The Brave & The Broken: Gifted Fae Academy - Year Two

by Brittni Chenelle

  13

  Reina

  After attempting to head back to Yemoja Roux’s apartment and being bombarded by reporters, I decided to go back through the school’s barrier and wait for her outside the office building. I wondered if Bri was faring any better than I was. I considered heading to our dorm to check on her, but I was terrified. It felt like I was teetering on the edge of my sanity. I’m sure Miranda already told her everything. What if Bri took the side of the Nobles? It would be just enough to push me over. Fuck it. I had to face her sometime.

  I hurried to Pink House and raced to my room, hoping to get to her before Miranda did. I opened the door just in time for Miranda to strut out of my room with a malicious grin. I watched as she walked down the hallway with far too much enthusiasm. I spun. “Bri, I can explain.”

  Bri lifted her head, her purple hair loose at her shoulders and her makeup half on. She raised her hand to stop me. “Did that bitch put her hands on you?”

  I exhaled a chest full of anxiety and inhaled relief as I took a seat beside her. “Yep. Apparently she had a vision.”

  “Doesn’t she need to touch you first?”

  I sighed, too exhausted to explain.

  She rubbed my back. “I can’t believe he’s gone. We had this kind of flirtation, you know?” She sighed. “Now is not the time for us to turn on each other.”

  “Bri, I swear, it isn’t even true. I’ll make Kai pay for what he did to Quan.”

  We sat in silence on Bri’s bed, our hands clasped together. Then I asked, “How are you holding up?”

  She stared down at her hands. “I feel lost, you know? Would you hate me if I stayed here for a few days instead of at Yemoja’s with you? I… I need a little time to myself.”

  “Of course I wouldn’t hate you. But if you need anything, message me and I can be here in ten minutes.”

  “I can’t believe Miranda’s trying to start shit.” She glanced around the room. “I wonder if I have the materials to make a voodoo doll.”

  I snorted and she looked at me, her eyebrows raised in surprise. She forced a smile. “Do you think she or anyone else really cares about Quan?”

  “I do. Everyone does. That’s why we’re all at each other’s throats. None of us are coping well.”

  “I just…” She choked. “I need some time.”

  I exhaled slowly and stood. “Alright then, I’ll head out. You know how to reach me.”

  She nodded. “Thanks, Reina… you know, for understanding that I’m just like this.”

  I smiled softly and took her silence as my cue to leave. We were all fucked up, and it was starting to look like many of us might never recover. I was on my last legs when I reached the front office again, this time determined to stay put until Yemoja Roux came out. Luckily, a moment later, she emerged from the office building. She stopped short and I remembered that I was still bleeding, likely looking as rough as I felt.

  “So,” I said, reaching for a charm that was no longer around my neck, “are they closing the school?”

  She sighed. “No, but they’ve cancelled the Varsity Games and most of the internships.”

  My stomach dropped. “Ours?”

  “I fought for it, but they only agreed under the condition that you get permission from your… guardian.”

  My mind slung back to the torturous grip of my group home mother, Ms. Vivian. “Fuck…” I said without thinking. There was no way she’d do anything to help me, even if it was just a signature. As I remembered my former group home “mother,” I could practically feel her gift pinching at my skin as I screamed. I could still see my bloodshot eyes in the mirror just after our last encounter.

  “Oh boy,” I said.

  Yemoja Roux put a hand on my shoulder. “You’re not the same person as you were last year. She’s not going to be able to hurt you the same way.”

  I gulped. “That’s not the point… It’s…”

  “The fact that she wants to hurt you.”

  I nodded. “But it doesn’t matter. I can do this. Don’t worry.”

  She bit her bottom lip. “There’s one more thing…”

  I put my hands on my hips. “Lay it on me.”

  “We’re no longer allowed in the field with less than three, so I’m bringing Oden into our team.”

  I bit back a laugh. “Perfect.” Things just kept getting better. At least with Oden around, I’d have the chance to prove to him that I was capable of bringing Kai to justice, that was if I could even convince Vivian to sign for me.

  I clapped my hands. “Alright, well, I have my work cut out for me.”

  “Where’s Bri? Is she coming?”

  “She’s going to stay here, I think.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Is everything okay?”

  I pressed my lips together and nodded. As okay as could be expected.

  “Do you want to head back to my apartment and rest for a few days, like we talked about?”

  I shook my head. “No, I need to get back out there. I have to find Kai. I’m going to my group home to get the signature.”

  “Let me rephrase. You’ve had too much happen lately. Give yourself three days’ rest and then go.” She turned away. “Something in you is different. You’re changing… I’m afraid you’ll…”

  I took a deep breath. If Yemoja Roux could see me unraveling, then I really knew I should heed her advice. “Three days’ rest. Then I’ll go.”

  The lines on her face softened. “You don’t want me to come?”

  “No, it’s okay. I think I need to face this one alone.”

  14

  Kaito

  I awoke feeling hungry and with a slightly less negative attitude toward The Fallen. I did not grow up the same way as most of the others, but they welcomed me just the same. All night my mind was locked on Wendy Blaque trying cake for the first time. Zane had mentioned that his family was poor, and that he used to sneak food to them from GFA’s cafeteria, but it wasn’t until I saw Wendy downing that cake that the reality sunk in. I knew things were not equal in Ancetol, but how bad was it?

  I decided to head to the cafeteria for breakfast, instead of ordering in. I hoped to run into Zane to maybe pick his brain about The Fallen, and thank him for last night’s party. I hadn’t stepped into the cafeteria since my first night in the tower, and my head had been fogged from the whirlwind of the night’s events—my appetite squelched by the fresh memory of Quan’s skewered corpse. I remembered it as a dark and mostly empty hall with scattered strangers lurking in the shadows. But, this morning, during peak meal time, it seemed like a different place entirely.

  It buzzed with energy as the ungifted ate together with smiles and an air of hope. There was a sense of community that I hadn’t experienced anywhere else. Moments into watching them interact, I envied them. They hugged and brushed hands without a trace of fear. They may have been poor, but they had something the Gifted world did not—they could touch. They could comfort a friend or assist a stranger. Some time ago, my world had lost that. I grabbed a tray and got into line.

  “Hi, Kaito,” Ensley said from behind the counter. Her hair was wrapped up in some kind of net.

  I smirked. “Good morning,” I said, my voice groggy with sleep.

  She scooped some beige-colored slop onto my tray, and I didn’t bother asking what it was. Though the quality of the food wasn’t a fraction of what I got when I ordered from my room, or even what they served at GFA, I couldn’t overlook the grateful smiles of those around me. These were life sustaining meals.

  I turned to take a seat as several people nodded to me in recognition. On the far side of the cafeteria, I spotted DT sitting alone. I took a seat across from him and he looked up. A bewildered expression flickered across his face before giving way to a smile. He took a mouthful of the slop.

  “Is it any good?” I asked.

  “Are you kidding? I love this stuff. I grew up on it.”

  I nodded and poked at it with my plastic spork.

  “I
know you grew up rich, Kai, but that doesn’t mean your childhood wasn’t total shit too.”

  “What makes you think my childhood was shit?” I said, taking a bite. The texture of the mixture might’ve been off-putting, but it was nicely seasoned.

  A touch of blush flashed across his cheeks. “I… uh... I saw the interview with your parents.”

  I sighed, dropping my gaze to my plate as I said, “That bad?”

  “They had me nostalgic for my childhood.”

  I bit back a laugh. “I doubt that.”

  “They didn’t come around when you got your gift?”

  I shrugged. “Sort of. I mean… I got into trouble right away.”

  “What do you mean?”

  I ran a hand through my hair. I didn’t really want to talk about it, but I couldn’t really remember the last time anyone really cared enough to ask me about my life. Though it was such a disaster, it was one of my favorite memories, and if anyone could understand, it would probably be DT. “I uh… kissed this girl and she floated away. I accidentally dropped her and she ended up in the hospital.”

  He snorted. “All I keep thinking is how much worse it would have been if I’d learned about my powers like that.”

  “I can imagine. I bet your childhood was rough.”

  He took a deep breath. “Yeah, well… yeah.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him, not about to let him get away with just “yeah”. “I told you mine.”

  His stormy expression cut me. “I don’t know if you’ll understand.”

  I took a mouthful of mush. “Who could better than me?”

  He shrugged. “What do you want to know? How I figured out my gift?”

  “It’s a good place to start.”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “Well, get on with it,” I pushed.

  He clenched his jaw then released it in surrender. “I was only eleven when I killed my first Fae.”

  My heartbeat stuttered as the weight of what I was about to hear began to settle in, but, oddly enough, I already understood. I’d hurt someone with my gift when I unlocked it. It only made sense that with a gift much more dangerous, so too would be the consequences.

  DT paused, as if waiting for me to stop him. When I didn’t, he continued. “I’d grown up poor with parents who struggled to put food on the table. Like most kids in my district, I was hungry all the time, but my situation wasn’t unique. Ancetol had always been a city of economic inequality, but ever since the Fae had become more than the protectors of the city, since they had moved to dominate everything from business to popular culture, the only places for its citizens to land seemed to be either the Elite or hungry. The Teal Street District was packed with protesters, hoping to catch the attention of the media, to shed light on the issue, and at one such protest, things got out of hand.”

  I thought I remembered something from my history class about the incident. A fire maybe? But it happened seven or eight years ago now.

  “The news outlets were conveniently absent. Instead, the Fae sent Will Citrine to appease the crowd. After all, what could a group of coms and serfs do? Will was a young Fae at the time, rising in popularity because of his flashy gift of shooting fire from his feet and the way he used it to fly around. ‘I’m here because I want to help, because I care,’ he’d said, reading off his cue cards. ‘Please, you must all go home for your own safety.’

  “The crowd grew agitated and, in a manner of minutes, the peaceful protest turned violent. In a panic, Will Citrine cast a wall of fire between himself and the crowd and called for backup. At least,” he sighed, “that was what we were fed on the subject through the internet. What I remember was the thick black smoke and how it burned my lungs as I cried out for help. I remember the doorway to my bedroom ablaze with orange flames and the crash of the surrounding buildings as they collapsed.”

  I leaned forward, searching his eyes for pain, but he seemed detached from the memory.

  “Crouched in a corner in my room, I used the last of the air I had to scream one last time. It was a sound so blaring that sometimes I still hear it in my dreams. Just as I gave up hope, Ella Rosewood, a seasoned Fae at the time, smashed through my wall, holding her hand out to rescue me from the inferno.

  “I reached out, and the second my fingers touched hers, the life drained from her body and she fell down, dead at my feet. Out of horror and confusion, I ran out through the hole she’d made in my wall. I collapsed on the street while people ran past me in the chaos. I sobbed until my head pounded, and finally a man reached for me. Afraid I’d kill him too, I screamed and told him what I’d done. ‘I killed her,’ I cried. ‘Ella Rosewood! I didn’t mean to. I think my gift… I think it was my gift.... She just… died.’”

  My eyes pricked and my vision blurred from tears I held back as he continued.

  “The man didn’t know what to make of me or what I was saying, but a moment later, Yemoja Roux stepped out of the flames carrying the motionless Fae. The man raised a finger to his lips and tossed me his gloves. He… well, anyway, he renamed me DT… Death Touch.”

  I had a thousand questions, but before I could ask, he leaned back, sort of regained focus, and said, “Oh shit, man, sorry. I wasn’t trying to bum you out. Let’s talk about something else.”

  I shook my head, hoping to loosen the unsettled feeling in my stomach. Suddenly my sense of fairness felt confused. “Can I ask you one thing?”

  He nodded, but his slightly raised eyebrows said he was a little irritated.

  “Can I ask you what your real name is?”

  He paused, as if trying to remember it. “C-Calvin.” Then the corners of his mouth curved up. “But my friends call me Cal.”

  I smiled. “Cal it is.”

  15

  Reina

  Bri:

  You’re going over there today, right?

  Me:

  Yeah. Wish me luck.

  Bri:

  I’ll light some candles for you.

  Me:

  You’re the best.

  I imagined confronting Ms. Vivian more times than I could count, and it always ended the same way—me once again breaking my promise to Yemoja Roux—wrenching the truth from Vivian with my gift. I wanted revenge: for Vivian to suffer. She wasn’t my mother, but I spent a year in her care. I wanted to know how she really felt about me, but how could I use my gift that way? Especially after Kai’s TV debut, where he called out practically all the Elites for their abuse of power… All I knew was that I didn’t want him to be right. I’d find a way to convince her without my gift. I had to, or else what was the point of all this?

  I pulled on the blazer of my school uniform, the finishing touch. She’d told me more than anyone that I’d never get into Gifted Fae Academy. I was certain that she knew already from the news, but if I wasn’t going to be able to get actual revenge, I at least wanted to rub my uniform in her face.

  “Now be strong,” Yemoja said, “but not disrespectful. We need her to sign.”

  When I turned to face her, I was surprised that she looked considerably less confident than I’d ever seen her. She paced back and forth, picking at her fingernails and check-listing, half in her head and half aloud, always coming back to the same question. “Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?”

  I smiled. Yemoja was a constant when I had no other. When I thought about it, she’d been there for me my whole life, even if I just came into hers. But what I really wanted from Vivian wasn’t just a signature, so the only option was to go alone. “Thank you. Don’t worry about me. I’m Yemoja Roux’s apprentice after all. I’m tough.”

  She shook her head. “That’s what I’m worried about.” She spun and shook her finger at me. “Don’t forget who you are.”

  I nodded, slinging my backpack over my shoulder and heading out of my temporary sanctuary to the cold mid-winter afternoon. The air bit at me through my jacket, the gray sky unsure whether to drop snow or rain. The wind seemed to push me from behind, u
rging me forward even as my apprehension grew and confidence drained with each step closer to my destination.

  I walked up to the steps of the group home and froze. Suddenly, I regretted not allowing Yemoja Roux to come along. Even if Vivian’s gift could no longer hurt me now that I could use mine to block it, it didn’t mean she wouldn’t find a way. I pulled the door open, only to draw the panicked stares of the other orphans who were huddled around a TV at the far end of the room. They let out a collective gasp. “Reina!” Jerome yelled as he sprinted toward me.

  Alyssa grabbed him. “Don’t,” she said. “She has a gift now. You don’t know what she’ll do.”

  Jerome stopped, backing away.

  “Hi, Jerome. Don’t worry, guys, it’s still me. I’m not going to hurt anyone.”

  Alyssa released Jerome, but he didn’t return to my arms. A few of the others moved closer to me, but none closer than an arm's length or two. Alyssa shifted nervously. “Sorry, Reina, it’s best to play it safe.”

  I understood, but it stung. I was no longer one of them, and that fact alone had raised a wall between us.

  I walked into the crowded room, noting that not a single thing appeared to have changed since I left, except a few new faces among the orphans and a few missing ones. How could this place feel so familiar, yet I no longer belonged?

  “What are you doing here?” Jerome asked. He was at least an inch taller but still oozed the sweet innocence he had when I left. “I’m looking for Ms. Vivian.”

  Alyssa scoffed. “Always looking for trouble.”

  Jerome beamed. “Are you going to beat her up with your gift?”

  I smiled. “I just need a signature.”

  Alyssa rolled her eyes. “Just great. And when you’re gone, she’ll take it out on us.”