MORE THAN CAPABLE | Riven

16

Chapter Sixteen
The Winx

Luella couldn't help but keep the minor shock on her features. Out of the four of them, she probably wasn't the only one. Who would have thought Dinner Lady Dorris would be getting in and out of the school by a secret passage right under her feet?

But there was another, and bigger, concern out of the two thoughts that Luella had. The Burned Ones: that was her major worry. Over time, Luella found it harder and harder to keep panic off herself and found that Bloom was having it easier. Or maybe she'd just always been secretive and Luella couldn't tell; it'd been hard to tell anything over the last week.

Luella rushed passed from Stella and Aisha to Bloom who was leading the group down the damp passageway.

The ice fairy swallowed before talking, trying to process what was happening in her head. "I don't get it," Luella stated to Bloom as she looked over to her but continued to walk quickly. "Why do we have to leave the school?"

"Rosalind told me," Bloom started to explain; she had hesitated on Rosalind's name. The Burned One's footsteps could be heard rattling not far above and behind them, a small echo reaching the passage. "She said that the reason their here is because of me and you."

Luella wanted to halt but knew there wasn't time for it, she also saw it had grabbed the other fairies' attention.

Bloom carried on. "She said that the power in me was too great, or something like that," Bloom rambled. "They're after you because you're rare, you're the only ice fairy. The Burned Ones thought they'd kill you too before the Blood Witches got to you."

Then everyone started asking questions.

"The only ice fairy?" She heard Stella say.

"Blood Witches?" Luella had asked at the same time.

"Aster Dell," Bloom said. "That's where Beatrix had taken me. Where I thought my blood parents were from. The settlers there weren't fairies, they were witches. Blood sacrifices and stuff like that."

Aisha joined in too. "If the settlers were witches, then your parents couldn't have come from there," Aisha worked out.

Bloom nodded, they could see a light. They were nearly at the end. "Rosalind said my parents were gone."

The water fairy was still puzzled about one thing as the light fairy was with another. "So they've been after you, but how did they get past the barrier?" Aisha asked.

Guilt plunged Bloom's face. "Rosalind took the magic from the Stone Circle."

Luella's eyes widened. Her dad had told her before when she first came. The Stone Circle, the vessel. "The Stone Circle, it powers Alfea — and the barrier," Luella announced.

She heard the girl mutter a quiet 'yep' as they made it out the passageway, their eyes adjusting to the little light that now shone. Their paces became even quicker.

The quartet trampled through small fields of grass and across small crosswalks not far from the front of the school, the specialist field. There was a slight mist.

Luella believed Bloom after she apologised. And she would now, if Bloom was brave and knowing enough that she could take on the Burned Ones, she would try her best not to doubt the worst that could come.