eagle swoops down and lands, talons gripping the leather sheath around her forearm. “How are the thermal winds today, Gerel, my love?” she says to the bird, stroking its downy feathers. It chirps, head quirking this way and that. The girl laughs softly. “Yes, it’s cold. But don’t worry, we’re going south.” She smiles, crooked and mischievous, the right side of her lips lifting higher than the left, a single dimple appearing near her chin. An old memory floats in her mind. Of a girl. Of a boy. We will find Father’s murderer. We will take back what’s ours. We will go home. “It’s time for me to go home. It is time for me to take back what is rightfully mine,” she murmurs, remembering the boy she once loved. The brother who had become emperor.
Acknowledgments Firstly, I want to thank you for sticking with this tale until the end, and for flipping to the acknowledgments section. Maybe you were curious, maybe you flipped the previous page by accident, or maybe you’re like me—for whatever reason, I stay in the theater until the end of movie credits and I always read the acknowledgments at the back of a book. Debut books are special. Many are books of the heart. Some are penned in a rushed, fevered state, while others are written through many long years filled with anxiety and uncertainty. I wasn’t sure what story this would turn out to be when I first had the image of a girl standing in an ever-expanding desert, alone and weary. And of the boy she meets, who was equally lonely from shouldering the weight of legacy. In the end, it became a story about family, about grief, about trauma, and mostly, about hope. Books are not created from a single person’s imagination. The book you’re holding right now would not have existed without the encouragement, support, and labor of so many people. To everyone who had a hand in transforming Jade Fire Gold from a nascent idea in my head to an actual book in a reader’s hand—thank you, thank you, thank you. To Elana Roth Parker, thank you for seeing something special in my story and for believing in me. To the LDLA team, your support through the years has been invaluable. To my editor extraordinaire, Alice Jerman, I’ve learned so much from you. Thank you for helping me take this story to the next level, for patiently answering all my questions, introducing me to really delicious tea, and most importantly, thank you for your kindness. It has been a privilege to have you as my editor. To Clare Vaughn, I’m so grateful for your tireless work behind the scenes and your cheerful emails always bring a smile to my face. To Vanessa Nuttry, Nicole Moreno, Gwen Morton, Jill Freshney, Veronica Ambrose, and Megan Gendall, thank you for the beautiful interior of this book, and for catching all my typos, rogue commas, and random
capitalizations or lack of. Most of all, thank you for letting me keep my em dashes. Catherine Lee and Jenna Stempel-Lobell, you literally designed the cover of my dreams! To Zheng Wei Gu (GUWEIZ), thank you for bringing that vision to life with your immense talent. To marketing mavens Lisa Calcasola, Audrey Diestelkamp, Kadeen Griffiths, and Emily Zhu, to publicity powerhouse Lena Reilly and the rest of the publicity team, and of course, to the wonderfully talented Epic Reads crew, thank you for your creativity and enthusiasm. To Andrea Pappenheimer and the entire sales team, and to Patty Rosati and the School and Library team, thank you for all the work you’ve put into getting my book out there. A special shout-out to Hannah VanVels. It was you who gave this book a chance to come alive. To Laura Rennert and the team at Andrea Brown Literary Agency, thank you for picking up the reins and guiding me forward. To everyone at Hodder & Stoughton, I couldn’t ask for a better team in the UK and beyond. To editorial wizard Molly Powell, publicity genius Kate Keehan, marketing stars Maddy Marshall and Callie Robertson, Claudette Morris and Matthew Everett in production, and special editions logistical mastermind Sarah Clay, thank you so very much. To Aaron Munday, thank you for designing such a beautiful cover for the UK edition, and for fulfilling my secret dream of having multiple covers for my book. To Paul Kenny, Cindy Kan, Emmanuel Wong, and the Hachette UK/Asia team, thank you for all your hard work and energy. To Daphne Tonge and the amazing team at Illumicrate, a huge thank you for supporting Jade Fire Gold from the beginning. To Anissa de Gomery and the lovely book fairies at FairyLoot, thank you for granting my wishes. And another massive thank you to Korrina and the incredible OwlCrate team! To the generous and talented authors who took the time to read and blurb my book: Joan He, Elizabeth Lim, Hafsah Faizal, Chloe Gong, Roseanne A. Brown, and Swati Teerdhala. Thank you to the wonderful book community. To booksellers and librarians, thank you for doing what you do best. To readers, book bloggers, bookstagrammers, booktokkers, including Sherna @bookworm.swiftie, Abi @boohoo.books, Cossette @cossettereads, Rogier @roro_suri, Deidre
@inabookdaze, CW and Skye from The Quiet Pond, Shealea @shutupshealea, Fadwa @wordwoonders, Jo @thebookrising and so many more . . . thank you for your support. I don’t know your last names or even your real first names, but I do recognize your Instagram handles and your Twitter avatars (even though you keep changing them lol). Every interaction brings such joy, and I’m so honored to have you in my corner (T_T). A special shout-out to Mike Lasagna—the book community is so lucky to have you. Another shout-out to Prissi @prissanthemum, I’m so amazed by your dedication to your cosplay of Ahn and I’m floored by your talent. Writing is often a solitary process, and one that’s full of self-doubt. So naturally, I’ve to thank everyone who was there from the start. Thank you for sticking with me through this wild ride. To Cindy Pon, my utmost gratitude for taking those difficult, early steps so that authors like me have a path to follow. To Thao Le, the first publishing professional who made me realize that maybe I could write a publishable book after all. To my Pitch Wars mentor, Akemi Dawn Bowman, for giving me the opportunity to learn how to tear apart a draft to find its true heart and create a better, fuller story from the process. Thank you to #the21ders, you’re an incredibly talented and kind group, and I’m so lucky to be debuting with you. To Anna Bright, Shannon Price, Leigh Mar, Lily Meade, thank you for being so supportive through the years. A special thank you to Alexa Donne, for your insight. And to Rachel Griffin, for your constant encouragement. To Jade Fire Gold’s early readers, back when it was unimaginatively titled The Life Stealer (lol), or when it was A NOUN of NOUN and NOUN (I know, I know), or when I titled it Orange Juice and Fries out of equal parts despair and terrible humor—thank you for your feedback and encouragement. Judy I. Lin, Roselle Lim, Gabriela Martins, Victoria Lee, Grace Li, Hannah Whitten, Nafiza Azad, and Meredith Ireland: I love that you’re all thriving and can’t wait to hold your current and future books in my hands. To Lori M. Lee, Amparo Ortiz, Emma Theriault, Rosiee Thor, Sarena Nanua, Sasha Nanua, Rebecca Coffindaffer, Ciannon Smart, and Kristin Dwyer: Thank you for sharing your time and knowledge with me. Meredith, Roselle, Axie Oh, Akshaya Raman, thank you for letting me whine about debutitis and for all your sound advice.
To Carrie Gao, for sending me the best art, for listening, and for being a solid human being. To Eunice Kim, for all the memes and laughs. Hopefully, we got to have dessert together again by the time this book is out. To Anissa, I’m so blessed to have you as a friend. You’re one of the sweetest and most badass people I know. I hope we get to hang out in person someday soon! To Andrea Tang and Allison Senecal, thanks for all the late night (early morning?) screaming and crying, and for brightening up my life during this freaking panorama-panini-pandemonium thingie. Please stay hydrated - wink-. To Han (hold han best friend), Haley, and Zeba, my anchors in the turbulent sea of publishing. To Gina Chen, since you’re reading this in October, are you still in love with bacon hmm??? (I told you I was going to do this ha! Thanks for the shenanigans.) To Deeba joon, my voice of reason in trying times, a deep, heartfelt thank you to you. To Rosie, your friendship, invaluable advice, and incredible humor has kept me afloat. To Swati, you showed me what determination and grit means and you never fail to lift me up. To Julie Abe —instead of making a bad taekook joke, I’m just going to say, borahae. To Bangtan Sonyeondan, because why not? Your music got me through my darkest times and continues to be my writing background soundtrack. Namjoon, thank you for the genius that is mono.; your lyrics will stay in my heart. Strong power, thank you. Everyone, stream “Epiphany” for good skin. Thank you to Joan, the wisest of them all. You’re an inspiration. Em, you said I had to include your name so here it is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. But seriously, thank you. Thank you for randomly barging into my DMs yelling about Hamlet. Thank you for listening to my rants, for putting up with my incessant angst and whining, for reading all my awful (and sometimes good?) words. Thank you for happily jumping into the BTS hole with me without a second thought and thank you for your honesty. Most of all, thank you for being you. Shen-Ru, Bettina, Claire, Karen, and Fiona: I can’t believe we’ve known each other for half our lives. OMG lăo le! Darian, my brother from another mother, you finally get to read this. You better like it. To Fi, I’m so glad we get to grow old together (^_^). Hsing, Mimi, Kevin, and Chey: thank you for welcoming and supporting me. To Mama and Gong Gong, I was able to write this story
because of you. I hope you’re proud of me. To my mother, for making sacrifices so that I didn’t have to. To Z, for your morning cuddles and annoying meows, and for being excellent company whenever I write. Even though you’re a little brat, you’re the cutest thing in the world. To C, (&).
About the Author Courtesy June CL Tan JUNE CL TAN writes science fiction and fantasy inspired by her childhood in multicultural Singapore, where she was raised on a diet of classic books, wuxia movies, caffeine, and congee. When she is not writing, she can be found wandering the streets of New York City in search of everyday mysteries and miracles. Jade Fire Gold is her first novel, and you can find her at www.junecltan.com. Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Advance Praise for Jade Fire Gold “An epic adventure!” —ELIZABETH LIM, New York Times bestselling author of Spin the Dawn and So This is Love “A spectacularly crafted world that breathes new air into old mythology. With gripping storytelling, June CL Tan has brightened up YA fantasy.” —CHLOE GONG, New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights “Epic in every sense of the word, Jade Fire Gold is a fantasy as beautiful as it is sweeping.” —ROSEANNE A. BROWN, New York Times bestselling author of A Song of Wraiths and Ruin “An addictive story that is impossible to put down.” —SWATI TEERDHALA, author of The Tiger at Midnight series “From sweeping deserts to thrashing seas, Jade Fire Gold is adventure at its finest.” —JOAN HE, New York Times bestselling author of Descendant of the Crane and The Ones We’re Meant to Find “Brutal and beautiful, June CL Tan’s debut is a force. Jade Fire Gold was a gripping adventure I couldn’t put down.” —HAFSAH FAIZAL, New York Times bestselling author of We Hunt the Flame
Books by June CL Tan Jade Fire Gold
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Copyright HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. JADE FIRE GOLD. Copyright © 2021 by June CL Tan. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. www.epicreads.com Cover art © 2021 by Zheng Wei Gu Cover design and lettering by Catherine Lee Digital Edition OCTOBER 2021 ISBN: 978-0-06-305639-8 Print ISBN: 978-0-06-305636-7 (hardcover) — ISBN 978-0-06-322242-7 (special edition) Interior art by Catherine Lee and Shutterstock/wacomka 21 22 23 24 25 PC/LSCC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 FIRST EDITION
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