The Fae & the Fallen by Brittni Chenelle

Author:Brittni Chenelle [Chenelle, Brittni]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-20T16:00:00+00:00

25

Reina

Miranda stood in front of my dorm room with a smirk that said she knew something I didn’t.

“I’ll let you settle in,” she said. “Cheer up,” she added.

I forced a half smile and opened the door to find myself smack in the middle of some bizarre ritual. My nose was assaulted with a spicy aroma I couldn’t place. The layout of the dorm was plain enough, but the left side of the room was draped with black webbed fabric and littered with lit candles. It looked like Halloween threw up in there. On the free bed, the one that was supposedly mine, stood a girl with two purple pigtails tied up with black ribbon. She was wearing a school uniform but her blazer was slung over her bed—a pop of red in a sea of black. It looked like she was burning scraps of paper and releasing them into the air above my mattress.

“Uh… hi,” I said sheepishly.

She spun, nearly losing her balance. “Oh good, you’re here,” she said, “I thought I’d smudge the place for you before you got here. I thought I felt something nasty pass through earlier.”

“Smudge?”

She looked more confused than I was. “Yeah. Smudge, to rid this room of evil spirits.”

I nodded. “Oh. Of course,” I said, too tired to inquire further. “Thank you. I’m Reina, by the way.”

“Briara,” she said, hopping off the bed. She threw her arms around me and held me like a long-lost relative.

“What’s that smell?” I asked as a strong whiff of spice hit my nose.

She pulled away. “Sage. You have so much to learn.”

I walked over to my bed, collapsing onto the bare mattress. I didn’t believe any of that spirit stuff, but I wasn’t going to let something so harmless bother me. One less thing to worry about. I was too tired for pleasantries and too emotionally drained from my hospital stay to put together more than a couple of words.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

I groaned. “I have to pee.”

“The bathroom is at the end of the hall.”

I dragged myself back up and out the door, slogging toward our floor’s communal bathroom. As I walked, I sorted through my odd first impression of my new roommate. Rituals and spirits. Eh, she had her own style. Miranda’s smirk insinuated I was in for a ride, but she should have considered I was a tad offbeat myself. It wasn’t until I returned to my room that my opinion of Briara was cemented. While I was gone, she’d put a spare set of black sheets and blankets on my bed. I felt a wave of regret for not hugging her more sincerely the first time, but I hugged her again this time with every ounce of gratitude I could muster because my drowsy mind could not find the words.

She patted my back and watched me lay on my new bed, pleased with her work as I snuggled in, gripping my charm. I felt something hard beneath my pillow and reached under to find the smooth object.

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