Free The Iron Traitor (The Iron Fey) by Julie Kagawa

of the pair gave me a hesitant smile, flipping her blond hair over one shoulder. I’d seen this girl in class, though I’d never spoken to her and knew only that she was one of Kenzie’s friends. Christy? Chelsea? Something like that.
    “Can I help you?” I asked, reaching past her to open my locker.
    “Um, well. I...we...wanted to know if you would sit with us this afternoon. We never see you at lunch, and now that you’re with Kenzie, the four of us should hang out sometime.”
    “No, thanks.”
    A pause, where the duo eyed each other nervously but didn’t back off. “Why not?” Christy/Chelsea demanded. “Kenzie always sits at our table. Aren’t you going to eat with your girlfriend?”
    Well, the short answer was getting me nowhere. Clearly, I was going to have to step my Mean Asshole persona up a bit.
    I slammed the locker door, making them both jump, and turned to stare them down. “What part of ‘no’ don’t you understand?” I said, forcing my voice to be hard and cold.
    The girls shrank back and would’ve fled, but a soft hand suddenly traced my back, and Kenzie stepped around me to smile at them.
    “Hey, guys.” If she felt the obvious tension between me and the other two girls, she didn’t comment on it. “I need to talk to Ethan for a second. Wait for me?”
    The girls nodded and backed off, giving me dark, unfriendly looks, before hurrying around a corner. I swallowed and turned to face Kenzie, who was watching me with amused exasperation.
    “Are you terrorizing my friends, tough guy?”
    “They were stalking me, ” I answered, gesturing in the direction the girls had gone. “What do you want me to do?”
    My girlfriend shook her head. “You could try being nice, ” she suggested. “I know it’s in there somewhere. I’ve seen it, at least twice.”
    I lowered my voice, stepping close to her so that the passing crowd couldn’t eavesdrop. “You know that’s not an option for me. I have to be this way.”
    “No, you don’t.” Kenzie’s voice was equally low; she reached out and took my hand, squeezing gently. “You can’t push the whole world away because of Them, Ethan. That’s...that’s kind of like letting Them win, you know?” I started to protest, but she overrode me. “They’re out there, and They hurt people—I understand that. But are you really going to close your eyes and hope They don’t see you? Or are you going to fight back? Let them know that They can’t screw around with you or your friends and get away with it.”
    “It’s not that simple.”
    “No?” Kenzie cocked her head, her brown eyes staring into mine. “It sounds pretty simple to me. They can control your life—what you do, how you act—or you can.”
    I blinked. I’d never thought of it that way. I thought I was protecting people; if no one got close to me, the fey would leave them alone. But...I guess They were controlling my life in a way. I was so concerned about what They would do to others, I’d let myself become someone I hated. Someone I really didn’t want to be.
    “Fine.” I put my head back in defeat before looking down at Kenzie again. “I’ll try to be nicer to your friends. No promises, though. Especially if Kingston decides to put my head through my locker. Then all bets are off.”
    She grinned as the first bell rang. “You’re such a charmer, tough guy. Wanna walk me to my class?”
    “Sure.”
    “Without snarling at Zoe and Chelsea?”
    I rolled my eyes. “I’ll try not to snarl.”
    Her friends gaped at us when we found them around the corner, still waiting for Kenzie and probably hoping for gossip. They continued to glance at me as we walked down the hall, and even more so when Kenzie casually laced our fingers together, squeezing my hand while still chatting to all of us. I didn’t say much, though I did make an effort not to be gruff when one of the girls asked me a question about New York. It was a weird sensation; it had been years since I’d been in