The Iron Traitor. Julie Kagawa
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* *
When the last bell rang, I grabbed my books and hurried to the parking lot, hoping to make it out before Kingston or any of Kenzie’s friends. No one stopped or followed me in the halls, but when I started toward my beat-up truck, parked at the far end of the lot, my nerves went rigid.
Brian Kingston was sitting on the hood, legs swinging off the edge, smirking at me. Two of his football buddies leaned against the side, blocking the door.
“Where do you think you’re going, freak?” Kingston asked, sliding to the ground. His cronies pressed behind him, and I took a deep breath to calm down. At least they hadn’t damaged my truck in any obvious way...yet. The tires didn’t look slashed, and I didn’t see any key marks in the paint, so that was something. “Been wanting to talk to you all afternoon.”
I shifted my weight onto the balls of my feet. He didn’t want to talk. Everything about him said he was itching for a fight. “Do we really have to do this now?” I asked, keeping a wary eye on all three of them. Dammit, I did not need this, but if the choices were “fight” or “get my ass kicked,” I wasn’t going to get stomped on. I supposed I could have run away like a coward, but the fallout of that might be even worse. These three didn’t scare me; I’d faced down goblins, redcaps, a lindwurm and a whole legion of murderous, ghostly fey who sucked the glamour out of their normal kin. I’d fought things that were trying their best to kill me, and I was still here. A trio of unarmed humans, thick-necked and muscle-headed as they were, didn’t register very high on my threat meter, but I’d rather not get expelled on my first day back if I could help it.
“This is stupid, Kingston,” I snapped, backing away as his cronies tried to flank me. If they lunged, I’d need to get out of the way fast. “What the hell do you want? What do you think I’ve done now?”
“Like you don’t know.” Kingston sneered. “Don’t play stupid, freak. I told you to stay away from Mackenzie, didn’t I? I warned you what would happen, and you didn’t listen. Everyone knows you dragged her off to New York last week. I don’t know why the cops didn’t toss your ass in jail for kidnapping.”
“She asked me to take her,” I argued. “I didn’t drag her anywhere. She wanted to see New York, and her dad wouldn’t let her go, so she asked me.” Lies to cover up more lies. I wondered if there would ever come a point where I didn’t have to lie to everyone.
“Yeah, and now look where she is,” Kingston shot back. “I don’t know what you did to her while you were gone, but you’re gonna wish you never came here.”
“Wait. What?” I frowned, still trying to keep the jocks in my sights. “What do you mean? Where is Kenzie now?”
Kingston shook his head. “You didn’t hear, freak? God, you are a bastard.” He stepped forward, eyes narrowing in pure contempt. “Kenzie is in the hospital.”
CHAPTER TWO
MACKENZIE’S FATHER
My stomach dropped.
“She’s in the hospital?” I repeated as fear and horror spread through my insides. I remembered something Kenzie had told me about herself while we were in Faery, something big and dark and terrifying. “Why?”
“You tell me.” Kingston clenched his fists. “You put her there.”
Pain exploded through my side; one of the other jocks had lunged in with a punch to my ribs while I was distracted, knocking me to the side. I gasped and staggered away, ducking beneath the other’s left hook and raising my fists in a boxing stance as all three came at me.
Kingston swung viciously at my face; I jerked my head back, letting the knuckles graze me, before lunging forward with a body shot that bent him forward with a grunt. At the same time, one of his friends hammered a fist into my unprotected back. I winced, absorbing the blow, then spun around Kingston to use him as a shield. He snarled and threw an elbow back, trying to bash me in the face. I caught his arm, pivoted him around in a circle and threw him into his friend.
As they both toppled and rolled to the concrete, the last jock slammed into me from behind, wrapping me in a bear hug, pinning my arms. I jerked my head back, cracking my skull into his nose, and the jock shrieked a curse. Slipping from his grasp, I whirled behind him, drove my foot into the back of his knee and yanked down on his shoulders. He hit the pavement with a gusty whoof, expelling all the air from his lungs, and lay there dazed.
But the other two were climbing to their feet, looking homicidal, and I didn’t want to stay any longer. Breaking from the fight, I leaped into my truck and slammed the door. Kingston stepped up and smashed a fist into the window as I pulled out, glaring at me with murder in his eyes. A hairline crack appeared where his ringed knuckle struck the glass, but thankfully nothing more, as I maneuvered the vehicle around the jocks out for my blood and fled the parking lot.
* * *
It took a few minutes on my phone to find the hospital closest to Kenzie’s house, and I drove there immediately. I was supposed to go straight home from school, and probably should have—my parents still weren’t recovered from my trip into the Nevernever—but all I could think about was Mackenzie. And how I was the reason she was hospitalized. Maybe not directly, but it was still certainly my fault.
Kenzie had leukemia, an aggressive type of cancer that affected the blood cells. She’d told me as much when we were stuck in the Nevernever, and the prognosis wasn’t very hopeful. That was the main reason she’d wanted the Sight, why she wanted to stay in Faery. She didn’t know how long she had, and she wanted to see everything she could. Her illness also made her relatively fearless and a lot more daring than she should have been. Even when offered the chance to go back home, she’d refused to abandon me, sticking it out through sword fights, kidnappings and near-death experiences, tromping from one end of the Nevernever to the other while dodging faeries, Forgotten and other things that wanted to eat us.
And now she was in the hospital. It had been too much. Everything had finally caught up with her, and it was all on me. If I’d never brought her into Faery, she would be fine.
I pulled into the crowded parking lot and sat there, gazing at the big square building in the distance. A part of me, the part that had withdrawn from the whole world, the part that kept other people at arm’s length to keep them safe from the fey, told me not to go in there. That I had already screwed up Mackenzie’s life by dragging her into the hidden world, and the best and safest thing for her would be to stay far, far away from me.
But I couldn’t. I’d already promised her I wouldn’t disappear, and honestly, I didn’t want to. Kenzie had the Sight now, same as me, which meant the fey would be drawn to her. And there was no way I was going to let her face them alone. Besides, she would never let me get away with that.
I crossed the parking lot and entered the hospital, finding a waiting room full of bored, solemn and worried-looking people. Ignoring them, I approached the reception desk, where a frizzy-haired nurse was sitting behind the counter, talking to a policeman.
My heart jumped a little, and I backed up, watching the officer from an inconspicuous corner. There was no need to be twitchy, I told myself as the nurse laughed at something the cop said. I wasn’t in trouble. I’d done nothing wrong. But I’d also had my fill of talking to cops for the day, and I wasn’t winning any Upright Citizen awards with my appearance. If the officer thought I looked suspicious, all he’d have to do was pull up my file to see a list of crimes staring back at him. It wasn’t worth the risk or the hassle.
I hung back in the corner until the policeman finally left, then approached the desk.
“Excuse me,” I said as the receptionist lifted her gaze and raked me up and down from behind her glasses. “I’m here to see a friend of mine. Can you tell me which room Kenzie St. James is in?”
The nurse gave me a doubtful look. I could see her stamping the hooligan label on my forehead even before she informed me, in a voice of strained politeness, “Visiting hours are