Free Iron (The Warding Book 1) by Robin L. Cole Page B

was afraid of the monster a few doors down, I took a deep breath and apologized to my soul for the lie I was about to tell. “I like him.”
    She couldn’t have looked more shocked if I had hit her in the back of the head with a board. Her voice was a disbelieving squeal. “ What? ”
    I turned around and resumed my march toward her place. She caught up to me only a second later, still sputtering. “Are you serious? I thought you hated him! You’re always saying how cheesy and pathetic he is. You just called him a scumbag not ten seconds ago!”
    “Yeah well, it’s called jealousy okay? I didn’t want you to feel sorry for me, so I ragged on him instead. He’s always been all over you anyway so it doesn’t matter.” I hid my face in my hands. It was to hide the pain of lying but she didn’t need to know that. Let her think it was embarrassment. I hated myself more and more with every word. “But tonight I guess I was just cranky and drunk and, well, I acted stupid, okay? I’m sorry I made a scene.”
    “Aww, Cat!” She slung an arm around my waist, nearly knocking me off balance. “I’m sorry! You should have told me. I never would have suggested that we keep going there if I had known.”
    I accepted her sympathy mutely. My cheeks were flaming, growing warmer as she went on and on about how much she loved me and how I couldn’t let my single-ness get me down; how I would find a wonderful man that made me as happy as Anthony made her one day. I let her think my blush was embarrassment rather than guilt. I had never told my bestie a lie before. I felt like a shit.
    We dawdled on the porch outside her place for a few minutes. Thanks to liquor and plain old naivety, she spent the whole time rambling on about how great I was and how bright our future would be and how I should keep my chin up. It took everything I had not to shake her, darkening her happy little world with the truth of what we had just narrowly escaped. She was waxing poetic about the beautiful weddings we’d have one day, and how we’d screw up our children as badly as our parents had screwed us up, when the cab finally arrived. I had never been so glad to shoo her inside, climbing into the cab and locking the door behind me.
    Thank God the cabbie was your regular run-of-the-mill human. Or maybe he was just a non-bestial fae that could pass for human. I pushed that thought out of my head and dug through my purse with singular determination.
    “Where to ma’am?” he asked, in a tone that made me think it wasn’t the first time he was posing that question.
    “I—uh—I’m sorry. Just give me one minute to, uh, double check the address okay?” I retrieved the little ball of paper from the depths of my bag and smoothed it out once again. The hand that held the phone to my ear was shaking. I squeezed my eyes closed and prayed someone would answer, despite the late hour. It seemed to ring forever, until my heart sank and I was sure it was about to click over to voicemail—
    “Hello?”
    Relief flooded through me. A tear came to my eye. I couldn’t keep my voice from trembling. “Hi Seana, its Caitlin Moore. I’m sorry for calling so late, but I think I need your help after all.”

Chapter Seven
     
     
    The address Seana gave me lead to a neighborhood I had never visited before, where the rows of brownstones sat with dignified grace. The stately windows and carved stone facades hearkened back to a forgotten era long before my own. I fell in love with them immediately. Even in the dark, guided only by streetlights, it was clear how they put my piddly little apartment to shame. It was also quiet on their street, which was about as close to suburbia as you could get without leaving city limits. We were the only car around, which seemed abnormal to me, even at such a late hour.
    Thankfully I had enough cash on me to cover the cab fare. A trip to the edge of the city hadn’t been part of my plans, but my mother’s insistence that I keep