Nervous, anxious and on alert were the exact three words describing how Bloom felt the moment Valtor had finished healing her. She had no idea what to do now. She couldn't go back to Domino, she couldn't ask for Stella's help and Alfea was definitely off the table. "How do I get out of here?" she asked after a moment of agonizing silence while being unable to spot an obvious exit. This was probably why no one could ever find Valtor's hideout, no matter how long they've been searching.
"Thinking of leaving so soon?" he whispered and the voice trailed along her skin to her ear. Bloom felt the hairs on her neck stand straight. She gulped down, trying to brace herself enough to respond.
"You did use my portal to escape Solaria, didn't you?" he asked, letting his voice fill the quiet space between them. Heat rose through Bloom's cheeks and she hoped that he couldn't notice it.
She tossed him a glance and found him smirking. Classic. But something was still confusing her. He should be trying to kill her right now. She should be attacking him and doing her best to deliver him to the authorities.
And yet.
The questions never seemed to leave her head, she'd been asking them for weeks.
She was using his help and was willing to hide in the place her headmistress has been trying to find for months. No matter how much she despised it, she still needed him. He was the only clue to Obsidian she had. Other than probably Faragonda who Bloom couldn't reach. Once she got her answers, Valtor will be ancient history and she would personally turn him in. And even though it seemed crazy, he ought to keep her by his side too.
"You could always break Alfea's shield with a spell," he commented on her thoughts and Bloom's gaze darkened. His access to her head was growing from being something to fear to helpful to agitating. If he could just slip in whenever he wanted, who knew what else of her thoughts he had already heard? "I don't want to break into Alfea," Bloom replied, crossing her arms at her chest and leaning onto the rocky wall behind her. Valtor laughed into his beard as if remembering something only familiar to him.
"But you do want to get to the old crone," he said, rolling his eyes. Bloom's blood heated at the words he used. To her, Faragonda was like a mentor who always looked after her. Well, until recently at least. "It's impossible," she only said, tossing a small rock between her feet. It slipped further, reaching the edge of Valtor's boot.
"Not if I invade it first," he added and the room fell into silence once again. Bloom knew him better than to think he was playing around with words. He had the power of Solaria, probably the strongest planet out there, he was more than strong enough to go for Alfea. It wasn't a question of if, but when. A cold wave passed her body and she shivered on impact. Winx may be willing to hurt her, but she would never let anyone hurt them.
"That is after I'm finished with Cloud Tower." Bloom's head snapped up right away. She didn't even consider he might attack the witches' school. "It's about time I paid a visit to my old friend Griffin," he went on, lost in thought. She was afraid to even guess what was going through his mind. He was Valtor, he probably already planned the exact revenge he would inflict on the Cloud Tower's headmistress. He tossed a look in her direction then: "You don't seem surprised. Did Faragonda do at least one thing right?"
"Griffin worked with you before joining the Company of Light," Bloom said with an even voice tone, or as even as she could make it. She had to play this carefully, they were so close, yet so far from the mention of her parents. So she added: "You hoped to use the information as leverage, didn't you?" Valtor cocked his head to the side, intrigued that she at least was able to read into that. "I guess I was prone to thinking Faragonda kept secrets from you," he continued.
Bloom would be a fool to believe she wasn't still keeping some. "And you agree," he said, reading her thoughts. "Get out of my head!" she snapped, shaking her head as if that would force him out. Valtor's gaze hardened all of a sudden as he commanded: "Your mind is like an open gateway Princess. If you want me away, then learn to control it."
She looked away, hiding her embarrassment. She really should work on that. If Valtor could access it then maybe the Ancestral Witches could too once she went into Obsidian. She tried to concentrate, to reach into her head, but she was too distracted by Valtor's mere presence. "Your parents were fierce warriors, I'll give them that."
Bloom tried her best not to jump at the mention. She was ready to absorb any information he was willing to give her. "Marion even more so than Oritel, she was a leader. You look just like her." It wasn't supposed to bring a smile to her face, but she couldn't help it. Thinking that she had a lot of similarities with her parents did warm her heart, as much as it made it hurt. "Faragonda never told me that," Bloom whispered, feeling the sadness overwhelm her the more she thought about it. She hadn't questioned it before, that Faragonda had never told her about how they looked, how they acted, nothing except that they were leading the Company of Light.
"Orion was fierce, he would do anything to protect your mother," Valtor went on, but Bloom's attention caught on the choice of words. "How would you know that?"
Valtor smiled pleasantly like he was waiting to see if she would pick up on it. "It was his last act, he went to save his queen. But no matter how strong he was, he still wasn't a match for me." After he finished, all Bloom could think about were those words. She felt her powers shifting, the pain consuming her head because of it. Both paths called for her, both wanted to be chosen, to possess her head entirely. Bloom didn't care which one would win at the moment. She just knew Valtor was doing this on purpose, to get a reaction out of her, and he was succeeding. But they were alone now, no one else could get hurt. Even as she fought against the rage in her mind, she could see he was gloating at what he was seeing.
Her usually blue clothes were flickering to black, her wings, the part which hurt the most, were sharpening and her eyes must have been shifting too because her vision was going blurry. It felt like someone took her wings and was continuously stretching them apart. Bloom didn't realize it right away, not until her throat burned, that she had screamed. "The more you fight it, the worse it will get," she managed to hear Valtor speak.
"Feel your magic, let it flow. Relax," he was saying, but Bloom could barely concentrate on standing upright. She wanted to scream again when the flickering continued. Something was steaming in her eyes and when she tried to wipe it, her fingers came away red.
Her eyes were bleeding.
Her body started to shake uncontrollably and she found herself sliding onto the floor, trying to ease it. "It hurts," she muttered as a new shock went down her spine. Valtor had crouched next to her. "If you don't stop resisting, it will only worsen. Snap out of it Princess," he said harshly, yet clear enough for it to register in her mind. Bloom breathed out, biting the inside of her lips, as she tried to force herself to calm down. She felt him place a hand on her shoulder.
Bloom closed her eyes, the itching loosening as she continued to take heavy, long breaths.
One side had won.
It was horrifying to look at, how much one person could refuse to be themselves. Blood covered the entire area under Bloom's eyes, spreading down onto her cheeks and sliding over to her neck. They shone both blue and gold, colours dancing around each other.
"Snap out of it Princess," he commanded when it was clear she was losing herself. He could help her so easily, with just a simple brush against her mind. But he refused to. She needed to embrace her nature if she was ever going to unlock her full power. Something within her seemed to shift because her body eased, the rapid shaking stopping entirely. He wasn't sure what to expect when her eyes finally opened.
Bloom looked at him like she was ready to kill him. The blue was gone, erased by the catlike gold. Even her hair somehow seemed different now, messier at the ends. "You took everything from me," she almost growled, a deep purple orb appearing in her hand. Valtor said nothing as he studied her. This version of Bloom carried herself completely differently. She was proud of who she was, and not afraid to use her power and do what needed to be done.
"You were supposed to pay a long time ago," she went on, letting more energy flow around her, like a circle made of fire that fueled the orb she controlled. "Haven't we been over this already?" he bit back, straightening his posture as he watched her stand up from the floor. He was looking at her and it was hard not to see himself. Bloom rolled her neck from side to side, satisfied when she heard small cracks. "Not even close," she answered and fired without hesitating.
Valtor moved away, but the attack didn't evaporate when it missed him. Bloom controlled it from her spot, stopping it in time to redirect it back at him. It hit his back, sending him stumbling forward. He hissed, returning his eyes to her just in time to see two more orbs flying at him. He avoided one, but the other found his knee, forcing him to bend. He sent an attack of his own toward her, but Bloom blocked it with ease. At least this side of her learned something useful.
"I've been going easy on you before. Now I sense exactly how having power feels like," she said as a devious smirk played on her lips. Bloom joined her hands, and the circle around her broke into what looked like a snake made of flame. He tried to avoid it as it flew for him, but couldn't, wherever he moved, the magic followed. It sent him against a wall, pinning his hands to his sides, engulfing his body from the chest down. He flinched as it burnt itself into his skin.
Valtor wasn't having as much fun anymore, so he tried to siphon the fire, ready to absorb a powerful wave of her Dragon fire.
But, no matter how hard he tried-he couldn't do it. Her Flame couldn't be siphoned. Well, would you look at that, he thought.
Valtor hissed, unable to fight back against her magic. Bloom levitated slightly above him, a proud and vicious smile plastered on her features. She was enjoying all of this. So would he if the situations were reversed. She moved closer, angling her hand to the side, and as she did it, the fire around him bent to her will. A piece of it wrapped under his chin, starting to suffocate him.
And Valtor felt something he had never felt before. Not even when they captured him and sent him to Omega. Not in any of his fights, because he always knew he would come out of them winning.
Fear.
Because this wasn't Bloom he could manipulate into letting him go. This side of her wanted one thing, and that was his death. He would have to be smarter than usual. "You kill me and you never get your parents back, you know that right?" he threw the bait at her and watched.
There, he smiled when Bloom hesitated and the thread around his throat loosened a little. "They are in Obsidian. Aren't they?" she asked, her voice flat as if she couldn't care less. At least she wasn't stupid, he thought. But neither was he. Bloom may be powerful, but without proper training, she stood no chance of reaching Obsidian, let alone saving her parents from it.
"If you were so sure, you would have gone there by now," he smirked as disappointment crossed her face for the briefest of moments. She was getting irritated and the thread squeezed his throat again. He slowed his breathing down, ignoring the pain as it heightened. "You can't kill me, Princess," Valtor said simply, even if he wasn't sure if he should be so confident. Because she seemed quite fixated on suffocating him.
"If I know where they are, I have no use of you anymore," she replied and pressed the thread tighter, causing Valtor to gulp for air, as the remaining parts of the flame burned against his flesh so much that you could smell it.
He had had enough. He might not be able to use his magic on her, but her mind was still as open as ever. So Valtor closed his eyes, slipping in the space between their souls and smiled as he saw Bloom's open doors. He crept forward, forcing his mind against her own. There was major resistance on her side, for once she was fighting back. But he was stronger here and way more experienced. Valtor sent a wave of his energy over into her mind and watched the energy leak out of her instantly.
He snapped back in time to feel the fire thread fall away and see Bloom drop to the ground unconscious. He took a look at his hands, now covered in severe burn marks and figured that his move on Griffin might have to wait. Valtor knelt beside Bloom, who detransformed and was laying motionless, a line of blood on her forehead from where she hit the floor. He removed his glove, letting the healing energy flow over to her. The wound closed and he moved the power to his own body. Turns out that burns were much more complicated to heal than scrapes and cuts.
He worked with patience and silence until every part of his skin was stitched back together. Now it was only a matter of what he should do with her. He picked her up and moved her from the floor onto his chair. Dried blood smudged her face from the nose down, so he summoned a warm, wet towel and did his best to clean it up. He didn't understand exactly why he had the need to do it, besides the feeling of rightness.
Her magic was significantly weaker than before, but she would recover with rest. It didn't feel comfortable for him either, to reach so forcefully into her head, but it was the only option he could think of.
"Looking forward to seeing how you get out of the next one Princess," he said to the air and smiled.
Bloom's eyes snapped open as she straightened, looking frantically around. For a few moments, it didn't register where she was, or how she got there, but her head, despite the pain it was in, quickly filled in the blanks.
She went rogue. And this time, it came close to ending someone's life, even if it was Valtor's. Her eyes scanned the hideout for the said source of her troubles, but Valtor was nowhere to be found. She stood up, fairly certain that he had moved her because there was no way she just passed out on his throne-like chair. Bloom buried her face in her hands. How did this happen again? And why did she let it? Were her powers really turning on her, at last, after all the hell she went through? And if so, how much did she have before it repeated itself?
Her eyes did another sweep of the room and caught on a piece of paper stuck to the wall that definitely wasn't there before. She got up and watched the letters as they started forming.
Per me. -works only once, I believe you know what it means. The race has begun.
Bloom rolled her eyes as she read the words out loud and saw a flame-made door appear right in front of her. She looked behind her, unsure whether she should leave. There would be no finding this place once she
left it, and all of these spells would be gone. She bowed her head, knowing deep down that even if she wanted to, she couldn't save them all. Her gaze lingered a second more on the scroll that contained the blood spells. It would be so easy to take it, even if using them wouldn't come as simply.
She shook her head, and without another turn, stepped straight through the portal. She expected to emerge at some random place, but when she saw the edge of a lake she knew it was Roccaluce. A sense of mere peace flooded her instantly. She watched herself in its reflection and noticed that Valtor had cleaned her face. It made her feel both unnerved and grateful. But there wasn't time to linger, she had to find Valtor. And from the conversation they had before her outburst, she was pretty sure of where he went.
It had been a while since she was last near any of the schools for magic. Cloud Tower was no different. It stood intact, shadows and thunder surrounding it at all times. There was nothing to suggest Valtor had been in the area. And she wasn't sure how to go about finding Griffin. She was a wanted criminal, she couldn't just walk through the front door.
"You're awfully brave for someone who has the entire dimension at her back," an unfamiliar female voice said from the forest behind her. She jumped back, turning with two fireballs already burning in her palms. "Who's there?!" she demanded the answer, bracing herself for an attack that never came. A figure moved, coming closer until at last Bloom recognized the messy black hair. It was Mirta's ex-girlfriend? That part she wasn't sure about.
"I know you. You're Lucy right?" Bloom whispered as the girl stopped a safe distance away. She guessed that no one was really stupid enough to pick a fight with her. The girl, Lucy nodded: "Relax, I don't want a fight." Bloom let the flame die out and waited for Lucy to speak again.
"It's dangerous for you out here, so there must be something important at my school for you. What is it?" Lucy crossed her hands, sounding neither angry nor scared. Just curious then, Bloom thought. "I need to talk to Griffin," the fire fairy replied, stealing glances at the area around them, just in case someone else was near. "If Valtor wanted to scare us, he should have come himself instead of sending his new fairy pet." There was no malice in her tone, she just seemed to be speaking what to them was common knowledge.
But the words sliced through Bloom like sharp kitchen knives.
Fairy pet.
Pet.
Darkar's chamber lingered in her memory, so close and yet incredibly far.
His darkness latched onto her body like a leech.
"Hey, you okay? You look really pale," Lucy commented, taking a careful step back. Bloom shook her head, the thoughts falling away. Lucy had given her all information she needed. Valtor had not attacked Cloud Tower yet. "I'm fine," she said, brushing the other girl off, then remembering she might as well need her help. "Sorry, I just-Griffin will want to hear what I have to say."
Lucy looked as if she were considering her options, from leaving Bloom to mend for herself and just doing what she was asked because there was nothing better to do. "The witches don't mend in fairy or specialist affairs, so I will help you. But I expect something in return."
Bloom's brow rose as she thought it over. It couldn't be that bad, could it? She nodded twice: "Thank you." Lucy didn't smile, but she began to walk towards the castle, hurrying the fairy along. "There are a few separate entrances around the grounds of Cloud Tower," Lucy explained as they passed a set of huge rocks on which the castle rested. "-they are inaccessible to everyone but Griffin's top students," the witch added and smiled to herself. If things went south, Lucy might be a bigger opponent than Bloom thought, it was good to keep it in mind.
The black-haired girl knelt, drawing two overlapping circles in the dirt, whispering words that Bloom couldn't depict. The ground beneath them changed into a dead yellowish colour, forming a circle big enough just for the two of them. "Hold on tight fairy," Lucy said right before the ground beneath them opened.
Bloom bit back a scream as they fell into a slide-like portal. But even though it swallowed them under the ground, somehow they were going up. She couldn't feel anything around, nor see where they were. Lucy was silent in front of her, seeming like she wasn't fazed.
The slide tossed them out after a minute or two, Lucy onto her feet and Bloom onto her back. She rubbed her hips as she stood up, monitoring the area in which they appeared. It looked like any other hallway she had seen in their couple of adventures through Cloud Tower. She was about to demand of Lucy to tell her what was going on, and the witch seemed to sense it because she spoke first: "The office is this way. No need for unpleasantries."
Bloom bowed her head and followed along, passing some witches in the process. Their heads all turned to look at her, and she felt like a gone-wrong science experiment. A lamb in the lion's den. Lucy stopped at a two-wide wooden door which lengthed to the ceiling. She knocked in a particular pattern before pushing them open.
Bloom tagged along after her, closing the doors behind them. Griffin set at a regal-looking desk, much like the one in Faragonda's office, just with different decorations. Instead of light wood, Griffin's was covered in gargoyles and painted dark blue. "Headmistress," Lucy said upon entering and moved to the side so Bloom could be seen.
"Now, what brings Faragonda's little exile to my school?" Griffin asked, interloping her fingers on the table.
"Valtor."