editor, Krista Marino, helped mold these books into what they are. Without her, I don’t think I would have survived this trilogy with my sanity (mostly) intact. She is the best editor a scared debut author could have asked for.
The team at Random House, especially Aisha Cloud: thank you for guiding me on the crazy journey that is publishing; Alison Impey and Jen Wang, thank you for making these books beautiful. Lyndsey Blessing of InkWell Management: you are a foreign-rights rock star.
Virginia Boecker, thank you for helping me survive the this-is-the-worst-writing-sin-anyone-has-ever-committed phase of drafting and the burn-it-with-fire stage of revisions. Amanda, Idil, and Laura, thank you for believing in Echo’s story from the start.
Compiling Echo’s lexicon of esoteric and untranslatable words wasn’t easy, and I’m deeply indebted to the curators of Other-Wordly (other-wordly.tumblr.com), Wordstuck (wordstuck.co.vu), and Haggard Hawks Words (twitter.com/?HaggardHawks).
Last, but never least, I would like to thank you, the reader, for being curious enough to pick up The Girl at Midnight and caring enough to see this story through to The Savage Dawn. Echo and Ivy and Caius and Dorian and Jasper are as much yours as they are mine. Books may end, but characters carve out spaces for themselves in your heart, and I am so incredibly grateful that you allowed mine into yours. Thank you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Melissa Grey was born and raised in New York City. She wrote her first short story at the age of twelve and hasn’t stopped writing since. After earning a degree in fine arts at Yale University, she embarked on an adventure of global proportions and discovered a secret talent for navigating subway systems in just about any language. She works as a freelance writer in New York City. She is the author of the Girl at Midnight series: The Girl at Midnight, The Shadow Hour, and The Savage Dawn. To learn more about Melissa, visit melissagrey.com, follow @meligrey on Twitter, and look for melissagrey_ on Instagram.