Chapter 10

"So, what you're saying is that we're connected?"

A few weeks had passed since the Millennium Party, and I'd barely left Cloud Tower since then. The school for witches had become Baltor's new hideout (thanks to Icy suggesting it), and, even though I told him it was wrong of him to imprison Griffin and turn all the witches into mindless slaves, Cloud Tower was much nicer than underground Tides.

Baltor had brought me back to my dorm at Alfea after he'd found me in the caverns. It was the last place I'd wanted to be, but it oddly worked itself out in a very unpleasant way.

After I'd left the party, Stella and the others had been declared as witches working with Baltor by Sky, and they'd had to make a run for it to get back home. It didn't take an hour for it to hit the Realm Wide Web and every news station in the dimension, plus the ears of every parent. A horde of parents had called in complaints to Alfea, saying they didn't feel comfortable having their daughters in a school that was being targeted by Baltor. Or, in their words, they didn't feel comfortable having their daughters in a school that was being targeted by Baltor because of me.

How I was brought into the conversation since I wasn't at the party when it happened, I have no idea. I wasn't going to question it though, since it gave me the perfect opportunity to get away for a while. The parents asked for me to be removed from the school, but Ms. Faragonda wouldn't allow it. I'd insisted that I at least leave for a few weeks at most, just to give the parents some ease of mind.

She was surprisingly eager to allow it.

Stella had called me once a few days ago to tell me the news that Sky and Diaspro had gotten engaged. I felt a sting of jealousy, but, other than that, I felt nothing. She'd asked if I'd wanted to go talk to him with the rest of the girls, but I refused. ("Stella, when I said I never want to see him again, I meant that I never want to see him again.")

I'd spent my entire time off at Cloud Tower. No one would expect me to go there, so it was the easiest place to escape. It wasn't so easy when I was constantly dodging the Trix, but being around Baltor was honestly one of the most relaxing experiences of my life.

I was shocked that he'd even agreed to let me stay there with him. With how dangerous it was with the Trix being around every turn, I thought he would've turned it down flat. He barely let a second pass before he'd said yes, though. He'd said it would be a good time to finish our conversation on Tides, but I couldn't help but wonder if there was an underlying reason to why he said yes.

Staying in Cloud Tower wasn't as bad as I'd remembered it being last year during our exchange program. It also wasn't so bad that since I was restricted to only being in rooms that Baltor was in, I could finally finish asking all the questions I'd wanted to.

"Only through our powers," Baltor elaborated from his seat at Griffin's desk. "We have the ability to do a plethora of things. Once you reach your full potential, and if you ever decided to join my side of this battle, we'd be unstoppable. We could communicate telepathically, draw from each other's power, sense each other's presence –"

Looking up from the book in my hand, I perked up. "What about looking into other people's auras?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him give me a curious look. "What about it?

My eyes immediately shot back down to the page. "No reason," I mumbled. "Just curious."

His hand suddenly appeared out of nowhere, grabbing the book out of my hands. I spun around to see he was only about a foot away from me. "Have you done it?"

I hesitated. "Done what?"

"Have you been able to tap into others' auras?"

I shrugged. "I think so. It only happened a couple times freshmen year; I couldn't control it at all. This ghost thing would hover over people and show me what they were really thinking. It was surprisingly really useful; but disturbing at other times." My mind drifted off to that spring break with the Bonner brothers attacking the flower shop on Earth and when I told Mike and Vanessa I'd wanted to drop out of Alfea. I'd always meant to ask Faragonda about it, but it never crossed my mind till it was too late. "Why are you freaking out about it?"

"What you're describing is a trait of the Dark half of the Flame."

"So, what does that mean?"

"It means," Baltor said, "you have more potential than I originally thought." Placing his hand on my back, he led me over to the desk, showing me the book he'd been looking at. It was in some kind of language that I'd never seen before, but the ancient-looking drawings depicted what was obviously the Great Dragon. "You have the Light half of the Dragon Fire; otherwise known as the Untainted Flame. Since your Flame hasn't been tainted by darkness like mine, if used it its full power, you'd be the most powerful fairy in the Dimension. However, you'd only be as powerful as your Light allowed. If you mastered the dark aspects of the Flame, such as your prominent ability to read others' auras, alongside your training at Alfea, you'd tip the balance of this war."

"Tip the balance?" I raised an eyebrow, trying to ignore his use of the word 'dark'. "As in, I'd be more powerful than you?"

"Possibly even the Ancestresses."

I nearly went numb.

He smirked, catching my reaction. "Darkness might just be your key to finding them."

Doubt punched me in the gut. A familiar scream pierced through my memory, making me flinch. "No."

He paused. "No?"

"I don't want to do it." I said.

Baltor whirled on me, brow furrowed. "For the last few weeks, all you've talked about is how you want to get strong enough to find Oritel and Miriam. Now that we've finally found your chance, you say no?" Baltor was dumbfounded. "Are you insane?"

"I do want to get stronger. Becoming stronger to find them is the only thing I want in life. I'm never going to want anything more than that." I told him. "But, if I'm going to do any of it, I'm not doing it through dark magic. I'd rather die than do this through dark magic."

He stopped turning the pages, and looked over at me. A shiver ran through my spine, unbidden. "Bloom, I know you're hiding something." Oh no. "All I know for sure is that you have a problem with dark magic. If you don't want to spill your guts, go ahead and keep it to yourself. But the potential you have with your part of the Flame," he said, pushing the book towards me, "this is too perfect of an opportunity for you to pass up."

Baltor was right. This chance was what I'd been waiting for. If I mastered it like he said I could, I could become strong enough to find Oritel and Miriam. I could find my birth parents.

But, what if it did the opposite? What if it plunged me further into what I'd been working so hard to get away from for the past few months? What if tampering with my Darkness brought out it?

"What if something goes wrong?" I asked, the edge of the desk cutting into the palm of my hand. "Light and Dark don't mix well. What if –?"

Baltor's hand came up to cup my face, making me look up at him. "Bloom, I want you to listen to every word I'm about to say, and I want you to remember them for all of eternity."

I nodded, a bit stunned by his touch.

"Every power in the Magic Dimension has a Light half and a Dark half." he said. "You exploring that Dark half is not going to hurt you. It's not going to taint you; it's not going to touch you; it's not going to do anything to you. When fairies explore the Dark side of their powers they do tend to fall into Darkness, but that's not going to happen to you."

"How do you know?"

He didn't say anything for a moment, staring at me. "Because I'm not going to let it."

"What do you mean?"

Baltor sighed. "If you change your mind and you decide you do want to learn to control the Dark half, I'll teach you. I'm more experienced with it, considering it's my dominant power, so it only makes sense that I teach you."

"You're going to teach your sworn enemy how to become stronger than you?" I inquired, doubtful.

"It's not exactly teaching my enemy when my enemy isn't really an enemy."

Something fluttered in my chest. I wasn't sure when it happened, but somewhere between the times he cupped my cheek and now, I'd ended up staring at his lips. Something felt different when he said I wasn't his enemy. Like there was a warm twinge that spread through my heart that had never been there before. If I wasn't his enemy, then what was I?

I kind of liked the thought of not being enemies, but being something else. I wasn't sure what that something was, and I was okay with that. It was something that I don't think either of us knew, and that was strangely comforting.

And then I kissed him.

I don't know what came over me. Not only had I caught him off guard, I'd caught myself off guard. It was a particularly bold move; one that was definitely not in my element, and that I'd never done before.

I'd been kissed, yes, but I'd never been the kisser. Sky had initiated our first kiss–

What about Sky?

For a split second, I thought about pulling away. A tremor of guilt twisted in my heart. It had only been a couple of weeks since that night, and here I was kissing another guy. I didn't know how long someone was supposed to wait until it was okay to be doing this, but the guilt wouldn't subside.

And Sky waited until during your relationship to find someone else.

My guilt immediately disappeared.

I still couldn't deny that this was wrong, though. Everything about this was wrong. This man hurt my friends, hurt me, and hurt thousands of other innocent people. I shouldn't have even had thoughts about wanting to kiss him, let alone actually kiss him. It was insane.

Then he kissed me back.

And all of my thoughts flew out the window.

My blood turned to liquid fire, making my heart beat loudly in my ears. My skin tingled under his touch, and I didn't know whether or not I should chalk it up to our Dragon Fire connection or if it was just him. However, when he guided my mouth open with his hand so his tongue could slide in, I knew it was just him.

Weakness spread through my legs, and I gripped the lapels of his coat to hold myself up. Baltor's hands slid onto my waist, holding me against him. I tightened my hold on him when I felt his fingertips brush across the skin beneath my shirt, a shiver trickling down my spine.

Desperate for air, I pulled away, but was quickly pulled back in, Baltor's lips slamming against my own. I was thrown off a bit, but I wasn't going to complain when he was kissing me.

Forcefully, he backed me up against the nearest wall, pinning me with his body. My brain was screaming at me that this was getting too serious, that I wasn't ready for what he was clearly trying to drive this towards. I started to agree with that rational part of my head, until he possessively grabbed my waist and slid his thumbs into my skirt to rub my hipbones. That was the biggest 'shut up' my brain's ever received.

His hand reached up to rest on the side of my neck, opening my mouth to him again with his thumb. My grip on his coat loosened slightly, feeling him drift his hand onto the front of my throat. I barely noticed it at first, too distracted by the kiss to care, until he pressed it forward.

I tried to maneuver his hand back down, but the second I touched him his grip tightened. The pressure he was putting on my neck was unbearable, his fingers tightly squeezing my throat. Opening my eyes, fear flooded through my veins as I stared into red irises instead of grey ones.

I couldn't breathe. His grip on my throat was cutting off my airways, not allowing a single ounce of air into my lungs. I tried to breathe in, but it was useless. Light-headedness settled in and white light spotted my vision while I felt blood rush to my face. Soon, I was going to be unconscious or dead, and I felt powerless to stop it. I was doomed to suffocate, clawing at his hand to try and save my life.

Then he smirked.

And with barely a flick of his wrist, he flung me across the room.

I collided with the bookcase in half a second, searing pain shooting through every nerve in my body. I crumpled to the floor like a broken ragdoll, gasping and choking on the air that rushed back into my airways. I was practically gulping for air. An explosion of books erupted from the bookcase, raining down from the force of my impact. The blow didn't knock me out completely, but I was dangerously on the verge. Darkness tinted the edges of my vision, warning me what taking another hit like that could do.

I didn't know what had happened to Baltor, but this wasn't him. It didn't make sense for him to just randomly change his character and demeanor towards me like this. If he'd wanted to kill me this whole time, he would've done it much sooner than now.

Jumping back to my feet as quickly as I could, I transformed and made two fireballs appear in my hands. "Baltor, I don't want to fight you!" My exclamation sounded pathetic, my vocal chords strained from the immense pressure put on them not minutes ago.

Before I could threaten to throw one, both dissipated, turning into nothing but trails of smoke. My eyes shot down to my steaming palms, dumbstruck.

"We're connected, remember? We can tap into each other's power sources." Baltor said, conjuring a fireball of his own, seeming to be made of raw dark energy. "Well, at least I can tap into yours."

It was like child's play to him.

The fireball hit me straight in the stomach, tossing me across the room again. I slammed into what used to be Griffin's desk, my forehead scraping against one of the corners. I felt the skin above my left eyebrow break open, allowing hot blood start to drip down the side of my face. Soreness spread through my abdomen, his blast sure to leave an enormous bruise there later.

If I was alive for later.

I could barely move at all. My limbs were either numb or surging with pain from his attacks. I knew Baltor had major power, but my imagination came nowhere close to this. This was a nightmare straight from hell.

I had barely made it back onto my hands and knees when Baltor approached me again, scowl adorning his face. Grabbing a fistful of my hair, he brought my head up to meet his gaze for a moment. "Please, darling, at least give me a decent challenge."

Seeing my inability to fight back, he sighed and made a tsk sound. "Such a pity." Reaffirming his grip on my hair, he promptly slammed my face into the ground.

I'd experienced pain before. After Shadow Haunt, I'd been much more capable of handling pain. However, I was much more capable of handling pain when I was expecting it. Not when I was just waking up from unconsciousness.

I immediately pressed a hand to my forehead the moment I woke up, a ridiculous attempt to dull the intense throbbing in my head. It was as if I'd had my head bashed in with multiple sledgehammers, all having the desire to crack open my skull. Needless to say, it wasn't pleasant whatsoever.

It hurt to even look around. Not that I could see anything, of course. The room I was in was so dark I could barely see an inch in front of my nose. I tried to squint my eyes, but it only made the headache worse. From what I could feel though, there were at least five sheets covering me, and I was laying on the most comfortable mattress I'd ever slept on.

Where the hell am I?

What happened?

Moving to sit up, I bit back a yelp, feeling like a knife was being twisted into my stomach. Looking down at myself, a bruise covered the majority of my abdomen, dark and purple.

When did I get that?

There was a large window on the wall next to me, letting in some moonlight. But that was as far as I could evaluate.

A loud creak resonated from across the room, and my eyes shot towards it. I could just barely see a door shut, and a familiar figure cautiously step into the room.

Relief swelled in my chest. Cracking a small smile and quickly sitting up, regret instantly hit me, seeing the room spin around me.

Baltor gently pushed me back down onto the pillows, gripping me like I was glass. "Relax, you're fine." I could see a whole range of emotions in his eyes, all of which flickered intermittently –relief, fear, anguish.

"Where am I?" I asked. The sound of my voice startled me –raw, nearly non-existent, and just as sore as my head.

"Headmaster's chambers. I didn't want to risk moving you to Alfea with how much damage you'd taken."

Repositioning my hand on my head, I froze when it came into contact with what felt like gauze. Not surprisingly, I whimpered in pain when I touched it.

"Will you stop touching everything?" Baltor chided, pulling my hand down. "I don't want to have to re-bandage that again."

I wanted to reach back up just to spite him, but I was too exhausted to unnecessarily move.

"What happened?"

"You kissed me." There was a pause. "And I kissed you back."

And then it all hit me –Baltor saying he would help me, the kiss, the fight . . .

I was still as lost as ever. Baltor had never been that violent towards me. I'd never seen him act that violent towards anyone. It was like watching him turn into a bloodlust beast.

I stiffened a bit, remembering how he'd lashed out. But that was the last of it that I could remember. After he'd bashed my head against floor, I didn't remember anything.

What else did he do?

I internally shook off the paranoia, wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt. There had to be an explanation, especially if he was back to his normal self.

Despite how much it hurt, I laughed, trying to make light of the situation. "Well, if this is what happens when we kiss, can you imagine what sex would do?"

He didn't react, his gaze only becoming more serious. I shrank back into myself a bit, scared that I might set him off.

"What's my damage?" I asked, switching the subject.

"Too much to count."

My stomach painfully churned, thinking about what all he possibly did.

"What happened to you back there?" I asked, breaking the minute or so of silence. "It was like you weren't –"

"Human," Baltor finished. "That's because I'm not."

I didn't say anything, confused.

"To put it simply," Baltor said, staring down at the floor, "when I joined the Ancestresses, they put a dark curse on me. Since I was their 'pet' they wanted to make sure that I remembered that that's all I was. I was only alive to do their bidding and aid them with my half of the Dragon Fire. Any other real aspect of life was forbidden, and the dark curse enforced that rule.

"Any time I experienced intense fury, I'd morph into a demon. I'd become completely susceptible to whatever they wanted; under their control at all times until they were done." He paused, glancing up at me. "And you were the unfortunate victim of the other half of the curse."

I became a little wary at the sound of 'demon,' but I tried to keep my mind focused. "What other half?"

"If I ever found myself in a situation of passion or lust, I'd lose control of my hold on the demon." he continued. "It didn't matter who I was with; if I lost control, they'd be dead in minutes. And it didn't help that it was you."

"Why?"

He hesitated, debating on whether not to tell me. "I trained under the Ancestresses for many years, and I was trained to do one thing. My job under the Ancestresses wasn't to go after your parents; it was to go after the Dragon Fire. My job was to kill you."

I didn't know how to react. In my heart, I kind of always guessed that that was what his job was. When he denied that it was to kill my parents, but then wouldn't say just what it was, it made sense that it was to kill me. Use one Dragon Fire to kill the other. It horrifically made sense.

"You spent years of your life training to kill a baby?"

"They never told me who you were. I don't think they even knew." Baltor admitted. "I assumed it was Daphne till I found the Ancestresses hovering over her corpse." My stomach twisted. "It wasn't until they told me to 'go after the child' did I realize it was you. But the Company of Light found me and threw me in Omega before I could do anything."

"What does this have to do with what happened earlier?"

"Their plan was to have me turn into the demon whenever I found you. I was trained to kill you on sight. Any time the demon would come into contact with you, it would tear you apart. Therefore, when you kissed me, the curse awoke. If it was anyone else, the demon would've simply choked you to death, but when it recognized who you were . . ."

I felt tears sting the backs of my eyes, but I quickly blinked to get rid of them. "But you stopped."

"Only because someone intervened before I could finish you off."

I remained silent.

"This isn't safe for you."

I looked over at him, seeing him shake his head. "Don't."

"Don't?"

"Don't worry about me."

He looked at me as if I were insane. "I nearly killed you, and you don't want me to be concerned about it? Are you crazy?"

"I don't want you freaking out over something you can't control!" The raise in my voice made my head pound harder. "This isn't your fault; it's the Ancestresses'!" Not caring about the pain that shot through my body, I reached over and grabbed his hand. He flinched at first; like he was afraid he would hurt me just by doing that, but eventually gave in.

"Either way, the curse still stands."

I shrugged. "Then let's break it!"

"Don't you think I would've broken it already if I had the power to? Besides, neither of us is strong enough to break one of their curses."

Dread overwhelmed my pain, and I slumped back against the pillows. Hearing him say that made me realize just what it was going to take to break the curse. I didn't want to do it, but at the same time I did.

"One of us has the potential to." I quietly spoke up.

Baltor immediately responded: "No."

"You said it yourself; I have the potential to be more powerful than you and the Ancestresses."

"You said no."

"Well, now I'm saying yes."

"And you're suddenly okay with this now?"

I shrugged for what felt like the thousandth time that night, flicking away a tear of hysteria. "If it's going to help you, then yes."

"I'm not going to let you do something you don't actually want to do just to break a curse."

"Then consider it a side-benefit to getting the power to find my birth parents."

There was a moment's pause, then Baltor's defeated sigh. "I don't suppose I can stop you, can I?"

"You could always choose to not teach me. But I know that you're too curious about what I could do with my powers to not teach me."

He smirked. "Helping your sworn enemy would be greatly frowned upon."

Catching his eye, I noticed a teasing glint in them, and I smirked back. "It's not exactly helping my enemy when my enemy isn't really an enemy."

I woke up again a few hours later to a quiet shuffling.

Glancing to my left, I saw that Baltor was gone. There wasn't a single trace of him being there at all, and being in the room without him made me slightly uneasy. Sitting alone in Cloud Tower was not the best situation for me to be in.

Hearing the shuffling again, I turned to look towards the large window. My heart practically stopped for a moment when I saw a tall, slender figure standing in the shadows next to it. All of the students here were trapped under Baltor's spell, so it couldn't be any of them. That meant . . .

Shit.

I didn't know what to do. Any slight movement and I would be writhing in agony. There was no way I was going to be able to defend myself from her. This was her perfect chance to finally get rid of me for good.

"Out of all of you idiot fairies, I didn't expect you to be the dumbest."

I froze, confused.

Darcy?

The brunette witch of darkness glared over at me, not a single ounce of pleasantry in her features. "If anyone here gets to ask questions as to why the other is here, I think I automatically gain that right." she said, walking towards the end of the bed. "But, then again, I don't think either of us is surprised that you're here."

Remembering the look she'd given me when I met with Baltor on Tides, I grew wary. She'd picked up on us the second she saw us together.

Did that mean Icy and Stormy knew? Thinking about what Icy would do if she found out about Baltor and me being within five feet of each other made me tremble.

"Look, frankly, I don't care about what happened between you and him earlier," Darcy continued. "In any other situation, I would've let him finish tearing you apart. Since I regrettably owe you, though, I'm here to give you a warning." She peered at me from over her yellow-tinted glasses. "I know you're an idiot who thinks she can somehow save everyone in the Dimension, but I'm here to give you a reality check. Baltor isn't everyone. And, if you had an ounce of common sense in your head, you'd walk away. What he's suffering from, you can't save him. If you try, you're going to end up dead. Your relationship with him isn't going to have the happy ending your cheerful head thinks you're going to get."

"We're not in a relationship," I defended. My fingers tightened around one of the sheets, subconsciously.

She raised her brow. "You've been staying here for the past week, and now you're sleeping in his bed." she said. "If you're not in a relationship, you two are certainly in one intimate partnership."

I set my jaw, unable to keep my face from heating up.

"You can deny it all you want," Darcy continued, strutting over to the door. "My statement still stands. If you stay in this 'intimate partnership,' you have a sincere death wish."

Glaring down at my clenched hand, I considered her words.

It was a death wish. But Baltor losing control wasn't what I was worried about. I was more concerned about me losing control. With how he was going to be training me in dark magic, I could very easily slip up. The catastrophe that could follow that could be tremendous.

"Bloom."

Opening my eyes, they shot to Darcy, standing in front of the door.

"What Icy did in Shadow Haunt," she said. "We didn't know she was going to do that."

Staring at her for a moment, I saw the slightest bit of guilt. I figured that Darcy and Stormy would've been right there to defend Icy. However, this could've been her trying to save her own skin after knowing just what Baltor was capable of doing. Then again, remembering her and Stormy's faces that night, Icy seemed to have taken everyone off guard.

She opened her mouth like she was going to add something, but changed her mind.

"Darcy?"

The witch looked at me, expectantly. I was surprised she'd heard me at all.

"If there is one thing that we're ever at an understanding on," I said. "Baltor never finds out about what happened with me and Icy in Shadow Haunt. Ever."

She gave me a curt nod before slipping out the door.

There are probably a lot of grammar errors in this, but I'm too tired to go through and fix every one of them, so I'll fix them during work tomorrow. I've made you all wait long enough.

I've never been kissed in my entire life, so I hope I wrote that well enough for everyone to be okay with it. I'm oblivious in everything romantic, but I try to emulate that I am. However, I have been suffocated sort of, because, since I don't know how to swim I have almost drowned twice. I relived those experiences in my head while writing that scene and had multiple panic attacks, so you better appreciate the pain and stress I go through for you guys!

But, yay! The major plot point is finally out! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, if you have already forgotten, Baltor is kind of a demon (reference the last few episodes of Season 3). I really wanted to focus on that plot point because I feel that everyone just likes to push that to the side of their mind (I'm very guilty of that), but I didn't want to avoid it in this story. I wanted to confront it full on. So, I decided to make this a very complicated love story. I wanted to go as far as them not even being able to hug or anything, but that was psychotic and I was going to torture myself that much.

And, yes, Darcy knows about them being together! I figured that if anyone was going to be the first to notice a relationship like this, it was going to be her considering her fling with Riven in Season 1. And I was watching Season 3 the other day, and I noticed that Darcy pretty much never tries to attack Bloom like she does in every other season, so I felt like it fit. So, I really wanted to illustrate that in here, and give her somewhat of a conscience. I like Darcy, I want her to be somewhat likable, but don't bank on seeing it a lot.

Why are you avoiding Bloom knowing about Enchantix? You shall see. Why are you avoiding talking about the Shadow Haunt incident? You shall see. If you have any other questions, I can probably answer them with the phrase 'You shall see.'

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: I just wanted to let you guys know that I do not know when the next chapter is coming out. As you all know, if you've been reading these author's notes and if you've been looking at my posts on tumblr, I've been enduring a lot of family issues and now I am enduring some personal, emotional issues. But, I want to tell you guys that no matter what you read from me either in my profile status or on my tumblr, I do not plan to ditch this story. I love this story, and the support I get from all of you means the absolute world to me, and I honestly feel like I don't deserve it. I love each and every single one of you, and I am not going to let this story fall to shambles just because of a little stress. I don't care how long it takes me, this story will get finished!

Alright, ladies and gents, I'm going to go outline the next couple of chapters of this! So, as always, please leave a review telling me what you think and if you have a guess at what happened between Bloom and Icy while they were in Shadow Haunt, and I'll see you all later!

~Bloom