by Ava Corrigan
“Why would Rosalind do that? Lie?” I whispered.
Why did everybody lie? I was so tired of it.
“She was a zealot. She wanted every Burned One dead, no matter the cost. I’m sure she thought if she told us she couldn’t evacuate, we’d say no. She would’ve been right.”
I tried to puzzle it out, unravel the whole sorry mess. “But what about me? Why did she rescue me? Why did she put me in the human world? Why did she tell me to find her?”
Weariness seemed to overcome Dowling, there in her shadowy office, with the doors of her past open before us.
“That much I do not know, Bloom. Rosalind kept many things from me.”
Hope flared in me. “Which is why I want to see her. I know you’re holding her. Beatrix told me she’s under the school.”
Dowling shifted uncomfortably. I suspected she hadn’t expected me to know that. But she didn’t deny it.
“Whatever she has to give you is not worth unleashing her back into the world, Bloom.”
Dowling approached me. More open than I’d ever seen her, as though she might reach out and take my hands. Pour out the truth into my cupped hands, the truth I needed. About my birth parents.
“I will help you get any answers you need,” Dowling told me. “I give you my word.”
I wanted to believe her, so badly, but I didn’t want to be a fool. And just then, Silva arrived. He demanded Dowling’s presence. There was something more important than finding me my answers.
There always seemed to be something more important. For everyone, except for me.
Specialist
When Sky came to in the stone circle, it was dark and cold, and Bloom was long gone. He ignored all the texts on his phone, staggered to his feet, and headed back for the castle. Before he got there, Riven found him.
“You look like garbage,” said Sky’s always-sympathetic best friend.
“I feel like it. So that makes sense.”
Riven seemed to feel he should explain his presence outside the gates. “Terra the superspy got Dane to spill. He said Bloom came out here to do something with a magic key, and no one could reach you, so …”
Sky’s friend was wearing full armor, and he was holding a gear bag.
Sky tensed. “Where is Dane?” That traitor. Sky would make him pay.
“Gearing up.”
“What?” exclaimed Sky. “Please tell me Beatrix is—”
“Still locked up,” Riven said briefly. “We have bigger problems.”
He tossed Sky the gear bag. Riven always threw too hard, but Sky could always catch whatever he threw. Sky unzipped the bag to reveal his own armor, and his sword.
“The hell is going on?” asked Sky slowly.
“Silva needs us at the Barrier,” said Riven.
At once, Sky’s hand closed around the hilt of his sword. He knew what that must mean. The Burned Ones were attacking. Sky’s duty was clear.
As they headed for the Barrier, Riven explained to him that the Burned Ones were coming at them in force. There was a video circulating of them decimating a Specialist team. Sky’s mind sheered away from the idea of so many Burned Ones, of how much destruction they could cause.
As soon as Sky’s mind went wandering, it went to Bloom.
“When we see Silva …” said Sky. “Do you think we could not mention …”
Riven sighed. “One crazy girlfriend is an accident that could happen to anyone. Two is a pattern. You want me to not mention you getting drugged by a ginger maniac hellbent on freeing murderers from prison?”
“Uh,” said Sky. “Yeah.”
Riven shrugged. “Whatever, man, I don’t judge your kinks. Ugh, what a day. Hope Terra smashes Dane’s phone.” He brightened, as if that was a pleasant thought.
Sky frowned. “Why did Terra steal Dane’s phone?”
Riven shook his head. “Too much crime to explain. C’mon, bro. We’ve gotta go get murdered.”
Fire
I sat on the ground and stared out through the Barrier. The Otherworld beyond was beautiful, and strange, and nothing like home. I couldn’t see even a gleam of hope in this whole landscape.
Then, with a soft sound, something small and bright dropped into the grass beside me.
“You need answers,” said Musa.
“People have kept them from you,” chimed in Terra, to whom truth was so important. “We don’t want to be those people, too.”
I felt so impossibly touched, felt as though finally someone had seen me for the first time in a long time. And it was these someones, my friends. Then I realized who was missing.
“Where’s Aisha?”
Terra grimaced. “You know she has some strong feelings and she didn’t totally exactly agree with what we were thinking about—”
Musa said simply, “She’s in the suite.”
“I guess … that’s as good as I could ask for.” I nodded to the disc. “So you’re going to let me break Beatrix out?”
“Yeah, so that’s kind of the part Aisha couldn’t get on board with …”
And at that moment, Stella emerged from the gloom. I stared. Where the hell had Stella come from?
Stella said archly, “She never likes my ideas, anyway.”
Water
The rasp of the Burned Ones filled the nighttime forest like the sound of rustling leaves with teeth. Headmistress Dowling, Professor Harvey, and Specialist Headmaster Silva, with the Specialists arrayed around them, were standing before the Barrier ready to fight.
The rest of their suitemates had thrown in with Bloom. It was time for Aisha to pick a team.
“How many of them are there?” she asked.
The others turned to look at her. Sky’s weird friend Riven gave Aisha some serious side-eye, but Headmistress Dowling looked at Aisha with simple concern.
“Get back to school. You shouldn’t be out this close to the Barrier.”
“I came because …” Aisha could only offer the device she’d found in Callum’s desk.
“A listening device!” said Professor Harvey.
Dowling’s face was stern, but it almost always was. Still, she’d chosen Aisha and trusted Aisha with responsibilities, and Aisha had repaid her by deceiving her in order to help Bloom. Now lives were in danger, Dowling would soon face nightmare creatures to save her students, and Bloom was still bent on her personal mission.
It was horrible, to think she was betraying her roommate. But if Aisha didn’t speak now, she was betraying Dowling and Alfea.
“It was Callum’s. I found it after he was … killed,” Aisha confessed. “I’ve been using it. It felt like there were all these secrets, and I didn’t know if I trusted you. But now I know. You’re protecting us.”
Silva snapped, “You need to get back to the school now. This is not the time for extra credit or—”
Aisha agreed. This wasn’t a time to think about doing well, or wanting friends. This wasn’t a game. It was time to do what she believed was right.
Desperately resolute, Aisha interrupted to say, “I’m not looking for extra credit. I’m here because you need to know what’s happening. What Bloom is going to do.”
Riven was now giving Aisha so much side-eye there was side-eyebrow involved. Sky shot Aisha a look that pleaded with her not to tell.
Aisha told, anyway.
Fire
I marched into the East Wing to free the prisoner. This time, with the support of my friends.
“And here I was, doubting you,” Beatrix said as she placed the runic disc over her bracelet.
The disc worked fast. Beatrix’s magic returned even faster. Beatrix’s eyes glowed gray, and it was scary to see how quickly she accessed her power. She put her finger on the locked door. At once a tiny spark arced through the metal and the door popped open.
“Here we go,” announced Beatrix, as though we were embarking on a great adventure.
As Beatrix strolled out of her cell and led the way toward Dowling’s office, there was a spring
in her step.
Once we got there, she showed me how to move aside the stone bookcase to expose a hidden door. I stood at Dowling’s desk as Beatrix cautiously peered through the doorway.
“Once Dane gets here, we can chuck him through,” Beatrix told me brightly.
Apparently, that was how it worked.
“Seems kind of harsh, using him to spring the trap,” I said casually.
“He’ll be game.” Beatrix pondered this. “Or he won’t, and we’ll do it, anyway!”
“What about you?” I asked. “Are you game?”
Beatrix tilted her head in a puzzled, birdlike gesture. She was studying me. She didn’t even have time to react when Stella popped into sight right next to her and shoved her hard through the doorway. As soon as Beatrix hit the ground, her eyes clouded with magic, and she lay paralyzed.
I guessed she’d gotten the drop on Callum just like this. Turnabout was fair play.
“That was much more satisfying than a flowerpot,” Stella remarked mysteriously, dusting off her hands.
Terra and Musa walked through the door of Dowling’s office, less chipper than Stella, but looking determined. Loyal Terra eyed Beatrix with resentment.
“By the way,” she said. “Dane would not be game.”
Stella clearly wished to be admired at once. “See? Break out the villain to get what Bloom needs, and then trap her again. Simple. My ideas rock.”
Musa glanced down at Beatrix, her own eyes glowing.
“In case anyone was wondering?” Musa asked dryly. “She’s not happy.”
I wasn’t wondering. I was staring at the secret doorway, and thinking of the answers that lay beyond.
Earth
The tunnels beyond the secret doorway were dark and creepy. Terra supposed that made sense.
Stella was using her magic to light her way with one of those pretty bright wisps she used to make all her photos so gorgeous. Terra stuck close by Stella, even though Stella was scary and nasty, because of that light.
Also because it was nice to see Stella again. The suite was complete!
“I feel like I’m going to regret this, but … are you okay?” Stella inquired.
There was so much on Terra’s mind, she hardly knew what to say first. She was so relieved Stella had asked.
Stella’s expression didn’t look relieved, but too late! Terra was already talking.
“I just freed a prisoner. Broke into the headmistress’s office.”
Stella nodded. Yeah, Terra supposed Stella had been there the whole time.
Terra heard her own voice pick up speed, feelings tumbling out. “Since I can remember, when I’ve been scared or unsure, I’ve always turned to one person for answers. My dad. I’ve always been able to close my eyes in the dark and know he’d lead me the right way. But I don’t think he’d lead me down here.”
Stella seemed to consider her answer carefully before she replied.
“Even the best parents are doing what they think is best for us. At some point, we have to take over for ourselves.”
She paused, and concentrated. Stella’s eyes glowed topaz, and another bright wisp of light appeared. Next to Terra. Just for her, lighting her way.
Terra gazed at her magic light. She felt so touched, she might cry. She wondered if Stella would be receptive to a hug.
“Oh, and by the way, your outfit?”
Stella gave her an up-and-down look. Withering without saying a word. Terra felt a pang of totally normal humiliation, there in the creepy tunnel. And she beamed.
I love my dumb mean friends, thought Terra. I love the Winx Club.
Fire
At the end of the tunnel, there was a door. I stopped in front of it, knowing it was where I needed to be. But I held still, too frantic with fear and excitement to move. I felt as if I might stay here, waiting for answers, my whole life.
Until Musa approached. Her eyes didn’t glow, but I felt as though she could see into my heart, anyway.
“Everything I’ve been looking for is right through that door,” I whispered.
We stood together for a moment, on the threshold.
“We’ll be here when you come out,” Musa said steadily.
My friends. I knew they would.
I walked through the door and saw a barrier. Almost like the Barrier to the forest, but this was a latticework of bright magic.
I took another step forward into the light.
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
—W. B. Yeats
Fire
I entered a strange, bright room. The walls were undulating like beams of light on water. Held in a translucent prison, Rosalind hung suspended. She looked just like my vision of her, like her photographs: a woman with such force of personality she could’ve set the air around her burning.
I touched the undulating light between us, and a forbidding jolt of magic made me spring back.
“Sorry. Should’ve warned you.”
A voice echoed, but only in my mind. I could see Rosalind’s lips, and they weren’t moving.
“Rosalind?” I whispered, just the same.
She replied, “I can only imagine how many questions you have for me.”
Rosalind’s voice in my mind was warm, but confident. It had been so long since I felt comforted. Hearing her almost brought a tear to my eyes.
“Just a few,” I admitted.
“Well, I’ve only got one for you. Do you have any idea how special you are?”
I hadn’t expected anything like that. Her question was rough, but sweet. Honest. The best part was, she seemed so utterly different from Ms. Dowling.
I couldn’t help a startled smile.
Playfully, Rosalind asked, “Wanna learn a new trick?”
“Right now?”
Was now the time for tricks?
“Access that flame inside you. Use the joy you’re feeling, because you’re about to get answers. Or how pissed off you are at me for leaving you in the First World without them. I won’t be offended.”
I closed my eyes, and felt all the tangled emotions in me spark and then catch fire.
Maybe now was exactly the right time for tricks.
Rosalind encouraged, “Here comes the fun part. That flame? Your instincts are telling you that it’ll burn you. Your instincts are wrong. Grab on to it.”
It felt as though the fire was enveloping me, but not consuming me. I gasped, feeling myself come alight with power.
“Now. Touch the barrier again.”
I hesitated.
“Don’t be a wuss,” Rosalind told me. “You’ve got this. Do it.”
Rosalind directed me with such easy authority, and it felt so natural to obey. I reached out and touched the barrier. This time, my hand wasn’t blown back.
When my vision cleared, the barrier was gone. Standing in the center of the room was Rosalind.
She spoke out loud now. Her voice scratchy, but filled with personality.
“Sixteen years. No mirror. No makeup. How great do I look right now? Don’t lie. Okay, lie a little.”
She cracked an intensely disarming smile. Then, she took a step, and her legs gave out. I rushed to her.
“You need food. Water. Rest.”
“No,” said Rosalind. “I need magic.”
Earth
“Bloom has been in there a while,” Terra fretted. “What could they be talking about?”
Stella gave her a disdainful look. “Once I heard you talk about dirt for two hours. Dirt. Two hours.”
“Soil,” Terra corrected sternly. Get it right, Stella! It was an important distinction. “And we left Beatrix lying there. I wanna make sure she’s not awake, fashioning three shivs.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. She’d use one shiv three times. Stab stab stab,” Musa said.
Oh, Terra loved
Musa, but her roommate was not a reassuring person.
“Can we just go check?”
“Fine, but you’re overreacting,” said Stella with a lofty air.
Stella kept up the attitude all the way through the tunnels, right up until they reached the doorway and were confronted with the space in the floor where Beatrix used to be. Terra stared accusingly at Stella. Musa eyed the door.
Right! They had to regroup. Terra was making a plan. “I’d like my apology via scented handwritten note after we find her.”
Musa murmured, “It gets worse …”
At the door, Dowling stood with Aisha. And, far worse, with Terra’s dad.
“You have no idea the trouble you’ve caused. You especially, Stella,” said Dowling.
Oh no. Stella must be protected.
“We were just—” Terra began valiantly.
Her father interrupted. He’d never addressed Terra with his pure Professor-Harvey voice, but he was using it now. “Not another word. Come with me.”
As Terra’s dad led them out, Stella paused by Aisha.
“I hope the brownie points you’re getting from this will keep you company when you have no friends,” she said sweetly.
Once again, Terra found herself a little grateful for Stella’s meanness.
Mind
Everyone was having too many loud, intense, awful feelings, and Musa hated them all.
She sat quietly beside Stella as Professor Harvey read them the riot act, and tried to sink through the floor. Terra was standing near the door, her every nerve jangling like wind chimes in Musa’s head. Aisha sat across the room. Just watching.
Professor Harvey said, “Insubordination. Breaking and entering. Endangering the lives of your classmates. And releasing Rosalind? Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
None of them said a word. Professor Harvey turned to address Terra specifically.
“I’d say I’m disappointed in you, but this goes far beyond that.”
Harvey moved to leave, shaking his head. Terra’s face was a mix of frustration and devastation. But then she glanced over at Stella. Stella nodded, encouraging the fury building in Terra like an avalanche, and Terra found her voice.