Rooming with the Wicked

1 | home sweet home

"Heya, roomie," a deep voice greeted me as I clumsily pushed through the door.

I'd been hoping to move in quietly while everyone was out, but with my rotten luck, I shouldn't even have been surprised that someone was here. Well, better get this introduction over with fast.

Don't be awkward, Dad's voice scolded in my head. First impressions matter.

Hypocrite. He had a point though.

Putting on what I hoped could pass as a friendly smile, I slowly turned to face my new roommate—and nearly fell backward onto my suitcase. A seven-foot-something blond guy stood in the middle of the room with a miniature book in hand. On second thought, it probably wasn't miniature at all, but only looked that way in his gigantic hands.

Holy...half-giant. I'd be sharing a room with a half-giant. Great. At least I'd have someone to ask in case I ever needed to reach anything. Hey, I was starting to get good at this whole "be positive" bullshit.

"Hi," I managed once the initial shock had worn off.

"I'm Kenas." He grinned at me, dimples appearing on his olive-toned cheeks. The bright golden gleam of his friendly eyes never wavered as he took in my—likely—disheveled state. Tossing the book onto one of the beds, he turned to the other occupants I'd previously overlooked behind his gigantic frame. "These are Jaydis and Syn."

Syn, a raven-haired guy whose glowing white eyes were far less friendly than Kenas', barely spared me a glance before going back to scribbling in his notebook. Cool, we'd get along great.

Jaydis was far less disinterested. Running a hand through his spiky forest-green hair, he got up from his position on the bed next to Syn and sauntered toward me with a wide grin on his delicate face. "So, what are you?" Jaydis stopped right in front of me and openly studied my face with his twinkling yellow eyes.

What am I? Screwed, that's what I am.

"Human," I groaned. My horrid luck had clearly reached a new low. Sharing a room with a half-giant, a shapeshifter, and a seelie—this had to be some sick joke. This had Ri's name written all over it. She'd probably bribed that douchebag from student services.

Be positive.

But...maybe living with a couple of supernaturals wasn't necessarily a bad thing. They wouldn't be interested in hanging out with the likes of me and that meant peace and quiet and loads of free time for alchemy. Plus, with Jaydis being a seelie, I might be able to get my hands on some Vedian water and silver leaves—both of which likely provided me with much better results for my Darken Draught.

Besides, this whole new roommates thing could be a hell of a lot worse. One of them could have been a demon or something. I shuddered.

My three new roomies shared a quick glance before bursting out laughing. In Syn's case, it was more of a chuckle, but that counted. Laughter was good, right?

Kenas dropped onto the bed closest to the large window overlooking Tenebris Forest, and asked, "Okay, who put you up to this? Was it Zee?"

"As if. Zee doesn't even know how to spell joke," Jaydis said.

When the three continued to stare at me, I raised one of my shoulders in a half-shrug. "No one. Looks like I'm your new roommate. I'm Ariel."

"Well, this is gonna be fun." Jaydis grinned at me, exposing a set of pointy bluish-white teeth. "I've never shared a room with a human before. Hope you're not as much of a buzzkill as the rest of your kind."

"Hope you're not as much of a faerie wannabe as the rest of your kind, shorty." The words left my mouth before I could stop them. Way to make your new roomies hate you in the first five minutes, Ari.

The room was eerily quiet for a good two seconds. Then Jaydis threw his head back and cackled. "Touché." He turned to the other two and added, "We're keeping her. I don't care what Zee says."

Syn rolled his eyes and mumbled, "He's gonna lose it."

"Wait, who?" I asked, taking in the rest of the room. There were currently only four people here, me included, and a total of four beds, three of which looked recently slept in judging by the untidy nightstands and messy bedsheets. The far bed, tucked in the corner behind a bookshelf, was empty. Despite my general pessimism, I could picture myself getting cozy in that corner. With enough space for the majority of my alchemy books on the shelf, it might even be better than my previous room, and not just because Ri wouldn't be invading my personal space every two seconds.

"Haze, our other roommate," Kenas explained. "Syn lives across the hall."

As if on cue, the bathroom door opened and a pale guy with dripping obsidian hair and the brightest crimson eyes I'd ever seen appeared. And he was only wearing a towel.

Hell, no. Terribly, horribly unlucky was no longer an accurate description of my life. Nope, it had become a raging dumpster fire.

Why me, universe? Why? Why couldn't Syn live here? I'd take a grumpy shapeshifter over a demon any day.

Demon boy didn't even bother to hide his irritation at my presence. Crossing his arms in front of his muscled chest, he openly glared at me. In his defense, I probably looked equally enthusiastic, but—major difference—I actually had a reason.

"You've gotta be shitting me," he growled right before retreating into the bathroom and slamming the door behind him.

Grinning like he'd just downed an entire vial of happy juice, Jaydis threw his arm around my shoulder and said, "I repeat, this is gonna be fun."