by Ava Corrigan
“Right,” Sky scoffed a little. “Because you never need help.”
I offered my water to Sky. As he took it, and drank, I tried to shrug his words off. “Part of my charm.”
Sky gave me a look that said he couldn’t be shrugged off. “Frustrating charm.”
“’Cause you’re a fixer. And I don’t need to be fixed.”
Sky turned away from me slightly. I wondered if I’d sounded harsher than I intended, but then he spoke, with difficulty, and I realized he was just trying to get the words out.
“I’ve heard more stories about Andreas than I can count. Like he’s still alive. Except he’s not. He’s an ideal. A void. An impossible ghost. Do you know how hard that is to live up to? Even Silva … it’s like he’s playing some role out of a sense of duty. All I really want is a dad.”
I drew closer to him and laid a hand on his arm. “Sky …”
Sky said desperately, “I’m a fixer because I’m supposed to be. Because I have to be. Because when I fix other people, I don’t have to think about how broken I am.”
He turned to face me. It was like seeing him for the first time, with the careful mask of duty completely gone.
“We’re all broken, Bloom. We all need to be fixed. There’s charm in that, too.”
His face was so close to mine, and once again I felt that yearning pull toward him. This time I didn’t resist. This time I couldn’t.
Our lips met, and I finally understood why I had always felt so drawn to him. We fit together like two broken pieces that could form a whole.
Then against the darkness behind my eyes, I saw the brilliant glow as magic lit up the disc Dane had given me.
Sky and I broke apart, both of us looking toward the light. I hesitated, and then reached for the disc. Sky reached for me, and put his hand over mine.
“You haven’t told me what that’s for. You still don’t trust me?”
I looked down at his hand over mine. Just the sight of that, us touching so simply, filled me with sorrow.
“I do, actually. But I also know if I tell you, you’ll stop me.”
Sky looked ready to argue the point, but then what I’d been waiting for happened. Sky staggered, eyes going unfocused, and grabbed at the bench as he tumbled down to the ground. It was heartbreaking to watch Sky, with his soldier’s grace lost as his body betrayed him.
Because I’d betrayed him.
“What’s happening …?” asked Sky, but I could see he already knew. He just didn’t want to believe. He’d wanted to trust me.
I slid the disc back into my bag, alongside the bag of powder Dane had given me. Sky’s eyes were already sliding closed. He would sleep, for a little while.
“Dane said it wouldn’t last long,” I told Sky’s unconscious body. “I’m sorry.”
I put out the dancing flames surrounding us, knowing that the fire between us was already lost.
Specialist
Silva had sent a group text to the Specialists saying to suit up. Riven had no idea what he wanted, but he climbed morosely into his armor. Probably it was another drill. Maybe he’d feel better if he hit someone. Maybe he could cut off Dane’s head in an unfortunate training accident. He walked out of his room, buckling on his sword and shaking his head, trying to pull himself together.
Then Terra came charging through the Specialist corridor, headed right for Riven.
She grabbed his arm. “Hey! I need help.”
Riven reached for his sword. “What do you need?”
There were bits of vines in Terra’s hair and a wild look in her eye. “Bloom’s about to do something absolutely insane, so I have to find Sky.”
“You have to find Sky,” Riven said flatly. “For help.”
“Yes, obviously!”
“Have you ever even had a conversation with Sky?”
“We have conversations!” Terra protested. “Multiple ones! Anyway, everybody knows he’s a great guy, and I think he really cares about Bloom. Hope Stella doesn’t—”
“Blind her,” Riven murmured. “I’ve been concerned about that, too.”
“Blinding’s very concerning!” said Terra. “But it’s not the issue right now. The problem is this. Dane is a weasel. He is a weasel-faced weasel. Had you noticed that?”
“It had come to my attention.”
It hadn’t bothered him. He’d thought it was something he and Dane had in common.
Terra pointed an accusing finger. “And yet, you kinda made out with him!”
“And you just wanted to make out with him,” Riven shot back.
“That’s not important at this time! Dane was up to no good, so I bound him to a chair with vines and threatened to keep him tied up there forever—”
“I’m sorry, you did what?” Riven gave Terra a scandalized glare. “Terra, has it occurred to you that you have something of a vine management problem?”
Terra waved this off. “I mean, not forever, but I wouldn’t let him pee. I had to extract information from him somehow, you must see that!”
Riven swore. “Did you shake your vines at him in a menacing fashion and say, ‘We have ways of making you talk’?”
“No, Riven. Be reasonable. Why would I do that?” Terra shook her head and waved an object at him.
Riven squinted at it. “Is that Dane’s cell phone?”
“Yeah. Will you please focus!”
“I wanted to be clear,” said Riven. “You’re mugging people now.”
Terra was really blossoming. Into a criminal maniac flower.
“Bloom and Dane are plotting a jailbreak of your deranged, murderous ex,” Terra announced. “Dane gave Bloom some sort of magic key.”
They were what? Dane had done what?
“We didn’t technically break up,” Riven pointed out.
“Murder means breaking up,” said Terra.
Riven nodded. “Yeah, that’s fair.”
“So I desperately need help and I must find Sky! Who else could possibly help?”
Riven gave her a wry smile. “Certainly not me.”
“Nobody would ever ask you for help,” Terra agreed absentmindedly. “Sky can talk sense into Bloom! Do you have any idea where he is?”
“I thought he went off to find Bloom, to be honest.”
“Oh no.” Terra’s eyes were saucers. “What if Bloom’s already eliminated him?”
What, did Terra suspect another murder? Blindings. Murder. Kidnapping and bondage with vines. Why was nobody content with being a low-key delinquent like Riven himself?
“I don’t think Bloom would murder Sky,” Riven decided. “She’s too warm for his form to put him on ice permanently.”
Terra punched Riven in the arm. She punched pretty hard. “Bloom is my friend! She would never murder anyone.”
“You just said she was gonna jailbreak a murderer!”
“That’s not the same thing at all,” Terra told him severely. “I’m sure she just tied up Sky and stashed him somewhere safe. All right, I’ll deal with Bloom. You should probably go find Sky.”
“That’s all you want me to do?”
“Uh,” said Terra. “I guess you could also untie Dane?”
Riven felt his eyebrows hit his hairline. “Did you not already untie Dane?”
“No, Riven,” Terra said. “Dane might have got in my way.”
She whirled around and hurtled off. Well, that had been an unhinged interaction. Apparently, Terra was a spy of the realm now.
Riven looked after Terra and murmured, “I genuinely don’t think Dane would dare.”
He shook his head and set off toward the courtyard when Silva marched past him. Silva’s always-set jaw currently looked like granite that was disappointed in the world.
“Good that you suited up. Where’s Sky?” snapped Silva.
“I’m glad nobody’s even bothering with ‘hey, Riven’ anymore,” grumbled Riven. “Just cut right to the chase, guys.”
Something deeply military was about to happen to Riven; he could feel it. Why d
id he have to be tormented like this?
Silva snapped out the words. “There’s at least six Burned Ones massacring people on the other side of the Barrier. Marco’s team is already down. It’s our job to stop them.”
Riven stared at Silva with his mouth falling open. He hated to point out the wildly obvious, but if a whole team of trained adult Specialists had been taken down, the trainees at Alfea were just gonna get slaughtered. He tried to find some non-insubordinate way to ask, “What’s my motivation to get slaughtered?”
“Don’t ask questions,” Silva growled. “Find Sky.”
Okay, Riven got it. Everybody wanted Sky. It was Riven’s job to fetch him.
Since the Burned Ones were gonna kill them all, he’d better hurry and untie Dane, too.
Fire
I headed for the gate, and then stopped dead when I saw a strange guard.
Swiftly, I shot Dane a text saying I have the key. Where are you?
Terra’s voice behind me said simply, “He’s not coming.”
I turned to behold Terra and Aisha. Terra held up Dane’s cell. Aisha was almost vibrating with disappointment and anger.
“What the hell are you doing, Bloom? Breaking Beatrix out?”
Every justification I could think of to offer sounded feeble under their furious gazes. But my friends weren’t soldiers. They’d helped me before. Maybe if they knew the truth about Aster Dell, they would help me again.
“Dowling is lying to me. Everyone here is lying. You don’t know what I know.”
“We do,” Aisha said flatly. “Dane told us about Aster Dell.”
Terra’s voice rang with righteous fury. “My dad would never do that, Bloom. Beatrix is a liar. And a murderer.”
I glanced back and forth.
“Of course. You’re his daughter, and you’re Dowling’s little helper. I’m never gonna convince either of you. Just like Sky.”
I tried to walk past them. But Aisha stepped in front of me, blocking the way.
“I’m not Dowling’s little helper,” she said. “I’ve been spying on the woman. For days. For you.”
Terra sounded disconcerted. “You what?”
Aisha waved this off. “The point is, all I’ve seen is how hard she’s trying—they’re all trying—to keep us safe.”
Dowling was trying really hard to conceal the truth. I knew that much. I could never forgive her for that.
“They’ve lied about a woman being dead for sixteen years. About a war crime. I know you want to believe in them, but they’re destructive. Maybe dangerous—”
“Listen to yourself!” Terra snapped. “You literally sound like a crazy person.”
Fury spurred me to try getting past Aisha. She blocked me again, as though I was on an enemy team and she would never let me score.
The movements of Aisha’s body were sure, but her voice was faltering and desperate. “We haven’t told anyone what you’re doing. If you just give us the key, we won’t. But if you don’t … I don’t want to see you in the cell next to her.”
I stood there, furious, feeling like an animal at bay. Only I had a better weapon than teeth. I could feel my magic curling hot within me, wanting to spring. The temptation to use magic on my friends was very real.
Aisha took a step back, and there was no fear on her face. Only concern. And hurt.
“Bloom,” Aisha said.
Only that.
The look on Aisha’s face snapped me out of it. I lost my grip on my magic, and sick regret made my stomach lurch. What had I almost done?
It killed me, but I reached into my bag and pulled out the disc. My last chance at answers. I handed it over. Aisha took it away.
“I know how hard this must be,” Aisha whispered.
“No,” I told Aisha. Loving her, hating her, hoping I wouldn’t always resent her for this. “You don’t.”
Mind
Stella leaned over Musa’s phone, reading a barrage of texts from Aisha about Dane.
Stella’s tone got snippy. “I just can’t believe everyone is listening to Aisha like she knows everything. You have no idea how hard it’s been to keep my mouth shut while the suite goes haywire. I can only bear so much.”
Musa’s eyebrows rose. “So you’re the reason stuff keeps falling and breaking and—”
“I have opinions,” Stella said with dignity. “And if I can’t express them verbally, I’m not above poltergeisting.”
Just then, the door swung open, and Aisha and Terra entered. As soon as the door moved, Stella vanished.
Terra was in full swing already. “I just wonder what else we can do …”
“We can put this all behind us, and—” Aisha stopped, seeing Musa. “Where have you been? Didn’t you get my texts?”
Musa didn’t know if she could bring herself to spill Stella’s secrets. “I did. Sorry. I was … busy. Sam was here and—”
Terra made a face. “Wait, not in our room, right?”
Aisha ignored her, holding up a runic disc. “It’s okay. We stopped Bloom. I think she’s losing it. I know I said we wouldn’t, but I wonder if we have to tell Dowling.”
A flash of irritation made Musa jump. It wasn’t her own irritation. She looked at the shelf, where a flowerpot trembled. It started to move on its own toward the edge. Musa pointed at the empty space.
“Don’t you dare.”
Aisha, naturally assuming Musa was talking about her, said, “No. I think we should tell her.”
The vase moved another inch. Actually, Musa was over it. She felt totally ready to spill Stella’s secrets.
“Stella has an opinion about that,” she declared.
“What?” said Terra.
“Huh?” asked Aisha.
“I refuse to keep cleaning them up,” Musa informed Stella. “Just tell them.”
Her suitemates stared at Musa as though she had lost it … until Stella appeared next to the vase. She gave Musa an annoyed glance, and then turned to Terra and Aisha.
“I have an opinion,” announced Stella.
The girls were stunned. Terra started to speak, but Stella’s tone didn’t welcome comments.
“Everyone in this damn suite is so black or white. Did it ever occur to you, like, ever, that there’s somewhere in the middle to land?”
Stella looked at Musa. New understanding passed between them. It was kinda beautiful.
“Bloom’s a pain in the ass,” said Stella, which was less beautiful. “But she deserves to know who she is. Really. Not the stories the faculty is telling her. So we can worry about being right, or we can help our friend. Which is it?”
Fire
I found Dowling in front of an open dresser, staring at an outfit that looked almost like Specialist clothing. The outfit Dowling had worn in the old pictures. She turned at the sound of the door, slamming in my wake.
“Excuse me?” Dowling said thinly.
“I want to see her,” I stated. “Rosalind.”
“I told you, she’s—”
My voice was another slammed door. “I know she’s alive! So don’t lie to me again.”
There had been too many lies. I wasn’t sure I could bear hearing another.
“I don’t have time for this right now, Bloom.” Dowling started to walk past me.
“I’m from Aster Dell.”
I threw the words at her, and they stopped her cold.
“Yep. That’s where I was born. And that’s where my birth parents lived. That is until you, Mr. Silva, and Professor Harvey destroyed it.”
For a moment, Dowling didn’t speak. She didn’t even need to answer. I could see the guilt on her face.
In a shaking voice, I whispered, “So it’s true.”
I hadn’t realized I hoped it wasn’t. She was the woman who’d come from another world to rescue me, surrounded by light. The woman who’d lied to me over and over again.
I clung to rage, because it felt safest. “How could you do that? How could killing Burned Ones be more important to you tha
n people’s lives? Than my … parents?”
Dowling’s expression altered. “You think we did it on purpose?”
“That’s what Beatrix said.” I faltered. “That Rosalind had a crisis of conscience but you did it, anyway.”
Tell me it isn’t true. No, I thought. I didn’t want her to tell me what I wanted to hear. I wanted the truth.
Dowling shook her head. “Rosalind. She’s still manipulating people after all these years.”
“What does that mean?” I demanded. “Tell me what happened that day.”
There was a long, awful silence. I saw Dowling take a deep breath and prayed she wouldn’t lie to me again.
“That day …” said Dowling, “I made a mistake.”
And the pain and resolve on Dowling’s face let me, at last, believe.
“Rosalind was my mentor. The most powerful fairy at Alfea. Feared, but respected. I never doubted her. Never questioned her. So when we heard about the Burned Ones at Aster Dell, we followed.”
As Dowling talked, I could almost see the picture of Rosalind’s team, come to life and walking through the green forest. Before the devastation of Aster Dell. Dowling, Silva, Terra’s dad, Sky’s dad, and Rosalind the trusted leader. Being a team, trying to do good work. How had it all gone so wrong?
“The magic we unleashed that day was immensely powerful. Until then, we didn’t know fairies could combine their magic. It was a secret Rosalind kept. Not the first. Still, we never questioned her. She told us she had taken pains to evacuate the village. She told us that only Burned Ones would be killed in the blast.”
I remembered the vision Beatrix had showed me. So much devastation. So many people had died in that wrecked village. My parents hadn’t been Burned Ones.
Dowling’s face was filled with regret. All she had to say was, “We should have questioned her.”
So it had been Rosalind’s fault? Did Beatrix know? Who was lying?
Maybe all of them were lying.
“When we realized what she had done? What we had done? That day has lived in my mind for sixteen years.” Dowling’s voice was harsh. “If Aster Dell is where you’re from, there are no words I could say that would make right the damage I have caused you.”