Shadow's Edge (Shadows Saga bk1)

Chapter 6- Fateful Encounters

Mara sat at the table with a stupid grin on her face clutching the piece of paper tightly in her hands. She folded the piece of paper and placed it in her back pocket as she stood from the table. Mara grabbed her tray and replicated what Zander had done just moments before, taking them to their respective wash stations. She then turned to go up the stairs that would dump out just down the hall from her room.

As Mara started up the stairs, she took the piece of paper out of her pocket along with her phone and started to punch in the numbers, adding Zander to her contacts list. The entire time she thought about those deep green eyes, the color of shining emeralds, and she couldn’t wait until tomorrow when she would get to see him agai-

Mara made contact with something hard. She lost her footing on the concrete stairs, her body overcompensating, jerking her backwards and letting gravity take over. A small yelp left her lips, cut short as she jerked to a stop. She was precariously teetering on the edge of the step. The only thing keeping her from tumbling backwards was a hand tightly grasping hers. Mara’s gaze went from the large tanned hand holding hers, trailing up the well muscled arm, defined jawline and straight into a set of dark brown, wide eyes.

The mystery man pulled her forward, allowing Mara to finally get her feet back under her. “I’m very sorry, I didn’t mean to bump into you,” his voice was deep, almost like a rumbling growl.

Mara tried to slow the pounding of her heart. “No, I should apologize. I wasn’t looking where I was going. You know what they say though; you can’t meet new interesting people if you have perfect balance.

“Not that you’re interesting…

“Not that you aren’t interesting either! I mean… I don’t know you, so I can’t really say one way or the other.” Mara’s face started to turn bright red as she stammered on. “I should just shut up now.”

A low rumbling chuckle escaped from the boy’s throat and the sound helped Mara to relax slightly. She found it comforting.

Mara smiled awkwardly as she stepped to the side. “Well, I need to be on my way,” she said as she darted past the stranger thoroughly mortified. He turned and watched her run up the stairs with a slight smile before shrugging and continuing on his way.

Mara reached the third floor and quickly exited the stairwell, making her way down the hall to her room. Taking the key from her back pocket, she slid it into the keyhole to unlock her door.

For the first time, Mara looked over to the other half of the room, which had already been completely unpacked and decorated. A small plant sat in the window, and two others were on a desk. Posters for what looked like bands and movies, only a couple of which Mara knew, littered the wall above the bed. She assumed the others were of groups from the Magical Realm.

Mara looked back to her side of the room and decided she better get busy with her own unpacking.

Carefully, she set her wand on her own desk, making sure it was somewhere it wouldn’t get harmed. Mara took the Crowland Book of Shadows out of her bag and set it on the top shelf along with her textbooks that had already been delivered to her room.

She then turned to the boxes and took out the clothes that had been packed into them. When Mara opened the door to the closet she jumped at the sight of her reflection. She hadn’t been expecting to see anything other than an empty closet, and the slightly disheveled sight of her would be enough to frighten anyone for a moment.

Taking a deep breath, Mara started to hang up the clothes she had in her hand before returning back to the box for more. When the first box had been emptied and moved, Mara uncovered a set of drawers under her bed. Curious, she opened the first of three, revealing more uniforms. Two were identical to the one she was wearing, and three that were different. She held the other top up, a long sleeve plum colored top with the same crest embroidered over the heart only in gold. They were paired with black slacks.