The Book of Life (81 page)

More than that, the ouroboros symbolized our partnership. Matthew and I were an alchemical marriage of vampire and witch, death and life, sun and moon. That combination of opposites created something finer and more precious than either of us could ever have been separately.

We were the tenth knot. Unbreakable.

Without beginning or end.

Acknowledgments

My heartfelt thanks . . .

. . . . to my gentle readers for their feedback: Fran, Jill, Karen, Lisa, and Olive.

. . . . to Wolf Gruner, Steve Kay, Jake Soll, and Susanna Wang, all of whom were generous with their expertise and kind with their criticisms.

. . . . to Hedgebrook, for their radical (and much needed) hospitality when I needed it most.

. . . . to Sam Stoloff and Rich Green, for championing the All Souls trilogy from beginning to end.

. . . . to Carole DeSanti and the rest of the All Souls team at Viking and Penguin for supporting this book, and the previous two, during every step of the publication process.

. . . . to the foreign publishers who brought the story of Diana and Matthew to readers around the world.

. . . . to Lisa Halttunen for editing and preparing the manuscript for the publisher.

. . . . to my assistants, Jill Hough and Emma Divine, for making my life possible.

. . . . to my friends for their steadfastness.

. . . . to my family for making life worth living: my parents, Olive and Jack, Karen, John, Lexie, Jake, Lisa, Stacey, Josh, and Gabe.

. . . . to my readers for letting the Bishops and de Clermonts into your hearts and lives.