by Ava Corrigan
Terra asked, “Doesn’t your ring only work outside the Barrier?”
Outside the Barrier, where a man had been murdered.
Musa had been trying not to hear the thoughts about what had been done to the old man’s body all evening.
Fire
There was even more rustling than usual in the detritus piled in the warehouse corners, but I didn’t care. I ran out of there all the way to my parents’ house. I was going to run through the door of home, and never leave, and …
There was a tarp over part of the house, still. There was the rubble of construction. The porch light was a beacon, lighting my way home.
And what would I do, once I was home? Burn it down again? Kill my parents?
I stopped moving forward. I took out my phone and called my parents, staring through the window, as I spoke to them and lied that I was jet-lagged when they asked if I was okay.
“You don’t have to be okay,” Mom assured me. “You’re only sixteen. Being that far away is a huge deal.”
Dad said gently, “I couldn’t have done it when I was your age. Be thankful you got your mom’s bravery.”
But now I knew that wasn’t true. I didn’t get anything from my mom. No wonder I was always such a disappointment to her.
Only I could see Mom through the kitchen window. She didn’t seem disappointed. She looked so happy just to be talking to me. How could I ever tell her what I did to her? How could I ever tell her what I was?
Mom was right. Even though I was so close, I couldn’t be farther away. And it was so hard.
My parents told me they loved me. I knew I loved them. And I knew I didn’t belong here. Maybe I never had.
I slunk back to the warehouse, where I’d spent so many weary nights. Once I was there, it was like I’d never left, never seen Alfea. Like I was stuck here, confused and helpless.
I heard faint whispers. Sibilant. Strange.
Through the dusty windows, all illumination was fading away.
My head jerked up, and in the sole spotlight provided by the skylight, I saw a silhouette.
Even at first glance, I could tell everything about it was wrong, from its elongated limbs to its grotesquely crooked posture. It took a lurching step toward me.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t human.
I staggered backward, falling, and Stella’s ring rolled right out of my pocket. I watched the gleaming thing roll into the slats of a floor grate. Oh no.
I crawled to it, reaching out my hand to grab the ring. But it was out of reach. I kept trying, when I heard the rasp. Distant. Growing louder.
The inhuman creature was coming closer and closer. I reached desperately for the ring again, flattening myself against the wall under the window, trembling as I held my breath.
Inches away from me, staring through the dirty window, I saw its monstrous face.
It was covered in charred flesh, with hollowed eye sockets. But deep within them, its black eyes were sharp. As though it saw me, and seeing me, it knew what to do.
The window shattered, glass flying everywhere. I pulled up the grate and dived into it, squeezing my body through and then crawling into the tiny space. Steam obscured my vision. Then I saw it, only a few feet away: Stella’s ring. On the other side of a vertical mesh barrier. I headed toward the shine of the ring, but then came a slamming sound that made my head echo.
The monster was on the grate above me.
I crawled as fast as I could. The ring was on the other side of the mesh, but there was a hole just big enough for my hand to get through. I reached for the ring, almost had it.
But in the crawl space in front of me, past the barrier, the shadow of the creature passed on top of the grate. The monster bashed frantically at the grate. Once. Twice. Until with a ringing metallic crash, the monster fell into the claustrophobic space with me.
I made one last grab for the ring, but the monster slammed its hand down on it.
I decided on a new plan. I called it plan B: Run like hell.
I crawled hastily out of the grate and ran for the warehouse’s emergency exit. Behind me, I heard the creature coming after me. I didn’t dare look back. I didn’t have to. I could tell it was coming fast.
Then Headmistress Dowling stepped out from behind a beam with that particularly serious expression on her face.
“This way,” Headmistress Dowling said coolly.
She stepped aside, revealing a framed doorway, and light. It was another magical portal. I stepped through.
From the other side, I turned as Ms. Dowling stepped between the monster and the doorway. She put her hand up, and the door slammed. After the slam came only silence.
I was left staring, stunned and saved.
Behind me, Aisha’s voice asked, “Are you okay?”
I turned and found, to my amazement, Aisha, Terra, and Musa all waiting for me. From the looks on their faces, they had seen the monster on the other side of the door.
“I think so? What the hell was that thing?”
Terra said in a fearful voice, “I’m pretty sure it’s called a Burned One.”
I couldn’t believe they had all come here, for me. There was only one of my suitemates missing.
“Wait. Where’s Stella?”
“I don’t know,” Aisha answered. “Why?”
I said numbly, “That thing took her ring.”
Specialist
Sky couldn’t get California girl Bloom out of his head. He was thinking about her while he was in the shower.
Oh no, Sky corrected himself in dismay, as his inner Riven made a comment about that one. Not like that. Just … how pretty she was, her red hair bright as a new copper penny, in the sunlight streaming through the courtyard. How funny she was. She’d looked so lost, trying to find her way around a strange castle, and that had drawn Sky to her like a moth to a Fire Fairy.
Sky had already done something a little bit sketch. At the orientation party, he’d found Terra Harvey, Professor Harvey’s daughter. Sky had an in there. Terra was drifting around looking happy and dreamy-eyed.
“Hey,” he’d said to her. “Terra, right?”
Terra blinked at him. “Yes.”
“Sorry if this is awkward,” Sky said. “But I was wondering … Bloom’s your suitemate, right? And I assume … you have her number …?”
Terra lit up like a light bulb. “And you’d like me to give you her number!” she exclaimed.
“Not if you think it’s weird,” Sky said hastily. “Or aggressive.”
“I don’t think it’s weird, Sky,” Terra assured him. “I think it’s beautiful. Love is beautiful!”
“Uh,” said Sky. “I don’t know about … I was just thinking, I’d, you know … text her …”
Terra had given Sky Bloom’s number, but Sky was still worried it was weird. Terra meant well, but she wasn’t socially adept.
Sky didn’t know how to ask someone out on a date. He’d been with Stella forever. She clung to him, because of her mom. She clung to him so tightly, it seemed like they must fit together. But then there had been the whole mess last year, and Stella had dumped him, and hadn’t spoken to him all summer. They were done, Sky told himself firmly.
He was single. He could potentially date someone new.
If he could just figure out what to text Bloom.
He was wandering around the room in his towel, composing a text to Bloom, when Stella came through the door. And immediately tried to get under his towel.
Sky felt obliged to point out, “You broke up with me.”
Stella pulled back. “I know.”
“I didn’t hear from you all summer, then I say two words to a first year, and here you are.”
“I said I know, okay. I’m sorry.”
An apology was unusual enough, coming from Stella. When she said sorry, she meant it. Sky felt himself waver. He knew Stella, well enough to see she was truly upset.
“What are you doing here?” Sky asked more gently.
“I got
jealous,” Stella burst out. “I know I’m not allowed to, but I did. Then I did something stupid and … They think I’m a monster.”
“Stel,” Sky murmured, stricken.
“I can’t sleep there. In a room where everyone hates me. So can I please just stay here tonight? Next to somebody who doesn’t? Hate me? I hope?”
Sky moved toward her, and brushed her golden hair out of her perfect face.
“You’re better than you think you are, Stella,” he murmured.
He pulled her close, wrapping her in his arms. Letting Stella collapse into him.
Beautiful new girl Bloom had looked lost, trying to find her way through Alfea, but she didn’t look as though she’d stay lost.
She didn’t need Sky, not really. And no matter how alluring the idea of someone independent and shining-new might be, it was Sky’s duty as a soldier to go where he was needed.
Fire
Late that night, I got ready for bed. None of us knew what to do about the ring. None of my roommates seemed to know what to say to me. I sure didn’t know what to say to them. I appreciated that they’d come for me, but we weren’t friends.
Maybe tomorrow, things would be more clear. I’d understand what it meant to be a changeling, and what was going on with those monsters called the Burned Ones.
I suspected not.
Aisha was lying in bed, watching me with worried eyes. She’d been nothing but kind to me, telling me that Ms. Dowling would deal with the Burned One—whatever nightmare thing that was—and that my parents were safe. She’d even tried complimenting the old lamp with the ruby-red wing pattern I’d salvaged and restored and brought from the human world to Alfea.
My mom never understood why I wanted to fix up old junk. Maybe it was because I always knew there was something broken in me. That someday, I would have to learn how to fix myself.
“I always felt it,” I told Aisha. “That there was something off inside me.”
Aisha said, “There’s nothing off with being a fairy, Bloom.”
“What about being a changeling?” I demanded. “I saw the way you looked at me. Why would a fairy do that? Leave its baby in the human world?”
“I told you. They don’t anymore.”
Lucky me. I was the exception.
“But they did. I did a pretty deep Google search, and changelings pop up in a bunch of cultures. If they’re not defective fairy babies or sacrifices to the devil, they’re just a mean joke on an unsuspecting human family. You know what they never are? A good thing.”
Aisha said gently, “I’m not sure Google is the best source for fairy lore.”
“You’re right.” I looked directly at her. “A fairy is. Which is why I’m asking: What am I?”
Even before I saw the sorrow in her steady, dark eyes, I knew I was asking too much of her. She couldn’t be my salvation, any more than Ms. Dowling could.
“I don’t know, Bloom,” Aisha whispered. “I’m sorry.”
That was really all there was to say, wasn’t it? And I was sorry, too. I climbed into my bed, fighting the urge to pull the blankets over my head and cry for my mother. Mom couldn’t get to me, and I couldn’t go to her.
Here I was, surrounded by fairies and monsters, and I was still the freak.
Lying awake, curled in my cold bed, I knew I was trapped at Alfea. I had no control over my powers and no way to tell my parents the truth. There was no going back. And I didn’t see how this castle could ever feel like home.
Specialist
What a garbage start to Riven’s second year this was. He’d hoped for hooking up with hotties and possibly leveling up his knifework. Not horribly mangled corpses and Terra trying to murder him with a plant. Okay, he knew he was an awful person, but there was no need to be a psychopath about it!
Everyone thought Terra was so sweet, but Riven knew better. A truly nice girl would’ve been concerned about Riven’s traumatic experience and brought him a cup of tea and a blanket. Not that Riven wanted anything like that, because that would be pathetic.
And now he couldn’t even go back to his room tonight, because Sky was in there with Stella. Princess Deranged Ex herself. Stella must have gone to Sky’s room and thrown some poor-pity-me, I’m-so-fragile-but-also-beautiful tantrum. Sky always fell for it. He was such a sucker.
Riven had taken one look at Sky tenderly cuddling Stella in bed, resisted the urge to throw up, and walked right back out.
Whatever. It wasn’t as if Riven was getting to sleep anytime soon.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw those blackened wounds and the torn, bloodstained mask that had been an old man’s face. But it was fine! He had a plan, and his plan was to get high.
He lit up, and as he did so, he noticed a very cute new girl crossing the courtyard carrying a stack of books. She had cute little pigtail braids and a short little skirt.
Riven spoke to her immediately, because she was hot, and he was a simple man. “Burning the midnight oil?”
Mystery Girl said, with a sly look that in no way diminished her attractiveness: “Snorting the midnight Adderall is more like it. I’ll need sleep eventually.”
Riven offered the joint to her. She smiled, which made her even more sexy.
“Hands are a bit full.”
He smiled back. Oho. He took a long hit. She got close, so he could better appreciate her wicked dark eyes and the very appealing cleft in her chin. Their lips an inch apart, he let the smoke filter into her mouth. She held it in, nonchalant. Riven was impressed.
“You a first year?”
She blew the smoke back in his face. In a sexy way. Her eyes danced with a strange, dark gleam.
“I’m a lot of things.”
The girl turned and walked away, putting a little swing in her step.
Thunder rolled. Riven had the feeling thunder had rolled a six.
Okay, the school year had started off lousy, but maybe something was finally going his way. Somebody thought Riven was cute.
Actually … Riven remembered baby Specialist Dane, and cracked a smile. Two people thought Riven was cute. And they were right.
Farah Dowling stood alone in her office, staring out the window at the gathering storm, swirling black and silver behind the glass. The students were all safe in bed, she hoped. She’d sent off her secretary Callum hours ago, despite Callum’s propensity to lurk. She could take a moment in her sanctuary and reflect on the magnitude of what had happened today.
She had a Burned One imprisoned on school grounds.
Only then Silva stalked in, stormy as the world outside the window. He thought she should have killed the Burned One.
Dowling demurred. “I need to get in its head. We need to know if this is an isolated incident, or something more.”
“Something more? Like what?”
“I found a changeling in the First World,” she admitted.
Silva’s voice sharpened, questioning. “A changeling? I haven’t heard of one of those in centuries.”
“Yet there she was,” said Farah. “Left sixteen years ago, right around the time the last Burned One was spotted.”
They had known each other a long time, she and Saúl Silva. They had been young together, visionaries together, soldiers and rebels together. That felt like another life, but sometimes it still seemed as though he could read her mind, with magic that came not from fairy power but from being part of a team.
Silva said slowly, “You think it’s all connected.”
She did.
No strangers here, only friends
you have not yet met.
—attributed to W. B. Yeats
Earth
From the other room, Terra could hear Aisha’s chipper morning clarion call. “Chug some coffee and get the hell up. Be excited. Today you get to learn to use your magic!”
Poor Bloom. Terra couldn’t imagine she was excited. She’d been chased around by a terrifying monster last night.
Everyone was having roommate troubles this mor
ning. Terra herself was faced with a dilemma. Can’t go to school in floral jammies. Can’t get dressed in front of scary mind-reading roommate.
Terra fled to the bathroom. She was halfway into a shirt when Aisha came all the way into the room, chattering blithely, and sat down to …
Oh. Oh dear.
“… you’re peeing in front of me. Okay. That’s new. And fine!” Terra added hastily.
Terra was cool. She could hang.
Aisha was magnificently indifferent. “Oh. That weird? Not used to caring. Swim team and all. Were you going to take a shower?”
Aisha flushed the toilet, and stood. She turned on the shower and Terra wondered for a frantic moment if Aisha was suggesting a nonchalant lady shower of togetherness. Terra didn’t know if they would both fit, and she wasn’t interested in learning.
“No, I, uh … I was gonna change, but …” A brainwave struck. “I forgot my bra.”
Aisha pointed to the bra on top of Terra’s pile of clothes.
“That one?”
Terra gabbled excuses—this bra was too small, it was maybe on fire, she’d never seen this bra before in her life—as Aisha started stripping for her shower.
To change the subject, Terra asked: “Have you seen Stella? I don’t think she came back last night.”
Stella had probably been with Sky. But would Sky really get back together with Stella, after last year …?
Nonchalant about this as about all else, Aisha shrugged. These were Terra’s longed-for Winx roommates. Staying out all night with boys. Getting super naked. Each one of them cooler than Terra would ever be.
Terra grabbed her clothes and fled.
Fire
First day of classes, I thought. Time to learn, and not think about being a changeling, or burned monsters chasing me. Happy thoughts, just like in Peter Pan! That’s how you fly.
Not literally, because fairies didn’t have wings anymore. Emotionally. Emotionally, I would fly. No bad thoughts.
Through my open bedroom door, Musa’s voice filtered. “I didn’t even think those things were real, but we all saw it. It was creepy as hell. It looked like it wanted to kill her—”
