CHAPTER SEVEN.
"You've been avoiding me?" Riven says as he follows quickly behind Malvolia.
"I have not," she denies, continuing her search for her auburn-hair suitemate.
"You're lying," the brunette boy singsongs to her, earning a smirk from Mal.
"Who knew you could be so needy?" She teases.
Riven grips the back of her pants before pulling her and gently slamming her on a pillar. He leans his face towards hers, holding his body weight with his right arm that lays above Malvolia's head.
"Hi," Malvolia whispers, her brown eyes bright and a playful smile on her face.
"You've been running the other way every time you see me and that's all you got to say," he whispers back, his green eyes portraying how serious he is despite the upwards turn of his lips.
Mal sighs. "Riven..."
The boy groans. "Oh, don't do that, Via, don't push me away."
Mal rolls her eyes. "If you would have let me finish," she tells him through clenched teeth, something that Riven takes note of. "I was going to say, where the fuck do I even begin?"
Riven furrows his eyebrows. "I'm lost."
"Aren't you always," Mal snarks back before sighing. "Come on," she goads, grabbing Riven's hand and pulling him outside.
"Where are we going?"
"Just shut up," Mal silences him. She pulls him outside to follow where she saw her freckled suitemate go.
"Boo!" Malvolia whispers as she jumps behind Beatrix.
Beatrix turns around. "Please, you didn't actually think that was gonna work?"
Mal pouts. "I thought it would, what gave me away?"
Beatrix smiles before glancing down at Malvolia's boot-clad feet. "Your heavy boots and your puppy's mouth breathing."
The dark-hair girl frowns before shrugging it off. "What are we doing?"
"Lose the clinger and you can find out," Beatrix tells Mal, her eyebrow raised and her usual smugness about her.
"I'm staying," Riven grumbles, his hands tucked into his jacket pocket.
Mal smirks. "He has separation anxiety."
Beatrix rolls her eyes before going inside the gate, the couple following quietly behind her. They quietly walk forward as they hear the voice of Sky and Bloom.
"Well, well, well looks like I'm not the only one up to no good lately," Mal comments, a smile on her face as she looks at her brother. Bloom's eyes widening as she sees the trio.
"Have you seriously been down here looking at dusty rubbish?" Riven asks, attempting to break the silence between the five teenagers.
"People who think history is rubbish are rubbish," Beatrix snaps back.
"Maybe it was just a bit of foreplay," Mal comments teasingly.
"Oh, c'mon Via, they are definitely not fucking. That would actually make, uh, Sky here interesting," Riven replies.
"He's right, we aren't," Bloom tells them as she cuts in front. "But we were alone, which was pleasant."
"Hmm and now you have company, cry about it gingersnap," Mal says rolling her eyes.
"Ooh, an emotional affair," Beatrix coos. "That's actually much worse."
Riven's attention pulls away to a door with a 'Do Not Enter' sign on it. "Ooh, I love locked doors!" He exclaims, rattling the lock. "I wonder what's back here."
"I don't know," Sky finally speaks up. "But Silva's the only one with the key."
"So, then how do we get in?" Bloom asks.
"We don't," Sky firmly tells her.
"But there may be stuff down there," the red head protested. "That's the reason I came down here."
Sky sighs. "Well, next time I see him, I'll ask him," he offers.
"The more you say no, the more she wants it. Give in," Riven tells the blond with a smirk.
Beatrix scoffs. "Mal? Maybe have a talk about consent."
Mal shrugs, she just wanted to get Beatrix's plan over and done with. The rain was getting to her and she was in desperate need of a nap.
Bloom turns to face the three teens. "Why are you guys down here again?"
"Why are you down here?" Mal asks the same time Beatrix steps forward and says, "Being on your side."
"I don't need help from someone who posted a video mocking my friend or somebody who used their powers against my friend."
Malvolia glares. "Your friend used her powers first, I just stopped her."
Beatrix grabs Malvolia's hand. "Look, I know the video was extra, but I didn't say anything. I was a bystander. If you really want to be mad at one of us, consider the douchebag who's been telling everyone you're a changeling."
Riven scoffs. "Bitch."
Sky steps forward. "Is that true?" He asks his best friend sternly.
"Yeah, look, if Saint Sky is about to start lecture time, I'm out," Riven tells the two girls, his hands thrown up.
"Sky, it's OK," Bloom attempts to calm the situation.
"No, it's not," Sky tells her firmly before chasing after the brunet.
"And people have the audacity to say women are dramatic," Mal mumbles under her breath with the shake of her head. Her arms still tightly crossed in defense.
Beatrix looks at the girl next to her with a satisfied glint in her eyes. Mal returning it, the corner of her lips twitching upwards. "Look at that!" Beatrix speaks up. "Just us girls, finally!"
Bloom steps forward and cuts herself in-between the two girls. "All I've found are dead ends, except for this," she says, looking at the locked door.
"So, let's go in," Beatrix says simply.
"It's locked."
"So, unlock it," Mal says with a smirk. "Need I remind you, you're a fire fairy?"
"We've seen you in class," the auburn-hair fairy speaks up. "You're powerful, question is...how powerful?"
"If I wanted to, I could get through this door," Bloom tells the two cockily.
"Great! Then what are we waiting for?" Mal asks, a fake smile on her face.
"I'd light the whole school on fire in the process, power is not the problem," Bloom continues, ignoring the brunette.
"I just, um... I don't wanna get Sky in trouble," Bloom tells them while not lifting her eyes from her phone. She puts it in her back pocket before making eye contact with Malvolia. "I'm sure you can understand that."
Malvolia gives her a shrug. She was fully aware that Sky wouldn't be the one to get in trouble. Growing up, he rarely did. Even when he's been in the wrong, he never faced repercussions, instead they would treat it as a learning opportunity. It was something Malvolia always envied, she was never fortunate enough to receive the same privilege.
"But you do want answers," Beatrix baits.
Bloom offers a suggestion. "I could fry the hinges."
"Or I could just pick the lock," Beatrix says holding up the lock to the door.
"Yeah, that's much cleaner," the fire fairy says, following the two other girls into the room.
Malvolia walks around the dark and dusty room with a pit in her stomach. She gapes at all the knickknacks littering the shelves. She was no empath fairy, but you could feel the bad energy poisoning the rooms air.
"I knew Alfea had a military past, but it's still a school," Bloom voices the thoughts running through her mind. "This is like a war room."
"It's not like a war room," Beatrix says, disgust clear on her face. "It is a war room, a place where dangerous, shady-arse people decide who lives and who dies."
"A tale as old as time," Mal adds on, an equal amount of disgust on her face.
( CROWN ON THE GROUND. )
After the brief yelling from his dad, Sky found himself rushing to find Bloom. The first place he decided to look was her suite. He bursts through the doors without knocking, his eyes landing on Bloom's three suitemates.
"Did Silva tell you what was happening today?" Aisha speaks up, standing in-between Terra and Musa. "He must've."
Sky looks at the three fairies blankly. "Is this the suite drama Bloom was talking about?"
"There is no suite drama," Musa tells him with the shake of her head.
"OK, I'm so lost right now," Sky confesses.
Terra rapidly explains what the three girls had concluded earlier. "Dowling's assistant died, the faculty think a fairy did it. They held the assembly to find out which fairy, but they didn't because he or she wasn't there, so now we don't believe or trust literally anyone."
"Shit," Sky says in realization. "Beatrix," he tacks on, quickly spinning around to go look for the fairy.
"And your sister," Aisha adds on, making Sky spin back around to face her. "She wasn't there either."
"My sister wouldn't hurt anyone," the blond defends.
"Speak for yourself," Terra says, her tone filled with offense.
Sky turns around and walks out of the Fairy Hall. He searches the grounds for the brunet that will know exactly where Mal is, who will most likely lead him to Beatrix.
"Where is she?" The blond asks his best friend as he storms into their shared suit.
"Who?" Riven casually asks, his phone in his hand and his arm thrown around the couch.
"My sister! Where is she?"
"I don't know," Riven chuckles. "She isn't surgically attached to me, if anything its Beatrix she's conjoined to. They have this thing, why do you need her?"
"I'm looking for Bloom," Sky tells him, ignoring the gestures Riven makes towards him he continues. "Mal and Beatrix were the last people with her..."
Stella pops out the bathroom, her make up smeared. "Seriously?" She cries. "I sent you, like, 20 texts, and you're running around looking for Bloom?"
Riven gets up from the couch. "Yeah, you have fun with that," he tells the couple before walking out the door. He dials Malvolia's phone number only to immediately get her voicemail. He lets out a sigh, leaning against a wall. He wasn't sure what Sky needed Mal for, but he had a feeling that the girl has gotten herself into some deep shit.