SKY WAS IN THE CIRCLE OF STONES with Bloom, telling her story, and now it was his turn. But why was he doing this? Maybe it was his way of freeing himself from her, or not, but he had to try.

    "I've lived in Alfea my whole life. Silva created me," he began.

    "I saw what they did at Aster Dell, Sky," Bloom claimed, trying to be reasonable.

    "He would never have helped to massacre an entire village!"

    "Not even if he thought he was killing burns?"

    Sky opened and closed his mouth, not knowing what to say. He knew Silva would always fight for everyone's safety, even if that included burning to extinction.

    "Look, I don't think they're bad," said Bloom, reaching for Sky's hand over the stones. But I believe they are both protecting this place and themselves. So, whatever the truth is, it makes no difference what happened that day."

    Bloom's voice was evidence of her despair. Her hand under his burned, as if he were committing a betrayal.

    He squirmed, withdrawing her hand and backing away. The act did not go unnoticed by Bloom. Sky reached out, taking the bottle of water from her bag and taking a long drink. Suddenly, everything was very hot and he was sweating.

    "Sky," called Bloom, walking up to him and taking her arm.

When Sky pulled away from her touch, it was a hard, cold act. It was clear to her that he didn't want to be touched—not by her.

    "It does not give!" he exclaimed, freaking out. "I'm not who you want, Bloom. I can't be who you want."

"And what did we have?" she asked, not understanding.

    "Bloom, you are an amazing girl," he pleaded, his eyes watering in panic. "However, I am unable to...'

    Bloom cut him off.

    "It's about Viperine, isn't it? I've heard rumors around the school that the two of you had something."

    "I've known Viperine for years. We have a story together, but I fucked up, okay?" Sky revealed, trying to explain himself. "Look, I hurt Viperine. I hurt her a lot. And with her now..."

    "Do you think she returned to Alfea for revenge?" she suggested.

"Particularily," he agreed. "Viperine is unpredictable, Bloom, nobody knows what she is up to."

    Sky took a deep breath, his body hotter than ever—it wasn't normal. He was having trouble breathing.

    "I need some time," Sky said finally. "It's between you and me... I need to work things out with Viperine first."

    I need to free myself. Bloom, please understand this, he asked silently. But then, the disk Dane had given Bloom lit up. Sky looked at her, wondering what the hell it was.

    "What is it?" he asked, not understanding.

    "If I tell you, you'll stop me," she said guiltily. "I'm sorry too."

    Sky looked ready to argue, but something happened first. He staggered, eyes unfocused, and clung to the stone bank as he tumbled to the ground. Bloom's passionate heart broke to see him have his own body betrayed—she betrayed him.

    "What did you do?" he asked, desperate and tired. "Drugged me?"

    But while he was lying there, unable to get up or move, Bloom took the disk and put it back in her bag, next to the bag of powder Dane had given her.

    "Dane said it wouldn't last long," she told the unconscious body. "I'm sorry."

    Bloom doused the dancing flames that surrounded them. With Sky and Viperine's affairs unresolved and now Bloom's betrayal, she knew the fire between her and Sky was already lost.

◈

    SILVA HAD SENT a message to the group of specialists telling them to get ready. Riven had no idea what he wanted now, but he climbed slowly into his armor. It was probably another exercise.

    If so, maybe hitting someone would calm him down a bit. He hadn't been feeling well since Viperine's wrongful arrest, in which none of the adults provided any information.He wanted to go to her, be her hero, who would set her free. Perhaps chopping off Dane's head in a training accident would actually relax him.

    He came out of his room, buckling his sword and trying to compose himself, but Terra stopped him, grabbing her arm.

    "I need your help," she said. "Bloom is about to do something absolutely insane, so I have to find Sky."

    "How about: fuck you?" he hissed, drawing his sword.

    "You have to find Sky and make him help us," she pleaded. "And Stella..."

    "Blind her," he suggested.

    "Blinding someone is very worrying!" There were pieces of vine on her head." But the problem is different: Dane is a traitor. He's a scoundrel with a scoundrel face. He became aware of this."

    "And you're a bloody bitch," Riven said nervously. "Or have you forgotten that my girlfriend was arrested because of you?"

    Terra swallowed hard.

    Viperine knew what awaited her.

"No one has evidence against her," he defended.

    "She's a Medusa!" exclaimed Terra. "My father tested her snake, and she felt everything."

    Riven tried to get past her before he was kicked out for stabbing a fairy.

    "I tied Dane to a vine-covered chair and threatened to keep him tied up there forever," she said, too quickly. "Not forever, but I didn't let him pee. I had to extract information from him somehow. You should have seen that!"

    "It's not my problem."

    Terra sighed, thinking about how to get Riven to cooperate. All right, Viperine was arrested because of her, but she was to blame for the murders. She was just doing the right thing.

    "Bloom and Dane are planning a rescue of the insane and murderous Beatrix in prison," Terra announced. "Dane gave Bloom some kind of magic key. And I also think that then they go after his psychotic and murderous girlfriend."

    "You have friends, don't you? Or have they seen how useless you are?"

    Terra held back tears so she wouldn't cry in front of him.

    "Riven, please. I desperately need your help and I need to find Sky! "She explained. "I thought he might have put some sense into her and gone looking for her, but so far he hasn't shown up. Could she have eliminated him?"

    "I don't think Bloom would kill Sky," Riven decided. "She's too hot to put you on ice permanently like that."

    "But Viperine, if she left, she would kill Sky."

    Riven didn't respond, and Terra was out of his sight before Silva met him on the way to the courtyard. The specialist director looked him up and down, looking disappointed in the world.

    "Good, you're dressed up. Where is Sky?"

    He rolled his eyes. Why could he never at least pretend to care about him?

    Something profoundly military was about to happen.

    "Let's cut to the chase, folks!" Silva called everyone. "There are at least your burns massacring people on the other side of the Barrier. Marco's team has already fallen. It's our job to stop them."

    Riven looked at Silva with her mouth open. It wasn't just an exercise. He didn't want to point out the obvious, but if the entire team of trained adult specialists was slaughtered, the interns at Alfea would simply be slaughtered.

    "What's my motivation for being slaughtered?" hissed Riven.

    "No questions asked," Silva ordered. "Find Sky."

    Why did everyone want Sky? And why did Riven have to go?

    He took a deep breath, starting to walk. Since the burned ones would kill them all, it was best to hurry up and untie Dane as well.

◈

IT WAS TEDIOUS IN THAT empty, lonely, dusty cell.

It wasn't like Viperine was claustrophobic, but she couldn't bear the thought of being trapped in a relatively smaller room when she couldn't get out. She was almost maddening.

    She had an idea of what it could have been that had brought her here. But it wasn't like adults had proof... That bitch, Terra, should be careful as soon as Viperine manages to break free, because she will come for her, to kill her.

    The doors to the forgotten room in the East Wing opened. The sound of footsteps echoed through the place. Viperine, before lying on the hard and cold stretcher, almost asleep, got up and leaned against the railing with some urgency.

"They had no evidence!" she claimed, enraged. "Why did they arrest me?"

    "Your pain was the proof."

    In Verena's hands, Anakin was curled up, calm. Did they also give my snake tranquilizers?

    "They found out I'm a Medusa. Is that it? And? What am I under arrest for?"

    "Students think it's just because you've petrified some people, but to Dowling, you're a little monster she thought no longer existed," Verena replied. "And also the fact that you're with Beatrix. But now let's forget about that part and focus on something else that, at the moment, is more interesting to me."

    "What?"

    "I wasn't overjoyed to discover that releasing Rosalind wasn't your biggest concern here in Alfea."

    Viperine crossed her arms, huffing.

    "Releasing Rosalind is your thing," she said. "I may have said it would help, but she was never my priority."

    Verena hissed a whoo, her eyelashes fluttering as if she had made fun of Viperine.

    "The things I discovered only further affirmed how childish and immature you are," Verena hissed. "And blind too. Honestly, I thought you were smarter, but clearly you aren't as you didn't notice or simply ignored it.'

    "Have I tried to prove myself wrong?" she teased.

    "You can go on pretending all you want, but you know, I can see what you're really feeling," she said back, catching Viperine off guard. "You're brooding inside. You're laughing at Bloom and calling her delusional, when in fact, you're delusional."

    "For me to be brooding, I had to care first."

    Verena threw her head back, letting out a high-pitched laugh.

    "What about Bloom? Okay, maybe we're both delusional, but I'm deluding myself out of revenge, Verena, not some high school crush."

    "Every word that comes out of your mouth only makes me more sorry. Can I get into that little head of yours? I've seen everything in there," she warned, sounding mean. "If I can't have Sky, no one can... Pathetic."

    "Like I said, revenge," Viperine repeated.

    "You've said it to yourself so many times that you now believe it. This is... depressing," she said, denying something to herself. "How about we pretend you're an adult for just a second and open up? Just this once."

    Viperine swallowed, taking a deep breath.

    "Okay, what do you want from me? What do you want me to say?"

    "The truth," Verena replied. "Why are you after Sky?" I want to hear you say it."

    "I'm after Sky because of what he did to me, Verena," she revealed truthfully. "Because it broke me inside and I don't know how to fix it."

    "He did and is doing far more than that."

    Verena looked up, meeting Viperine in the eye.

    "Yeah, you decided to ignore it. And the price of this illusion that you and Sky are having is two people getting hurt."

    "Hurt? Who? He and Riven?" chuckled Viperine. "Please, you don't seem to realize that for us, everyone is like a puppet that we manipulate and control."After all, Verena, didn't you do the same with Silva?"

    Verena sawed off her fist, her eyes turning black.

    "Leave Silva out of it," she warned.

    "Oh? But I'm not lying, am I?"

    "My situation with Silva goes far beyond what you think. But back to focus, I'm talking about Riven and Bloom. Do you care about him? Even if it's just a little."

    "Will it make a difference if I say I don't know what I feel, but at the same time I know I have something for him?" She ventured.

    "Want me to give you a light? To see if you can find a way?"

    "Please enlighten me," she pleaded, gesturing with her hands.

    Verena took a step forward, getting closer to her.

    "You like Riven, mainly because he accepted you despite the doubt that you were a Medusa and didn't tell anyone," she brightened. "Now about Sky... Want some help with that too?"

    Viperine sighed, nodding the slightest bit, an act that didn't go unnoticed by Verena.

    "He was the first boy who gave you any attention. Who did you have your first time with? And that's why you're attached to him," she continued. "You were hurt by the way he broke up with you, and you don't know how to leave it behind."

    "He didn't have the decency to break up with me, Verena!" she screamed. "That's what made me furious."

    "And you don't know how to move on," she agreed. "I have to tell you something about Sky."

    "What?"

    "Actually, just clear your doubts."

    Viperine held her breath. Air was not passing through her lungs. Viperine leans against the bars of the cell, inches separating them.

    "For you, he was the one, but for him you weren't. Because while you two played outside the barrier, inside here he was Stella's boyfriend. The school's golden boy."

    A strange thing rose in Viperine's throat. Did she want to cry? She wanted to, but something stopped her from letting the tears fall. That had always been her biggest question, after Sky's change in behavior last summer... She'd always known something had happened, but she'd never had an answer.

    Now, she knew.

    "You were so worried about your situation with Sky that you hurt the only boy who really liked you," Verena said, staring at Anakin in his hand. "And now, you've lost him."

    Unable to get a word out, Viperine shook her head in denial. No, she didn't lose Riven. She couldn't have lost him.

    Verena reached between the bars, passing Anakin to Viperine. The snake was quick to wrap itself around its owner's body, wrapping it around her neck, seeking warmth.

    Verena said nothing as she left the forgotten room, the door slamming with a metallic clang. Then the first tears of pain and betrayal rolled down Viperine's face.

    Last summer, she repeated in her head. Sky cheated on me last summer.

━━━━━━
9.24.22

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