Tristam rubbed his jaw. The bruise was gone, but Kyra would always remember striking him there. “I’ve seen you struggle with your bloodlines, and I will always have tremendous respect for what you can do.” He stopped and looked her in the eye. “I also trust you with my life. I hope you can do the same with me.”
He spoke the words with conviction, and Kyra found that she believed him. How things had changed since their first encounter, when he’d tackled her in the Palace courtyard. She’d been a common thief, and he had been dead set on destroying her. Kyra reached over and covered his hands with her own. “I do trust you.”
They smiled at each other then and stood up at the same time. The table was still between them. Tristam started to walk around to her side, but she stopped him with a touch on the arm. The table’s height had caught her eye. Kyra kicked off her shoes and hoisted herself up. She had to put more weight on her arms to accommodate her hip, but she jumped up quickly without knocking any dishes to the ground. From there, it was just a short hop to land in front of Tristam. He ringed her waist with his arms, his touch setting off a pleasant shiver that swept to the tips of her toes. Tristam looked down at her, amused.
She shrugged. “I’m still getting a feel for what I can do.”
“And was that a difficult climb, master thief?”
She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close. He was wonderfully warm. “Horribly difficult, but worth it.”
Tristam bent his face down toward hers then, and she closed her eyes. Her skin prickled at his nearness, and she let out a contented sigh. Then, after what seemed like forever, his lips brushed hers, and they put off the rest of their talking until later.
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
Whisper the word “sequel” into a debut author’s ear and she’ll likely jump five feet into the air and flee wild-eyed into a corner. Writing Daughter of Dusk was a very different experience from Midnight Thief, as I made the transition from writing for my own enjoyment to delivering a book under contract while my newfound (and wonderful) readers waited in the wings. Thankfully, I had a fantastic team of people steering me safely into port.
My editor, Rotem Moscovich, shepherded this manuscript from early outlines to final draft, providing insightful guidance the entire way. Julie Moody, Jamie Baker, and the rest of the team at Hyperion were instrumental to the process as well.
My agent, Jim McCarthy, kept me sane and assured me, time after time, that each draft was not as horrible as I believed.
My longtime critique group, Courtyard Critiques, offered encouragement and suggestions on my first draft as it came out, three thousand words at a time: Amitha Knight, Rachal Aronson, Jennifer Barnes, and Emily Terry.
First-round beta readers kindly slogged through the original (boring) beginning and offered key insights for restructuring every plot arc: Lauren James (Love is not a triangle), Andrea Lim (jukeboxmuse.com), Anya (On Starships and Dragonwings), Stephenie Sheung (The BiblioSanctum), Tabitha Jensen (notyetread.com), Summer McDaniel (Blue Sky Shelf), Alyssa Susanna (The Eater of Books!), and Maja (The Nocturnal Library).
Second-round beta readers pushed me to polish every scene and campaigned (successfully) for more sparks between Kyra and Tristam: Faye M. (The Social Potato), Jenna DeTrapani, April Choi, Amy Hung, Lianne Crawford, Emily Lo Gibson, Bekah (Awesome Book Nuts), Kelsey Olesen, and Lisa Choi, MD.
Thanks to several authors’ loops for wisdom and laughs: The Fourteenery, One Four Kidlit, and YA Binders.
And of course, love and gratitude to my husband for being a (captive) sounding board on everything from plot ideas to copy edits (and, to his credit, he was only slightly insufferable when his grammar or vocabulary proved better than mine), and my parents, in-laws, extended family, and friends for their constant excitement and support on this journey. You make a girl feel loved.