When Adelaide woke she was being blinded by a searing light. 'A greenhouse?' She thought as she groggily sat up realising she was on a work bench. There was no way her mother had found her otherwise she would not be in the greenhouse she would be chained up in some god forsaken dungeon which only confused the witch more. She didn't recognise where she was and that terrified her. For all she knew her mother could've used an illusion jinx to disguise the cloud court cells and Adelaide was actually chained up awaiting a pain worse than death. How fucked up was her life that she couldn't even tell what was real and what was an illusion. Adelaide didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Her internal ramblings were suddenly interrupted by a voice "ah you're awake" called a middle aged man with glasses who emerged from what she assumed was the doorway. The man seemed harmless enough but she knew better than to trust a stranger. Especially since she couldn't pick up on his magical signature. That could mean one of two things: he was a human or he was a fairy. She couldn't decide which was worse so she simply stared at him with distrust ready to flee at a moments notice.

"I see your wound has healed" he tried again to engage her as he approached her bedside but Adelaide just cowed further away like an injured animal.

Speaking of injuries she quickly checked her abdomen as memories of her fight with the burned ones started flooding her mind. 'the burned ones ... LEXI' she suddenly realised and looked up at the man in alarm "where is Lexi?!" She shouted her tone thick with panic and borderline hysteria.

The man raised his hands as if to show he meant no harm before speaking in an even voice "your friend is fine she is recovering in another greenhouse, she sustained quite the head wound and unlike you it was not directly from the burned one so it will take time to heal."

"Let me see her" Adelaide said still panicking because her natural instinct had been to help heal Lexi's wounds yet now she must remember not to reveal herself just yet. Zeus only knows who this man is or where she is so it may not be safe to let on that she's a witch just yet.

The man looked as though he were about to reply but a woman's voice cut him off and answered for him "she is still unconscious and besides I think the two of us have a great deal yet to discuss, don't we Miss Winters?"

Adelaide's head snapped to the doorway of the greenhouse where a woman stood about the same age as the first man and this woman appeared to be followed by another man dressed in battle armour. Adelaide had a very bad feeling about this.

"Who are you?! How do you know who I am?!" She asked quickly rising from the table and standing behind it as if it could protect her from these strange people.

"Miss Winters surely it can't have escaped your notice that you look exactly like your mother" the woman said in a calm but condescending voice.

Adelaide was even more horrified by this response and that's when she knew that these people must be fairies. 'Shit, Shit and triple Shit' she thought rapidly concocting an escape plan where she could find Lexi and flee for their lives.

Distraction. That was key.

"Except my nose." She said "I have my father's nose. He was killed by fairies you see. Though I suspect you are already all too aware of that" Adelaide attempted to act strong and brave but inside she couldn't stop screaming 'shit'.

"Miss Winters do you know who I am?" The woman asked.

"Of course she does, let's just tie her up and start questioning her" the man in armour interrupted.

Adelaide panicked even more and took a step back "actually I have no idea who you are which hardly seems fair seeing as how you know me" she tried again in vain to appear calm and in control but her fear kept creeping into her words.

"Miss Winters my name is Farah Dowling" the woman explained before shooting the two men a look communicating without words. "Perhaps we ought to speak in private" she continued not looking at Adelaide but the two men accompanying her. They both looked about to protest but another look from Dowling sent them out the door. The man in armour grumbled some profanity under his breath which under any other circumstance would have made Adelaide laugh.

Adelaide still hadn't spoken and the two women stood eyeing each other in silence. Miss Dowling seems to be analysing her whereas Adelaide's eyes betrayed her fear and apprehensions.

"Miss Winters -"

"Adelaide. My name is Adelaide, not Miss Winters" Adelaide interrupted as she couldn't stand being associated with her mother.

"Very well, Adelaide, how did you come to be here and how did you come to be attacked by burned ones?" Dowling questioned.

"I can hardly answer that since I have no idea where here is" Adelaide responded still looking at the woman with complete unease and distrust.

"Since you clearly had no idea who I was or where you are I can only assume you were not sent here to spy on us then" Dowling assessed looking the girl in the eye waiting to see if her mask would slip. She only had to wait a moment but what Adelaide exclaimed was not what she expect.

"Absolutely not! I am not some spy for my mother's army. In fact my mother and I are no longer speaking so that would be quite impossible; for that matter if I were to run into my mother again I'm pretty sure she would kill me" Adelaide cried indignantly with a hint of sorrow in her voice.

Dowling gave a small concealed smile realising now this girl was definitely not a threat "I see and why may I ask are you no longer speaking?"

"I left. Actually that's a bit of an understatement, ran would be more appropriate" Adelaide answered with a derisive snort.

Dowling allowed herself to smile at the girl and was about to speak when Adelaide cut her off.

"Look I can already see you planning all the ways you want to use me against my mother so I will tell you now that's not going to happen. I left because I want no part in this war. Unlike her I'm not a killer and I refuse to be turned into one. I only want peace between our people and for the fighting to stop. If that is not possible for you then I'm sorry but you will have to kill me because I won't allow you to turn me into a prisoner for you to bargain and use." Adelaide ranted and when she finished her little speech she looked back at Dowling to see her wearing a maternal smile.

"I do not wish to keep you prisoner and I respect that you don't want any part in this war. As a matter of fact I admire the courage it must have taken you to leave the safety of your life behind in order to stand by your convictions" Dowling answered surprising the young witch.

"Adelaide you must have realised by now that there is no safe place you can run to where you can escape your mother. She will hunt you down and I cannot risk letting you escape to the first world where she will likely follow you and wreak havoc on all those innocents" Dowling continued her tone getting more serious.

"So what then ? you're going to force me to stay here" Adelaide challenged.

"No I already told you I won't keep you prisoner. I am offering you and your friend a refuge where you can not only avoid your mother and the other witches but also the threat of the burned ones. Following your attack outside the barrier we also found a dead shepherd who must have been killed before the burned one got to you. You must see that this is your best option" Dowling reasoned.

"You still haven't exactly told me where here is" Adelaide replied still attempting to come up with reasons to leave.

"This is Alfea college for fairies and specialists, the two men who just left are Professor Harvey and Headmaster Silva. Should you stay here you will attend classes with the other fairies and hone your skills while practicing what you preach. You claim to want peace so prove it, stay here and attempt to immerse yourself with the fairies and make friends. Mend the bridge between fairies and witches and who knows maybe you will be just what this world needs. A fresh perspective and a new age of peace." Dowling finished her own speech confident she had convinced the witch to stay.

"So let me get this straight, you want to send me into a school full of angsty teens who A: don't trust me and B: despise me?" Adelaide asked mildly horrified.

"No one ever said peace would be easy" Dowling answered amused by the girl.

After a moment of consideration Adelaide stuck out her hand "you have a deal" to which Dowling responded by approaching the work bench and reaching over to shake her hand in return.

"Well since that's settled, I will take you to see your friend and once she has recovered we will show you both to your suite and from there you can settle in before joining the others for class on Monday" Dowling said in a business-like manner.

20 minutes later...

When Lexi woke she had a raging headache and felt like she was suffering the worst hangover ever. That's saying something coming from a witch who was notorious for partying.

She turned her head to see Adelaide sat at her bedside or rather table side as she realised she was lying on a work bench. "Addie what the hell is going on?" She sat up in alarm.

"Lexi it's ok we're alive we made it" Adelaide immediately moved to reassure her friend who looked confused as hell.

"What do you mean made it? We're in the first world? What happened ? All I remember is the burned ones attacking us" Lexi rushed out trying to sit upright properly but struggling due to the pounding headache.

Adelaide noticed her wince in pain and moved to heal her head wound properly 'no sense in hiding my magic now' she thought. "We're not in the first world, after you were knocked out I chased off my burned one and then I killed the other after it stabbed me - hurt like a bitch by the way." She explained

Lexi rolled her eyes at her friends comment suddenly not so alarmed since Adelaide was clearly unharmed and her headache had cleared some thanks to her friend's powers. She gave her own sarcastic response "noted" with a smile.

" we're at Alfea" Adelaide told her suddenly turning serious.

Scratch that Lexi was now very alarmed "as in college for fairies and specialists" she ground out through her teeth knowing from Adelaide's guilty face she'd done something incredibly stupid.

"It's not as bad as you are thinking, we aren't being held prisoner. In fact I have spoken to the headmistress - Farah Dowling - and we've come to an agreement...of sorts." Adelaide tried to reason in a placating tone.

"Oh really, you came to an agreement did you. And all this while I was unconscious" Lexi snapped sarcastically which let Addie know she was extremely sceptical. "Well it had better involve us presently making our way to the nearest portal to the first world a.k.a away from witches, fairies, war and bloody burned ones" Lexi continued her rant.

"Well not exactly, you see she made an excellent point -" Adelaide tried to continue to explain but Lexi cut her off again with another scathing remark.

"Oh I'm sure she did"

"For the love of Athena would you shut up for one minute and let me finish" Adelaide exclaimed with a fond smile towards her feisty friend.

Lexi grumbled something under her breath which Adelaide chose to ignore and instead proceeded to explain her agreement with Dowling. To say Lexi was unimpressed was an understatement but the two of them could see this was their only option. Despite not liking being backed into a corner Lexi couldn't help but see the positives...what with her optimistic best friend shoving them in her face every 2 minutes as they were escorted by Dowling to their new suite at Alfea.

It was early morning and the rest of the school wasn't awake yet allowing the witches to be smuggled in to their suite unnoticed until Dowling could make an announcement at Assembly. Dowling was just finished explaining that there would be opportunity for the girls to go shopping that day with professor Harvey as escort since they had no belongings except for their rucksacks which Silva had recovered from the forest after their altercation with the burned ones.

Adelaide had explained to Lexi that she hadn't told Dowling about the second burned one which she chased off nor had she told her about summoning the other burned ones heart with her magic to kill it. Dowling believed she had simply sent a fireball at the burned ones core. Adelaide needed time to think before informing Dowling of her suspicions about the burned ones; there was also the fact she didn't know if she could fully trust the woman yet.

"Right ladies this is where I leave you to get settled in. Professor Harvey will be with you in an hour to take you shopping for belongings but in the mean time here are some changes of clothes from the lost and found. I will inform the students of your arrival today in an assembly but I will keep the details of your arrival private, they only need to know the basics as we don't need to fan the flames of gossip by having rumours of burned ones spreading around the school." Dowling informed them all business as usual before she walked away leaving them to their new home.

The duo stepped inside the suite and shared a look seeming to communicate non verbally before springing into action setting up wards and protective enchantments around the suite. Adelaide ran around the corners of the living room and each bedroom placing clear quartz crystals and muttering protective enchantments while Lexi used her magic to ignite some sage and trace protective sigils on the doorways. Adelaide was in the process of hanging defensive spell jars from the entryways when she realised she was missing a key ingredient. "Shit I'm out of mugwort" she muttered aloud rummaging in her bag. "I'll have to go outside and have a look for some. It's pretty common in woodland areas like this so it shouldn't be too hard" she said removing a small collection jar from her bag and making her way towards the door.

"Hang on do you think that's a good idea? you know, wandering around a school full of people who probably want us dead may not be so smart" Lexi said turning away from the protective aura spray she was mixing to face Adelaide with a firm look that said 'don't be so stupid'.

"Oh don't be ridiculous everyone's asleep I'll be fine, there and back. Promise" Adelaide responded before breezing out of the door. She stopped outside the door and turned back with a mischievous grin "besides this witch killed a burned one, I think I can handle a couple of delicate fairies" before disappearing out the door leaving Lexi laughing and spraying doorways with protective auras.

Adelaide wandered the grounds as the sun was only just fully starting to rise in search of her herb. She came across what looked like a training ground and could see a lone specialist hitting a punching bag repeatedly. He was extremely tall, lean and muscled with blonde floppy hair and she wasn't ashamed to admit he was incredibly attractive from this distance. She shook away that thought and continued on to the edge of the woods where she could collect some mugwort.

As if sensing her the blonde specialist halted his assault on the punching bag and turned around to see his mysterious beauty from last night. She was still wearing her bloody dress and her midnight curls were falling out of her long elaborate braid which reached her waist. To anyone else she would've looked a fright but there was also something ethereal about her, a surreal beauty which seemed untouchable yet undeniable. He slowly started making his way towards her determined to at least find out her name. He saw her crouch down and collect some weeds and when Adelaide stood up she noticed the man from earlier stood right next to her.

All it took was for her to look at him and he lost his mind, she was fucking gorgeous. Last night Nick hadn't been able to see her eyes as she was unconscious but suddenly it wasn't just her rosebud mouth which appealed to him as her sapphire orbs burned into his soul branding him forever as hers. She seemed taken aback at his proximity but little did he know Adelaide was also transfixed staring into this stranger's cool grey eyes. 'Holy mother of Posiedon' she thought as she stared at him. He couldn't have been older than 18 making him her age.

Nick was the first to unintentionally break the silence by saying "it's you" although it came out as barely a whisper.

"What do you mean?" She inquired tilting her head slightly puzzled by his reaction. Nick followed her movement and couldn't help but notice how it exposed more of her neck. Nor could he help where his mind wandered as he gazed at her exposed throat and wondered what it might be like to kiss her there on her creamy skin and mark her as his.

Eventually he shook himself of the fantasy and mustered up the words to reply "I was one of the ones who carried you in last night - I'm glad you're alright you had me pretty worried." There was an awkward silence after he said this, little did he know the witch's mind was racing staring up at this Greek god of a man who seemed to care what happens to her. He filled it by continuing " it was badass of you taking on a burned one alone and living to tell the tale" which he ended with an awkward chuckle.

She laughed a musical laugh and it was like a drug going straight to his brain "It was hardly badass more self serving and I had help from my friend before she was knocked into a tree" she replied smiling up at him as he stood at around 6.1" while she remained firmly at 5.7".

He was about to respond when they heard the sound of some other third year specialists coming out to train early. She looked slightly alarmed and quickly gathered her jar of herbs in a pocket of her dress. She threw him a quick "I should go" before picking up her skirts and hastily making her way back inside.

Nick hardly had a second to process before she was gone and he was left reeling from the encounter.