She is soon kidnapped by a group of fairies, as planned, and is taken to the Unseelie Court to go through the sacrificial ceremony.

Kaye attempts to control her newfound abilities by enlisting the help of a Kelpie to teach her how to use magic. Since Kaye is not mortal, the ritual will be forfeit, and the fairies whom the Unseelie Court wants to be bound to them will go free. Later on, her same 'imaginary' friends inform her that she is actually a changeling and that she should keep her human appearance because the Unseelie Court wishes to use her as a tithe to hell. In revenge, Kaye tricks Roiben into telling her his full name (she later learns that by knowing the true name of a faerie, fairies are forced to obey whatever they are told to do). Soon after this, her old 'imaginary' friends contact her and warn her that Roiben is a murderer and he’s killed Gristle. In return, he grants her three truthfully answered questions about anything, which she does not immediately use. Her suspicions dissolve when she finds and saves the life of Roiben, a faerie knight, by pulling a magicked arrow out of his chest. However, she can't find them and begins to suspect that they were simply figments of her imagination. Once at her grandmother's house, Kaye begins to look for her old 'imaginary' friends who were faeries named Lutie-Loo, Spike, and Gristle. After her mother's boyfriend, Lloyd, attempts to stab her mother unexpectedly, her mother takes her back to Kaye's grandmother's house to stay. The book begins in Philadelphia at one of Kaye's mother's concerts.

Tithe valiant ironside