Fae of the South (Court of Crown and Compass Book 3) by E. Hall (libby ebook reader .txt) 📕

Then the police barged in, arrested me, and now I’m here.

Aaron exits but leaves the door open. Other students, as we’re called, pass by. Some alone. Others in groups. I hear Lea’s name and my gaze flashes up.

A girl with a button nose and sapphire eyes leans against the doorjamb. A few other girls stand at her flanks. “New here?” she asks. They’re definitely vampires. Probably studied under the females that intercepted me in the city.

I nod.

“Aren’t you going to ask my name?” she says.

I wasn’t. I stall, clearing my throat.

“I’m Jasmin.” She flips her hair over her shoulder and flits her long eyelashes. “It’s nice to meet you, Tyrren.”

My name is also on the door. She’s a girl in the boys’ dorm, meaning she dismisses the rules and probably rules the school. I’m quiet again, not interested. My brother isn’t wrong about me being a dork. The moment becomes awkward.

She bites her lip. “If you want to make the right kinds of friends while you’re here, come find me,” she says and slinks away.

The misty drizzle outside does nothing to wash away the tension caused by coming here. It tugs at the set of my jaw and the back of my neck.

It was no secret that Huxley, the blacksmith, dealt with some odd characters, but he wasn’t a criminal involved in a weapons ring and neither am I. The last thing I have on my mind is making friends or meeting girls.

Well, except one girl who is already my friend and happens to be here as well. Since it appears we can move about freely, I get to my feet, prepared to find Lea.

The campus is fenced-in and relatively quiet. The buildings consist of an incongruous mixture of neoclassical architecture and cellblocks. Ivy creeps up the sides of the back of a brick building. The archways and pathways look like a boarding school or college, but none of the students are permitted to leave. The new and old doesn’t make sense. Being here doesn’t make sense.

I reach what must be the girls’ dorm. Like mine, it’s also cinderblock. Yellow light from the windows glows against the cloudy sky. The door is locked and footsteps patter up the path behind me.

Jasmin and her girl posse approach. “I knew it wouldn’t take you long to come looking for me.”

How to handle this politely? I’m dealing with vampires, after all. “I came to visit my friend Lea.”

Jasmin’s face darkens and her eyes harden into a glare. “You just made your first mistake.” With that, she storms inside.

A hand lands hard on my shoulder. “Officially, guys aren’t allowed in there. But there are ways.” Another vampire winks and then extends a hand to shake. “I’m Cole. Singer for the band Reckless Hunger.”

A guy with long black hair stands on my other side.

“This is Felix. He plays bass.”

Tattoos form a full sleeve on Felix’s skinny arm.

A tall girl with bleached, messy hair struts out of the dorm. She slides her arms around Felix’s neck. They kiss. I look away, craning to see if I can spot Lea. She must be in the dorm somewhere.

“Hungry?” Felix asks the female.

She nods. “Always.”

I can hardly conceal the lift of my eyebrows.

“Don’t mind Felix and Nina,” Cole says. “But if you need to feed, the dispensary is down that way.” He gestures to a squat cement building.

Felix and Nina saunter away. In the distance, a break in the clouds reveals the setting sun, a bloody shade of red spilling over the horizon.

A couple of fae hurry past us. They both have lavender eyes like the girl who was being attacked the night Lea and I encountered the demons. My gaze trails them until they’re out of sight. Until I smelled fae, or whatever it is I do with my senses, I didn’t know they were real.

Cole directs me away from the dorm. “Let me explain something to you. Here at RIP Jr, there are two groups. Vampires and fae. Even though the faculty is trying to integrate us, make no mistake, there are clear divisions. They don’t mess with us. We let them live. Simple as that. But you know, it’s in our nature to get hungry...and sometimes for more than blood. Try to stay out of trouble, but I won’t blame you if you find yourself in it.”

With a glance back at Lea’s dorm, the door opens. Mysterious blue eyes the color of the sky just before nightfall, silky black hair, and a grin salted with uncertainty and peppered with daring meets my gaze. This surreal reality vanishes along with the rest of the delinquents at this place.

Without a word, I rush toward Lea.

Before I realize what’s happening her arms wrap around me in an unexpected hug. A megawatt jolt rushes through me at her touch. We’re the kind of friends who can be smooshed together in the subway or absently find a leg or arm leaning against the other while watching a movie without thinking a thing about it. This is next level. If I had a heart, it would be thundering. I inhale her citrus spice scent and something else. Fae blood, confirming her supernatural origin. But she doesn’t have lavender eyes like many others.

I jerk away, disgusted by what I am.

She pulls away as though realizing this at the same time. “What are you doing here?”

“What are you doing here?” I echo.

“Are you actually surprised to see me here?” she asks with a wry grin.

“Did you try to get revenge on Lucas?” I blurt, meaning it as a joke.

Her lips quirk. “No. I wouldn’t waste my time on him,” she says, picking up on my exact thoughts. We always finish each other’s sentences.

“Then what was it?”

She gazes at her