Tithe (27 page)

Looking at the plastic horse, she summoned her magic. A moment later it shook out its mane and leaped down from the metal suspension it was held in. As she watched, it galloped away into the night, plastic hooves clattering over the asphalt.

“There is something of yours I would like to return to you.” Roiben’s voice made her jump. How had he managed to get so close without her hearing? Still, she couldn’t help smiling vapidly any more than she could help scolding herself for doing so.

“What?”

He leaned across the distance between them and caught her mouth with his own. Her eyes fluttered closed and her lips parted easily as she felt the kiss sizzling through her nerves, rendering her thoughts to smoke.

“Um …” Kaye stepped back, a little unsteadily. “Why does that belong to me?”

“That was the kiss I stole from you when you were enchanted,” he said patiently.

“Oh … well, what if I didn’t want it?”

“You don’t?”

“No,” she said, letting a grin spread across her face, hoping her mother would take her
time on the drive over. “I’d like you to take it back again, please.”

“I am your servant,” the King of the Unseelie Court said, his lips a moment from her own. “Consider it done.”

I am grateful to my kind editor, Kevin Lewis, for his patience; to my dear friends Steve Berman, Dianna Muzaurieta, and Frank Burkhead for their brutal and inventive comments; to Katja Byrne for telling me it was a YA novel in the first place; to Tony DiTerlizzi and Angela DeFrancis for hand-holding above and beyond the call of duty; and to Theo for enduring the misery along the way. In addition, I am indebted to my first readers: Caitlin, Ed, Gram, Jay, Jenni, Judy, Joe, Jon, Katherine, and Mike.