If you’re sleepy, go to bed and save the next chapter for tomorrow.

Author’s note: At a certain point in the first 150 pages of this book there will be an emergency drill. Please follow all instructions and behave exactly as you would in a real emergency. Thank you.

This new condition, this unwilled silence, had fallen over him ten days ago. The day Cass had gone into the hospital. The day she had fallen into a coma.

Sometimes when we are at our lowest points, we make the greatest discoveries.

Never let a pickpocket bump into you if you can help it.

For he who has power over dragons has power over us all.

Happily, you don’t know how to find me. If you did, I’ve no doubt, you would try to bribe me to finish the story. I know how you are. I know how I am, too. I am very susceptible to bribes. As you’ve probably noticed, I have no self-control whatsoever. I like chocolate best. But I also have a fondness for cheese.

Your problem, it is not here’ – he pointed the pen at Max-Ernest’s throat – ‘it is here’ – he pointed the pen at Max-Ernest’s chest. ‘My heart is heavy, too. But you must be strong. This situation, it is very serious. It is not only Cass’s life that is at stake. If she dies, the Secret, it will die too.

Friends don’t have to have a lot of things in common. But there’s one thing friends usually do have in common – a sense of humor. That doesn’t mean they find all the same things funny. Sometimes, they might even laugh at each other. But at the end of the day, friends can always laugh with each other.

She hadn’t visited this spot in a few years, but when she was younger it had been a frequent hideout. She called it the Barbie Graveyard because it was where, one night when she was nine years old, she’d ceremoniously buried every single doll she had. She’d marked the site with a melted Barbie toaster. “They all died in an electrical fire,” she told her mother somberly. “I couldn’t save them.