Free The Iron Sword (The Fae War Chronicles Book 1) by Jocelyn Fox

I get an order to appear at the Court, or if Trillow or Glira come to visit? I mean, I would have to give it all up…but I can’t . I thought that much was clear.” Molly’s eyes glowed in the sun, that odd glint surfacing again. “I have no control over this, Tess, and I already brought you into it. I’d rather not trap another person too.”
    “You didn’t trap me,” I objected. “It was my own curiosity.”
    “However you want to color it, it’s still the same picture,” Molly said.
    We walked in silence for a few moments.
    “Well,” Molly said finally, “I guess I just hope you won’t be disappointed. You want so much…more.” She shrugged when she couldn’t find better words.
    “I know,” I said. The ache that had been my emotions about Eric North nudged against my ribcage, where it had lain dormant for the past few weeks. It wasn’t hurt, really, because I had been the one who had ended the relationship. It was the ache that I felt when I thought about how I had tried to force myself to fall in love with someone I didn’t even really like. Eric had the body of a Greek god, with blonde hair and gray eyes that made women melt. His looks had captivated me for about a month. Then I had started to realize the small things about him that truly irked me. “Everyone told me I was so lucky,” I said. I knew I didn’t need to tell Molly what I was talking about again. “And I believed them. He was good at telling me the things I wanted to hear, but the more I heard them, the more I realized that it was all…hollow.” I shrugged. We were walking side by side now. “I just feel like…most of the people I meet, that’s how they are. Hollow. Fake, somehow.”
    Molly merely nodded at my assertion. She let the subject drop, my thoughts of failed relationships fading away slowly as we continued walking.
    “So. Salt and iron.” Molly took out the spoon from her pocket.
    “I wonder…do we just have to throw salt at them? Or…how exactly does that work?” I mused aloud.
    “It’s probably like with slugs. You get it on their skin and they absorb it, or if it’s mixed into water or food and they drink it.” Molly shrugged, tucking her hair behind her ear. “That’s what I’d think, anyway.”
    “How is it that you haven’t shriveled up, then?” I asked suddenly. “If you’re half-Fae, why haven’t you just keeled over from spending over twenty years in this world?”
    “I’m guessing that human blood is hardy,” Molly replied. “Other than that, I have no idea. Maybe they put a spell on me or something to protect me.”
    We hiked up the trail to the cabin. I used the sleeve of my t-shirt to wipe the sweat from my face. The late afternoon sun threw our shadows against the rocks as we walked, and I realized with a twinge of unease that it was much later in the day than I had thought. The conversation with Glira had lulled me into that same dream-like trance, even though I’d been far more lucid than when I’d met Wisp. Dream or no, he’d said that I got faery-drunk easily, and I knew now what he had meant. I wondered if Molly knew the lateness of the hour.
    At the top of the hill, next to the crude driveway, the hood of the pick-up truck was still propped open, but Austin was nowhere to be seen. Then, as we neared the porch, I stopped and grabbed Molly’s elbow. “Were you expecting visitors?”
    “We don’t get visitors…” Molly trailed off as she saw what had stopped me in my tracks. “…Out here,” she finished.
    A midnight-blue motorcycle stood by the front porch, coated with a pale rime of dust from the unpaved roads. It would certainly have been a feat, to get a motorcycle up the steep paths. I started toward it, intrigued.
    “Tess,” Molly hissed.
    “What? It’s out here…all by itself,” I replied over my shoulder. “The least we could do is find out a little about this visitor before we go inside.”
    “It could just be one of Austin’s friends from