Excerpt from One Kick by Chelsea Cain, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Frank's eyes ran over her features. "It is you," he said.

She was seeing faces, images, flashes of color. She couldn't breathe. Everything was unraveling. "I didn't mean to let Monster out," she said quickly, the words tumbling out. "I opened the door to get something off the porch and he just slid out before I could stop him." She swallowed a wet hiccup and put her hand over her mouth. "It's my fault," she said between her fingers.

"Hey, hey, hey," Frank said. He looked like he wanted to pat her hand but he didn't. "Easy," he said. "It's over. It's over now. No one's mad at you about the dog, I promise you. You're not in trouble." He dug something out of his pocket. "Here," he said, extending his hand, palm up. "I think you dropped this." Her father's Scrabble tile lay in his palm. Kick reached tentatively for it.

"It's okay," Frank said. "Take it."

She plucked the tile from his hand and squeezed it in her fist until her hand hurt.

Frank rocked back on his heels. "Kit Lannigan," he said. "Holy shit." He was blinking at her, mouth open. "You've been away a long time."

Behind Frank, she could see the canopy princess bed, pink and frilly. She was shaking. She couldn't stop. "It's over?" she asked.

Frank nodded. "The worst part is, kiddo." And he smiled at her, and she knew she was supposed to smile back, to be happy, but she couldn't find the right feelings inside.

It was like dying. That's what Mel had said. Kit is dead, he'd told her. Now you are Beth. But now Beth was dead too. And if Kit was dead, and Beth was dead, then she was someone new, someone who didn't even have a name.

"So what happens now?" she asked numbly.

"Now I take you home," Frank said.

Excerpted from One Kick by Chelsea Cain. Copyright © 2014 by Chelsea Cain. Excerpted by permission of Simon & Schuster. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.