RIVEN WAS FREAKING OUT, he even thought he could run a twenty-mile marathon right now. At the same time, he felt exhausted and tired after sending more than twenty messages to Viperine and getting no response.

    He wanted to clear things up. He wanted to ask her if it was true what Sky said about her kissing him. Riven didn't want to believe it. Viperine was the first girl he really had a thing for; she was important to him. He didn't want to believe that she would betray him, but it was his best friend's words against the fairy's.

    "Where is she?" exclaimed Sky, bursting into the shared room.

"Who?" He snapped, bored. "Viperine is not glued to me. What do you need?"

    "I'm looking for Bloom," he corrected him, but Sky wasn't sure if her words were true or not.

    Riven tried to ignore him, so maybe he'd leave.

    "But have you seen the Viperine?" Sky insisted, sounding too hurried. "Not that it matters to me, but she was with Bloom last."

"Is this serious?"

    That question came from a female voice. Sky and Riven turned their heads, seeing Stella coming out of their bathroom... What was she doing there? She looked like a hurricane of a blonde, an extremely angry fairy.

    "I've sent you over fifteen messages, and you're running around looking for Bloom; who is Viperine?"

    Riven threw himself off the bed, snapping his neck as he tucked his cell phone into his pants pocket and grabbed his leather jacket off the table.

    "That's it," he sighed, leaving. "Have fun with it.

◈

    VIPERINE WAS THROWN awkwardly in the backseat of the SUV Beatrix had stolen—having lightning bolts coming out of her hands came in handy at such moments. She was bored with the long journey they had made there.

Viperine was sure Beatrix had asked her and Bloom a lot of questions in those hours, but Viperine was sure she ended up dozing off at some point. As much as sleeping had helped pass the time, she now regretted it, her neck feeling like it was killing her with pain.

    "Aster Dell is a city, isn't it?" Bloom, perplexed, inquired. "Is this the right place?"

    They had just descended, the car doors slamming as they walked farther to the edge of the cliff. The wind hit their faces hard, grains of sand unfortunately coming with it.

    "How can a city be marked on a map on the side of a mountain?"

    "The same way the stars are mapped," muttered Viperine, yawning. "Shall we get on with it?"

    Viperine crossed her arms, watching the moment Bloom shivered as she stepped on something that wasn't there but that looked like it had broken.

    "What the hell kind of place is this?"

    "The fifth from hell," replied Viperine, without thinking, seeing Bloom's eyes widen. "Or was. This place is in ruins. Beatrix?"

    Beatrix was close to the edge, her hands balled into fists at her sides. Invoking your magic. She took a deep breath, her eyes gray as electricity crackled from her hands. She raised them above her head, summoning a storm.

    "What are you doing?" cried Bloom, not understanding.

    "You are not the only powerful fairy in Alfea."

Beatrix raised her hands, and from the storm clouds a thunderous and powerful bolt descended. Bloom was startled, conjuring threads of fire, but it was too late. Directly above them, the world turned white and bright. It was fog.

"Welcome to Aster Dell," hissed Viperine wryly.

Stunned, where before it was just an empty mountain, it was now covered in rubble, collapsed walls, and sunken roofs. It was clear that they were destroyed by some relentless force.

"I remember this place from the books," Viperine said. "It was full of people. Until one winter, fires surrounded the settlement. A military unit from Alfea decided that destroying them was more important than saving innocent lives."

Bloom denied it, in disbelief.

"It's not real," he exclaimed. "You two are making this happen somehow."

"I pierced the magic veil Queen Luna put on to hide what happened here," Beatrix said. "It's like the leader of our realm is trying to erase a war crime."

Beatrix looked at Viperine, a long exchange of looks going on. Viperine nodded, as if encouraging her to continue.

"I was born here and my family died here," she revealed. "On December 10, 2004, two days before your birthday."

"And you think my family was killed here too?" Bloom concluded.

"I'm sure," she corrected. "I know why everyone here died except you and me."

"And how do you know that?"

"Because I saw death that day, I saw the bodies," she replied. "But someone rescued me. I watched as they ran, walking through the carnage like conquering heroes."

Bloom stopped exploring, turning to Beatrix.

"Who did you see?"

"Dowling, Silva and Harvey."

"How can you be so sure?" she insisted.

"Because the woman who saved me used her magic to etch the memory into my mind," Beatrix said fiercely.

"Rosalind," Viperine exclaimed. "Yeah, she had a crisis of conscience. She couldn't destroy a village, even when her supposed allies turned against her."

Viperine saw the light rise in Bloom's eyes. That was good; it meant they were completing this mission and seeing what the real Dowling was inside.

"They lied to me," whispered Bloom, still doubtful. "But they're not monsters."

"They are not?" replied Viperine. "So why are you covering this up?"

Bloom had no answer to that question. The magic veil slowly began to return. Beatrix was powerful, but not powerful enough to break Queen Luna's enchantment.

Bloom still couldn't believe it, and Viperine was almost certain that she saw tears welling up in her eyes, or almost falling. They walked back to the stolen SUV, heading back to Alfea. Bloom looked anxious. She probably wanted to ask Dowling that herself.

"We have no reason to make up a story about our teachers being murderers," Beatrix claimed, when they were several miles from Aster Dell. She had given Bloom time to calm down.

"We understand you couldn't trust us until we proved ourselves trustworthy," hissed Viperine, hurling herself against the front seat. "You know, we're not like teachers. And you need the answers we have."

"From a woman who died and left nothing but cryptic messages and half-truths, I need more" replied Bloom.

"Rosalind is alive," Viperine revealed. "We came to Alfea on a mission to free you."

Bloom sobbed, "Dowling told me she was dead!"

"Dowling isn't who you think he is, but we just follow orders."

"Orders from whom?" asked Bloom.

But Viperine as well as Beatrix replied, not when Viperine scared Beatrix and told her to stop the car. Viperine ignored their protests and walked slowly into the forest on the outskirts of Alfea.

The endless messages Riven had sent over the last few hours would have to be worth it.

◈

VIPERINE KNEW IT WAS easy to find Riven when none of them were in class. Riven was almost a cigarette addict, especially when he was angry and ran off into the woods.

However, his way of releasing energy was also fatal, so much so that the last time he found a corpse.

Viperine jumped up, sitting on the huge rock and taking the cigarette from their fingers, bringing it to her own rosy lips and gulping. She handed it back then, noticing that his jaw was set. Was that anger?

"I sent over twenty messages," he hissed. "Where were you?"

"Ou of Alfea." She shrugged. "What did you want? Said we needed to talk."

"Me and Sky fought," Riven said, putting out her cigarette on the stone.

"And baby Riven needs a shoulder to cry on?" Viperine teased, but Riven didn't laugh. "What?"

Riven shook her head in denial, as if he didn't believe her next words.

"The day of the East Wing party," he began, evidently angry. Did you kiss Sky? Because he says yes and it's you who started it all. You two seem to have had something before."

"Are you kidding?" She tried to laugh, slightly affected. "I would never take your best friend, Riven. You are my boyfriend, and I would never cheat on you. Do you doubt me?"

Viperine shifted positions, sitting on his lap with her hands around his neck. She tugged at his sweatshirt collar, trailing kisses down his neck and jaw, distracting him.

"If Skyzinho feels something for me, the broken heart will be his alone," she said. "I only have eyes for you, Riven. It's you I want."

"Viperine," he hissed in warning.

"It hurts me to hear that you actually think I'd kiss your best friend," she said mockingly. Lie. "How do you plan on apologizing?"

Riven didn't respond, but pulled her lips to hers as he kissed her with dominance and urgency. Viperine savored the moment, the memory of Sky invading his mind.

"Huh?" she insisted. "What would you do? Would you kneel down and ask for forgiveness? Would you submit to the most arduous torture ever created? Would you kill for me?"

"What you want?" he asked, still adoring her.

Viperine took a deep breath, holding back a moan that would come from the back of her throat. Riven's hands went through more of his shirt, skin to skin, digging through more and more and more...

"I want you to lie for me."

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9.20.22

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