The Fae World: Mirai: The Curse

It wasn’t unusual for Mirai’s father to disappear off with one of his advisers before breakfast, but this time something seemed different. She looked at her mother, who obviously hadn’t noticed anything as she was spreading jam on her toast, before thinking back to what had woken her up. There had been times before when Leif had woken her up, because something had happened that would affect them both, and normally she did answer, knowing that as a son he had more information than she ever would have. Unfortunately she hadn’t made it to the communication crystal before he’d rung off, so she didn’t know what was happening the way she would have done if she had answered, and she couldn’t leave the table in the middle of breakfast without explaining why to her mother, which wasn’t something she wanted to do.

Biting hard on her lip Mirai forced herself to focus on breakfast. She would eventually find out from either her father or from Leif, but that wasn’t making her any less worried. Even though she hated the small talk her mother usually forced on her she would have given anything at that moment for her to start rambling on about something exceedingly unimportant. Instead her mother focused her entire attention on a slice of toast without saying a word. Sighing, she picked up her fork and then put it back down again.

“Mother,” Mirai said, “I need to go to the bathroom.”

Without looking up at Mirai her mother waved her knife and replied, “Go on then, sweetie.”

Thankfully her mother kept her attention on the slice of toast as Mirai want in the opposite direction of the bathroom and headed to her bedroom, where she kept her communication crystal. As she thought of Leif all she could do was hope that he was available to talk. After what seemed like hours later he did answer, looking very much like he was trying not to grin.

“What’s going on?” Mirai asked.

“Apparently we’ve been cursed.”

Narrowing her eyes, Mirai stared at Leif. “Why is this amusing you?”

“The curse will only be broken if we marry each other. Someone seems to think that it will stop at least some of the fighting between our two groups, but I doubt that’s actually going to happen.”

“I take it you’re not against the idea.”

“Of us getting married?” Mirai nodded. “No, I’m not against the idea,” Leif said, looking thoughtful, “but it’s not as though either of our fathers is going to see it as an option. They’re going to try to break the curse instead.”

“It’s not their choice.”

“No, it’s not, but we both know that it’s unlikely they’re going to ask us for our opinion.” Leif smiled. “Does that mean you think we should go behind our parents’ backs and get married, in order to break the curse?”

Mirai shrugged. “Curses are strange things. Some can be broken, while others can only be worked with, and I have a feeling that whoever created this curse knew what they were doing. It might be our only option.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

The Fae World: Claire: Inheriting a Hotel

It was early, much earlier than Claire would normally wake up on her day off, but she hadn’t been able to sleep. The letter she’d received had been cryptic and it had become the only thing she could think about, in part because it seemed like the beginning of one of those really awful horror movies. A great-uncle she’d never heard of had died, which wasn’t really that strange as she had loads of family she’d never met before, leaving behind a dilapidated hotel that she had apparently inherited, and that was the part she couldn’t understand. Why would someone she’d never met leave her anything in his will?

That was why Claire was stood at the train station, wiping sleep out of her eyes and waiting for the earliest train she’d been able to get. Either she was going to get to the address she’d been given to find that there was no hotel, dilapidated or otherwise, or that it was some sort of trick that an evil entity was playing on her. She shook her head. Watching too many bad horror films was obviously bad for her, because it was most likely that there was no hotel. In all honesty she didn’t really want to inherit a hotel, so finding nothing there would be the best option, especially as she knew that selling it would be almost impossible if it was in bad condition.

Sighing, Claire glanced at her watch again. Time, in the way it always did at stupid o’clock in the morning, was slowing down on her. She pulled her coat tighter around herself, looked longingly at the still closed coffee shop, and wondered why she was letting her curiosity get the better of her, especially when she could still be comfortably asleep in her bed. No one was going to leave an unknown great-niece a hotel, even if it was dilapidated.

When the train finally turned up Claire got on it, even though she had doubts that she was doing the right thing. There was a small part of her that couldn’t let go of the possibility that her day was going to turn into a horror movie. She stared out of the window and tried not to think too much about what she was doing. If she didn’t go she knew she’d always regret not taking the chance that maybe she had really inherited a hotel, but at the same time she couldn’t help thinking she’d regret going to find out if it did exist.

Tapping her fingers on the rubber sill Claire wished she was calm enough to read the book she’d put in her bag. Instead she watched the world pass her by as she got closer to her destination, each station bringing her another step closer to knowing if the hotel existed. None of the worries she had faded away as she’d hoped they would, but they didn’t get any worse either, and by the time she got to her station she almost felt ready for whatever was going to come next.

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.