FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING NOVEL SHIVER "Ballad is giddy, intoxicating, and threatening all at once. It is a sheer edge-read: you feel like you stand on a cliff through every scene, only barely clinging to the world, not knowing who is coming up behind you!"—Tamora Pierce, New York Times bestselling author of the Protector of the Small Quartet "With its razor wit, compelling characters, and deliriously beautiful prose, Ballad will make you laugh and gasp out loud even as it breaks your heart." —R.J. Anderson, author of Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter "Maggie Stiefvater excels at writing wonderfully complex characters who face wickedly impossible obstacles. Ballad had me hooked until the pulse-pounding end. Readers who loved Lament will devour Ballad and plead for more!"—Carrie Ryan, author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth Remember us, so sing the dead, lest we remember you James Morgan has an almost unearthly gift for music. And it has attracted Nuala, a soul-snatching faerie muse who fosters and then feeds on the creative energies of exceptional humans until they die. James has plenty of reasons to fear the faeries, but as he and Nuala collaborate on an achingly beautiful musical composition, James finds his feelings towards Nuala deepening. But the rest of the fairies are not as harmless. As Halloween—the day of the dead—draws near, James will have to battle the Faerie Queen and the horned king of the dead to save Nuala's life and his soul.