Free The Lost Prince by Julie Kagawa Page B

just talking about you to our mutual friend, here.” He shoved me against the wall again, and I fought down a knee-jerk reaction to snap his elbow. “He’s promised to be a lot nicer to you in the future, isn’t that right, freak?”
    “Brian!”
    “Okay, okay.” Kingston raised his hands and stepped away, and his cronies did the same. “Take it easy, Mac, we were just fooling around.” He turned a sneer on me, and I glared back, daring him to step forward, to grab me again. “You got lucky, freak,” he said, backing away. “Remember what I told you. You won’t always have a little girl around to protect you.” His friends snickered, and he winked at Kenzie, who rolled her eyes. “We’ll see you around, real soon.”
    “Jerk,” Kenzie muttered as they sauntered off down the hall, laughing and high-fiving each other. “I don’t know what Regan sees in him.” She shook her head and turned to me. “You okay?”
    Embarrassed, fuming, I scowled at her. “I could’ve handled it,” I snapped, wishing I could put my fist through a wall or someone’s face. “You didn’t have to interfere.”
    “I know, tough guy.” She gave me a half smile, and I wasn’t sure if she was being serious. “But Regan is fond of the big meathead, and I didn’t want you to beat him up too badly.”
    I glared in the direction the jocks had gone, clenching my fists as I struggled to control my raging emotions, the urge to stalk down the hall and plant Kingston’s face into the floor. Why me? I wanted to snap at her. Why won’t you leave me alone? And why do you have the entire football team ready to tear someone in half for looking at you funny?
    “Anyway,” Kenzie continued, “we’re still on for that interview, right? You’re planning on showing up, I hope. I’m dying to know what goes on in that broody head of yours.”
    “I don’t brood.”
    She snorted. “Tough guy, if brooding was a sport, you’d have gold medals with scowling faces lining the walls of your room.”
    “Whatever.”
    Kenzie laughed. Sweeping past me, she pushed open the library door, pausing in the frame. “See you in a couple hours, Ethan.”
    I shrugged.
    “I’m holding you to it, tough guy. Promise me you won’t run off or conveniently forget.”
    “Yes.” I blew out a breath as she grinned, and the door swung shut. “I’ll be there.”
    * * *
    I didn’t go.
    Not that I didn’t try. Despite the incident in the hall—or maybebecause of it—I wasn’t about to let anyone tell me who I could or could not hang out with. Like I said, I don’t respond well to threats, and if I was being honest with myself, I was more than a little curious about Mackenzie St. James. So after the last bell, I gathered my stuff, made sure the hall was clear of Kingston and his thugs, and headed toward the library.
    About halfway there, I realized I was being followed.
    The halls were nearly empty as I went by the cafeteria. The few bodies I passed were going the other way, to the parking lot and the vehicles that would take them home. But as I made my way through the quiet hallways, I got that strange prickle on the back of my neck that told me I wasn’t alone.
    Casually, I stopped at a water fountain, bending down to get a quick drink. But I slid my gaze off to the side, scanning the hall.
    There was a shimmer of white at the edge of my vision, as something glided around a corner and stopped in the shadows, watching.
    My gut tightened, but I forced myself to straighten and walk down the hall as if nothing was wrong. I could feel the presence at my back following me, and my heart began to thud in my chest. It was the same creature, the one that I’d seen in the locker room that night, when the piskie found me. What was it? One of the fey, I was certain, but I’d never seen this kind before, all pale and transparent, almost ghostlike. A bean sidhe, perhaps? But bean sidhes usually announced their presence with hair-raising shrieks and wails; they