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And Annwyl was in danger now, too. The Summer girl might’ve been part of the Seelie Court, but I didn’t want to see her Fade away to nothing. She’d risked a lot by coming here and obviously cared for the Iron Prince as much as he did her. If she disappeared, I didn’t know what Keirran would do, but it would probably be fairly drastic.
Her green eyes watched me now, beseeching, and I raked both hands through my hair. “I’ll think of something,” I told them both, seeing Kenzie smile at me and Annwyl sag with relief. “Right now, though, I need to take Kenzie home. Annwyl, you’re welcome to stay here if you like. I can get the sleeping bag down if you need a place to sleep. ” Though I’d never thought I’d offer to let a faery stay in my room. Again. The last time it’d happened, Todd, the half phouka, and his piskie friend had spent the night, and I hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep.
Annwyl nodded solemnly. “I am. . . grateful, Ethan Chase,” Annwyl said. “I would not have come if I did not think you could help. ”
I nodded, knowing that was the closest the fey got to saying thank-you, as they never spoke the actual words. Leaving the house, I told Mom I was taking Kenzie home, and we walked down the driveway in silence, me scanning the bushes and shadows for this mysterious Thin Man. If he was anywhere nearby, I didn’t see him.
I unlocked and opened the truck door for Kenzie, but instead of climbing in, she stepped close and put her arms around me. “Well,” she said as mine slipped around her waist, “here we go again. ”
I sighed, knowing it was useless to argue or try to convince her not to go. Tonight, anyway. “You are way too eager for this,” I told her, and she grinned cheekily. “It would be so much easier if you were one of those girls who ran away screaming. ”
She laughed. “Sorry, tough guy. Looks like you got the abnormal girlfriend who talks to little green men and sees invisible things. ” Her cool fingers slipped into my hair, and my stomach knotted. “But you know you can vent to me about any of this, right? You don’t have to face them all by yourself anymore. ”
My voice came out kind of husky. “I know. I just. . . I want you to be safe. ”
Her smile turned bittersweet. “I don’t have that kind of time. ”
The porch light winked on, Mom’s way of letting me know she was still up, and I winced. “Come on,” I said, reluctantly drawing back. “I’ll take you home. ”
After dropping Kenzie off at her house—and the stomach-curling good-night kiss in the driveway—I returned home to find Annwyl in the living room, hovering over my mom’s potted plants. The wilted houseplants looked better than they ever had under Mom’s not-so-green thumb, but having a faery wandering around my home made me nervous, even if it was Annwyl, and I steered her back into my room.
“Where would you like me to sleep?” she asked as I closed the door. Mom had finally gone to bed, but Dad might be home any minute and didn’t need to hear me talking to myself in the wee hours of the morning. Annwyl regarded me solemnly. “If you have charms placed around your house, I could go outside. I don’t think the Thin Man will come through the wards. ”
But she sounded frightened, and I shook my head. “No, Annwyl, I’m not going to make you sleep outside, especially if something is after you. ” I scrubbed a hand through my hair, not liking the other alternative but seeing no other choice. “You can stay here. Take the bed, in fact—I have a sleeping bag in the closet. ”
Her eyes widened. “Oh no, that would be improper,” she protested, looking stunned. “Especially since I owe you so much. You are the Iron Queen’s brother. I cannot presume to sleep in the prince’s bed. ”
“Annwyl, you’re not a servant anymore. ” I opened the closet and hauled the sleeping bag and pillow from the top shelf. “That changed the second Titania banished you from the Nevernever. And I’m definitely not a prince. ” I turned, tossing the sleeping bag on the floor, unrolling it with my foot. “You’re not with Titania or Leanansidhe now. You’re a guest here, and you don’t owe me anything. ”
She gazed at me, still unsure, and my heartbeat picked up. I won’t lie; Annwyl was beautiful. Big green eyes, shining brown hair, her body soft and graceful beneath her dress. I was a guy, after all, and I wasn’t blind. But seeing her didn’t make my stomach twist with nerves or the corners of my mouth want to turn up in a smile like they did with Kenzie. Besides, Annwyl was someone else’s, someone whose insane protective streak ran even deeper than mine, and she was a faery on top of that. So that pretty much killed any tempting thoughts about having a beautiful girl spend the night in my room.
“Take the bed,” I told her again, pointing to the mattress. “I know this is a little awkward, but we’ll have to get through it until we can find Keirran. Hopefully it won’t be too long. ”
After the Summer faery finally fell asleep on my mattress, I lay awake on the floor, thinking. About Keirran and his whereabouts, what he thought he was doing: hiding from everyone, dragging me into his problems. About Annwyl. She was Fading, dying, really, and the Iron Prince had to be frantic to save her, if there was a way at all. How the hell I would convince my parents that I needed to disappear again.
But mostly, I thought about Mackenzie and how I was going to protect her from the world she insisted on being a part of.
CHAPTER SIX
GURO’S ADVICE
School the next day was. . . interesting, to say the least.
Word had definitely spread, probably from the moment Kenzie and I had left the theater parking lot. People stared at me in the halls—not that they hadn’t before, but it was almost full-blown paparazzi-style now. Whispers and unsubtle glances followed me down the corridors, and I was sure I saw one or two camera phones aimed at me—or it could’ve been my paranoid imagination. I kept my head down and my usual ignore-everyone stance going until I reached my locker. Only to discover two girls were already there, and none of them was Kenzie.
“Hey, Ethan. ” The tallest 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. ”
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“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 any kind of group, a long while since I’d spoken to a classmate without intending to drive them away. I ignored the stares we were getting from everyone and concentrated on getting Kenzie to class. This whole normal boyfriend thing was going to take some getting used to.