swirls of stringy white clouds. I can make out lakes and mountains, a yellow-brown stretch that must be desert, a ribbon of green dots that are islands. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
But then I glance at Elder’s face.
His worry infects me, and now as I look at the surface of Centauri-Earth, I wonder: what’s down there?
Victria’s staring eyes fill my memory.
Death is easy, and sudden, and can’t be stopped. Maybe Centauri-Earth is just beginning to evolve, and dinosaurs will crush us. Or Centauri-Earth may be light-years ahead of Earth, my Earth, and the aliens there will laugh at our weapons as they kill us. It’s obvious that plants grow on the planet — there is so much green amid the blue — but what if all the plants are poison? What if all the blue water is salt?
“It’s worth it.” I move to touch him, but he grabs my hand first, squeezes my fingers, then lets me go.
“What was it you said to Doc?” Elder asks. “About faith?”
“I don’t remember,” I say with a dry laugh. “I was too busy trying not to get killed.”
“Well, whatever it was — you were right.” His hand rests over the autopilot launch button.
“Ready?” he asks.
“Ready.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
This book quite simply would not exist without my amazing agent Merrilee Heifetz, who pushed me to come up with a better idea than my original one, and I’m forever grateful for that.
A book is more than an idea, and so my thanks go also to Ben Schrank and Gillian Levinson for helping me to see which words best told the story. I knew I was in good editorial hands when one of your notes said, “Don’t be afraid to kill off more characters!”
When it comes to producing this book, I couldn’t have a better team behind me than the one at Razorbill. Thank you Natalie Sousa and Emily Osborne for the beautiful cover designs for all the books; Emily Romero, Courtney Wood, Erin Dempsey, Erin Gallagher and Anna Jarzab for the amazing marketing and online programs; Casey McIntyre for organizing the Breathless Tour and working so diligently on publicity; and everyone else at Razorbill for being so brilly.
A special thanks to Cecilia de la Campa at Writers House for helping the series go around the world, and to Chelsey Heller for helping me navigate foreign contracts.
This book went through more drafts than I care to admit, but I’d like to thank Heather Zundel, Erin Anderson, and Christy Farley for reading the earliest version. And telling me to throw it away. Thank you Tricia Hoover, Christine Marciniak, Jodi Meadows, and Jillian Boehme for reading the next version… that I also threw away. Corinne Duyvis and Casey McCormick, thank you for reading first chapters until I’m sure you were sick of them. Elana Johnson, Lisa Roecker, Laura Roecker, Shannon Messenger, Lauren DeStefano, Michelle Hodkin, Stephanie Perkins, Saundra Mitchell, Victoria Schwab, Myra McEntire, and all the Bookanistas, all the members of the League: thank you for listening to me prattle on about books and writing.
Kiersten White, Melissa Marr, and Carrie Ryan believed in me before
Thank you, Jennifer Randolph, for being one of my first supporters. Thank you, Laura Parker, for being so selfless and sharing in my joy. Thank you, Melissa Spence, for driving across the state just to celebrate with me. All of your friendships mean the world to me.
I’d like to thank the students at Burns High School who leant me their names for this story, particularly those of you who wanted to have the goriest, bloodiest ends. I hope you enjoyed being killed off!
Thanks to Village Coffee for keeping me caffeinated and Fireside Books & Gifts for keeping me well read.
And, of course, my deepest love and gratitude to my parents, Ted and JoAnne Graham, who are just as excited as I am about this whole endeavor, and to my husband, Corwin Revis, who read every draft, even the worst ones, and still loved me after all that.
Thank you all.
YOUR UNIVERSE CHANGED WITH BOOK ONE.
YOUR HEART STOPPED WITH BOOK TWO.
AND NOW IN BOOK THREE?
IT’S TIME TO GO HOME.
COMING JANUARY 2013
SHADES OF EARTH
BOOK III IN THE ACROSS THE UNIVERSE TRILOGY
FROM NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR BETH REVIS
THE JOURNEY IS JUST BEGINNING…
