Growing up, all Sylvie wanted to be was her mother. She ate, slept, and breathed Winx Club. She was probably their number one fan in the whole world. Here at Alfea, however, she was starting to realize that becoming the next Winx Club meant losing herself. She got less and less excited every time she heard the word 'Winx.'

"But the gala is one of the biggest events of the year!" Ace protested to their stone-faced headmistress.

Faragonda called them up to her office upon their arrival and the boys returned to Red Fountain. Rumors were already circulating that some Alfea fairies had broken into Cloud Tower. The stolen cauldron and crystal ball were sitting on the headmistress's desk and she was chastising the girls for stealing them. The sun was setting fast behind her.

"Girls, you were caught," Faragonda reiterated. "As such, you need to have some kind of punishment to assuage any suspicion. I'm sorry, but you won't be able to attend the gala this year."

That was the end of the conversation. Griselda came in and ushered them out of the office with a disapproving look. Sylvie wondered if she even knew the truth. If she did, then she was a good actress.

"This isn't fair," Jane grumbled, shoving her hands into her pockets.

"I know, right?" Marissa said. "I mean, I don't really care about the gala, but now everyone at school is going to hate us when they realize we were the ones that broke into Cloud Tower."

"I definitely cared!" said Ace. "I was so excited to show off my dress."

The other girls all chimed in with their thoughts of dissent.

"More importantly," Delta said, sounding a little annoyed with both Faragonda and her roommates, "we shouldn't have to take the fall for Faragonda's stupid mission."

"You're right," Piper agreed. "This definitely counts as an abuse of her power."

Sylvie could see Marissa starting to get anxious as she pulled at her fingers.

"Guys…"

"No, really," Delta said, turning to the Androsian fairy. "We can't let her get away with this. We need to show her that just because we're her students doesn't mean we'll be her soldiers too."

"Delta, what are you thinking?" Marissa asked, but the technology fairy didn't answer. Her gaze was fixed on the group of fairies standing in the hallway outside their dorm.

Delta marched ahead of them and the huddle of fairies opened up for her, intimidated by her domineering presence. Sylvie couldn't help but be a little jealous; she was the princess after all, not Delta. Shouldn't she be the intimidating one?

"What's going on?" she asked, taking on a gossipy tone that made their classmates immediately open up to her.

The first to speak had unique magenta eyes and wore a lot of pink. She smiled welcomingly at the newcomers before explaining, "Some girls stole from some witches at Cloud Tower! Can you believe it?"

"Mandy, don't spread rumors," chided the redhead beside her. She was tall, even by Sylvie's standards, and her tall, red ponytail only made her seem taller. With her dark skin and bright eyes, she was easily the most beautiful girl in the hallway. Sylvie recognized her from orientation day; she had introduced herself as Skarlette.

"No, she's right," said a third girl, holding up her phone for the group to see. Her name was Aurora, judging by her username, and she looked like she had never seen the sun. Her bright pink lips only made her seem more pale. "I follow one of the sophomore witches on BioPic and she's been posting about it for the past hour."

Leaning in, Sylvie saw the face of the weepy-eyed witch they'd confronted smiling for her profile picture which sat beside a bio that said 'it's mo-mo! seventeen and sad beyond belief'. Beneath that was a string of angry posts about thieving fairies.

Sylvie shared a look with Piper, who leaned over and whispered, "At least she woke up."

Another fairy with strawberry blonde hair asked, "What do you think they stole?"

Aurora pulled the phone back and scrolled through the posts at a record speed.

"She doesn't say."

The strawberry blonde rubbed her arm and said, "I hope it isn't something dangerous. What if that stuff is just sitting around Alfea? Who knows what could happen!"

"Calm down, Mel," her blue-haired friend said. She clasped Melrose's shoulders calmingly as she said, "Faragonda is probably using her magic to locate the relics right now."

"Why wait for Faragonda, Mavis?" asked a black-haired girl with clear blue eyes who stood behind them. "I could just use my summoning powers right now."

She held out her hands and plum-colored magic swirled around her fingers. Her eyes began to glow as the magic zipped away down the hall, back the way they had just come from. After a beat, the magic found its way back to Jennie and she blinked the glow of her eyes away.

"See? Faragonda already confiscated the relics from the thieves," Jennie assured the group. "A crystal ball and a cauldron are sitting in the Hall of Relics right now."

"It's on campus?!" Melrose gasped and Mavis chuckled, wrapping an arm around the sound fairy.

"At least they're safely in the hall and away from those witches," Mavis said.

"I, for one, applaud those girls for having the guts to stick it to the witches," said a girl with light brown hair and blue eyes.

"Nova!"

"What?" she said, shrugging. She turned to her aghast sister and said, "Don't act like you haven't felt that way too, Arianna. It sucks that Faragonda invited them to the dance this year."

Reluctantly, the girls all agreed with Nova. No one really liked the witches and they all felt the dance would be less enjoyable with them there.

Sylvie saw Delta smirk and before she could stop her, Delta faked a pout and said, "Yeah, they really are, like, the worst. I wish we could take a page from those other fairies' book and play a little prank on them."

The fairies were wary. Sylvie could agree with them there.

"What kind of prank?" Jennie asked, looking intrigued.

Delta shrugged and huffed away a strand of purple hair, acting like she hadn't already thought of something.

"Maybe, like, something that won't make us look bad? If it's too obviously a prank, we're just embarrassing ourselves, obvi."

"Yes, obvi," Piper muttered, rolling her eyes.

"What if we sugared all the food at the gala?" Arianna suggested. "Witches hate sugar."

"I love sugar!"

"Me too!"

"Focus, girls," Delta said. Sylvie could tell she was trying not to act as condescending as she felt towards them. "We all love sugar. We're fairies."

Ace, not catching on to Delta's plan, said, "I like that idea."

"It's not prankish enough," Jennie said, putting a finger to her chin. "How about a fairy-themed ball? They would hate that."

"Can we change the theme so close to the day of the dance?" Melrose asked followed by a yawn.

Sylvie realized how late it was getting, which explained her own surge of energy. She had always been a night owl. Through one of the open dorm rooms, she could see the full moon was rising and streaming through the window, blazing a path of white light. She resisted the urge to go lay in it.

"Of course we can!" Mandy said, pumping her fist in the air. "We're fairies! We can do anything!"

"But a fairy-themed ball is too on the nose, " Delta said, tapping a pale finger to her sharp chin. Sylvie didn't understand how the other fairies couldn't see how she was steering them.

"A different theme then?" Skarlette said, shrugging.

"How about glow-in-the dark?" Aurora offered, not looking up from her phone.

"No, witches love the dark," Mavis said, deep in thought. "What about a luau?"

"A what?"

Mavis sighed.

"It's an Earth thing… never mind."

Just then, a grey-haired fairy with a pixie cut and sharp eyes stepped out of her dorm.

"What are you guys talking about?"

When all the fairies turned to look at the newcomer to their conversation, Sylvie saw Delta waved her hand in front of her eyes and magick a mask there for only a millisecond before it faded away to green glitter.

"Oh, Aurie," Skarlette said, pulling her friend over, who was staring confusedly at Delta. "We're talking about a new gala theme to prank the witches."

"A masquerade?"

Sylvie realized what Delta had done.

With a grand gasp, Delta said, "Aurie, that's an awesome idea! What a perfect way to get back at the witches! They'll show up without masks and be so totally embarrassed."

The girls all surrounded a very confused Aurie, who was struggling to figure out what had just happened. In the chaos, Delta began to slip away and her roommates followed close behind.

Once they were out of earshot, Jane asked, "Okay, what in the water stars was that about?"

Delta groaned and rolled her eyes brattily as she opened the door to their own dorm.

"Don't you see, girls? Now we can, like, go to the gala!"

Piper closed the door behind them as she countered, "Just because a group of first years decided in the middle of the night that a masquerade would be fun does not mean that anyone is actually going to do anything about it."

"You're totally underestimating the power of popular opinion."

"Popular opinion?! There were, like, ten people out there! Tops!" Piper shot back.

Sylvie, however, had been watching the exchange silently and had finally realized what Delta had truly accomplished.

Speaking up for the first time that night, Sylvie said, "You're smarter than you act."

"Not you too!" Piper bemoaned, but Delta only grinned.

"No, seriously," Sylvie said, regarding Delta in a new light. She didn't see the bratty narcissist she had seen before; in her place stood a clever, calculated fairy with more intelligence than she let on. "And it has nothing to do with that necklace either."

"Speaking of that necklace," Jane chimed in, "we need to talk about that."

"Later, Jane," Delta said with a grin. "We're going to need our beauty sleep to deal with the major storm of party-planning we have to face tomorrow."

"It's 7 o'clock!"

Delta only grinned and disappeared into her room, closing the door behind her. True to her word, the next morning was hectic as the whole school was aflutter with Aurie's brilliant masquerade idea. The lunch hall was practically buzzing with excitement. Somehow, the whole school had gotten wind of the plan and everyone was on board. Well, everyone barring one.

"I already said the theme was Black and White!" complained a blonde third year who was two tables over. "It's not fair!"

"Kylie, calm down," a brunette said, but she was held back by a girl with straight black hair, red bangs, and a battle-scarred face.

"Just leave her be, Seanna. She's non-negotiable right now."

Seanna sat back down and watched as her friend had a meltdown over a dance theme.

"What's her problem?" Piper asked.

"That's just how Kylie is."

The six girls all jumped at the sudden introduction of their new breakfast mate. A brunette second year with big blue eyes slid up next to them, smiling widely.

"Uh… who are you?" Sylvie asked, trying not to sound rude.

"Oh, I'm Robin. Who are you?"

Sylvie was taken aback by the girl's sociability, but she liked it so she smiled back and said, "I'm Sylvie of Solaria. Nice to meet you."

"Right back at ya. I heard your question and had to come clear things up," Robin explained. "You see, Kylie is the leader of the Desairix Club and the student body president. She's a little… high-strung."

"Yeah, you can say that again," Sylvie said under her breath which made Robin laugh.

"Yeah, Kylie can sometimes be extra, but she's really good at what she does. Just don't get on her bad side."

"Noted," Sylvie replied.

A girl who looked exactly like Robin came running over. Sylvie wouldn't have been able to tell them apart if it weren't for the other girl's fluffy blonde hair held back by a blue headband.

"Robin, you can't just jump into other people's conversations. It's rude," the blonde chastised.

"It's fine," Sylvie assured her. "Robin was just explaining what was up with Kylie."

"Yeah, chill out, London," Robin said with a joking smile. "I don't have to be by your side 24/7."

She turned back to face the table before she could see London's face drop at her careless comment. Sylvie, feeling awkward, turned back around too.

"The Desairix Club thinks they're the best club at school, but that honor actually goes to the Fairy Club," Robin continued to explain.

"The what club?"

"The Fairy Club," London said, taking a seat on Sylvie's other side. "They are the highest performing club at Alfea, but that's only because they have seven members."

"No, it's not," Robin argued. "By those standards, the Lifeix Club should be the best club in school because they have eight members."

"Best club?"

All eight girls turned around to face a girl with light brown hair and a really cute outfit that reminded Sylvie of something her mom would wear. Behind her was a girl with wavy blonde hair smiling at them.

"Hey, A! Hey, Rose! Look who I found," Robin greeted, welcoming her friend to sit with them. The girls scooted over to make room for the two girls.

"I think Janix Club is the strongest," the girl with light brown hair said. Her eyes were dark blue and deep as the night sky. "Remember when we were first years and they retrieved the most relics for Faragonda?"

This sparked Jane's interest.

"How many relics exactly?"

The girl, Astra, grinned excitedly and said, "Thirteen."

"Woah!"

"And how many different covens?" Jane asked.

"Twelve!"

Sylvie watched the gears turn in Jane's head and wondered what she was thinking.

"How many relics has your club taken?" Jane asked.

"Only six," the girl with wavy blonde hair said. "But I don't think that's the true measure of a club. For example, the Alix Club has never failed a single mission."

Robin scoffed.

"They've only been on six missions, Rose. Of course, they have a high success rate."

"Well, girls," London said with a sweet smile, "I think our club would be the best club… if we had a club."

The other girls all aww-ed and they all four hugged. They got up from the table, said their goodbyes, and went back to their seats.

"They were nice," Sylvie commented.

Jane's mind was somewhere else.

"Faragonda has sent them all on missions. They've all taken relics. Why are we getting punished for this?"

"Maybe they've never gotten caught," Ace suggested.

Leaning in conspiratorially, Jane said, "Or they've never taken anything from Cloud Tower."

"Oh, come on, Jane," Piper said, crossing her arms. "You don't know that."

"But Delta does."

They all looked at Delta, who was caught off guard with a mouthful of eggs.

"Don't you, Delta?"

Just then, a bell rang to let the students know they have five minutes to get to their first-period class. With a harsh-sounding gulp, Delta cleared her mouth and said, "Not here, obvi. Too many people."

"The bathroom?" Piper suggested.

"Let's go, girls," Jane said, standing from her seat and swinging her bag onto her back. "We have five minutes."

Sylvie stood, as did the rest of the girls, curious to see what was so special about Delta's necklace.

"What about first period?" Marissa said.

Ace finished shoveling pancakes into her mouth before shoving Marissa up from her seat and out the door into the sea of students.

"No, seriously-"

"Oh my Dragon," Ace said with her mouth still full of food. "Come on, worrywart."

They made it to the bathroom largely unscathed and Delta asked for someone to put up a silencer charm.

Angrily, Marissa said, "I don't KNOW a silencer charm. Maybe if I were in first period, I would!"

"Oh, please," Ace said, now having swallowed her food. "We both know your first class is Metamorphasymbiosis, not Charms."

"Don't worry," Piper assured them. Holding out her hands, light purple magic flooded the bathroom and made everything a soft shade of purple. "Now go."

Delta squeezed her eyes shut tight and held her necklace tightly. After a few seconds, her ponytail started to rise into the air. She opened her brown eyes and her hair dropped. She said, "Jane's right. No one here has ever taken a relic from Cloud Tower. I tried to dig deeper, but I hit a wall."

The girls just stared, waiting for an explanation.

"Okay, so this is the Digidex," Delta said, holding her necklace up for them to see.

Sylvie had never realized how intricate the fastener holding the square-cut emerald to the silver chain was. She could see engraved into the silver fastener a man walking down a mountain, beneath the mountain, up to the surface, and back up the mountain. It was carved in such beautiful detail that it could only have come from Zenith.

"The hero's journey," Jane whispered breathlessly. She reached out as if in a trance and touched the gem before doubly back in pain clutching her head. "Ow, my head!"

Delta laughed dryly.

"Yeah, I should have warned you: this necklace is magic."

"We figured as much," Piper deadpanned.

"What kind of magic?" Ace asked with wide eyes.

"It knows everything."

Sylvie looked at the other girls in confusion before prompting, "Everything about…"

"No, it just literally knows everything," Delta clarified. "My parents discovered this gem and couldn't figure out what it was or why it gave everyone such a major headache. I snuck in with my brother as a kid and when I touched the gem, all the known knowledge in the universe, like, flowed into my mind. Now it and I are kind of connected."

"Wait, so you know… everything?" Ace gasped. Even Marissa was interested, having dropped her bag on the floor to listen to Delta.

Delta laughed and said, "No, I forgot all of it, like, immediately afterward. But whenever I touch it, I know everything anyone else knows."

"So do you know what the new dark force in the Magic Dimension is?" Jane asked.

Delta shook her head.

"The Digidex only knows whatever other people know. Apparently, no one knows what this new evil is, not even the evil itself."

"Do you know why Faragonda sent us to Cloud Tower?"

Delta clasped the Digidex, but let it go just as quickly.

"Another wall. God, why are there, like, so many walls surrounding that woman?"

"Wait," Marissa said, "I thought the Digidex knows everything."

Delta sighed and let go of the gem saying, "It does, but it can block me out if it thinks I'm, like, not ready. After that first time where it literally unleashed all the knowledge of the world onto an eight-year-old, I think it's practicing moderation or whatever."

"What could Faragonda know that you aren't ready for?"

That question hung heavy in the air between them. That is, until Marissa remembered first period.

"We have to go!"

In Potions class, Sylvie spent the whole period passing notes with Delta while Ace napped beside them. They were five minutes late, but they were thankfully able to sneak into the back row of the auditorium. Sylvie hastily scribbled something before sliding it over to Delta as Palladium reviewed the syllabus. Delta read her question, mulled it over, and wrote an answer. She waited for Palladium to turn back around before passing it back. Sylvie didn't wait to open it.

'I mean, I could read your thoughts, but I learned to block those out in middle school. Apparently, not everyone is a fan of having their privacy invaded.'

Sylvie stifled her laugh with her hand before writing another question and passing it back to Delta. As Delta wrote her answer, Sylvie surveyed the room.

The potions lab was made mostly of wood and the benches got higher up each level so that Professor Palladium was the only one on ground-level. In front of him was a large empty cauldron. Behind him was a rolling chalkboard with only his name written on it. Around him were tables covered with beakers and other chemistry tools. The walls were filled with glass cabinets upon glass cabinets of potion bottles.

There was a girl in the front row asking him the stupidest questions that made everyone in class want to rip their ears out. Her hand shot up again and Sylvie almost cried.

Delta nudged her and passed the note back to Sylvie.

'I could cheat, but I don't need to.'

Sylvie gave her a look and Delta only smiled cockily in reply. Both girls stifled giggles. Sylvie suddenly got the idea for another question. She wrote it quickly and passed it to Delta, whose face blanched upon reading it. She glared at Sylvie before writing back.

'No way!'

Sylvie should have been relieved, but she was honestly a little offended.

'Why not?'

'Because he's obnoxious.'

'So are you.'

Delta gaped at the note before writing her reply.

'RUDE! At least I don't flirt with everything on two legs.'

At that, Sylvie was confused.

'My brother isn't a flirt.'

'Yeah, sure.'

'No, seriously. He's never even had a girlfriend.'

Delta again gaped at the note, this time in shock instead of outrage.

'You're kidding. But he's so flirty!'

'I guess he just really likes you.'

Delta didn't write a reply, so they spent the rest of the class flicking balls of paper into the hair of the girl in front of them. When the bell ring and class let out, she stood and the paper came cascading out of her short pink hair like fresh snow. Sylvie and Delta bolted out of the potions lab before their unfortunate classmate realized what had happened, abandoning the sleeping Ace to catch up later.

It wasn't until seventh period that all the girls were together again.

Sylvie looked down at the schedule she had been given when she'd arrived at Alfea. At the bottom, "408: History of the Company of Light with Professor Romina" was scratched out and replaced with "410: Witch Studies with Professor Mirta."

"It says we're meeting in the Hall of Enchantments," Marissa read from her schedule.

Delta groaned and said, "I really do not want to see that lady again."

"Of all the enemies to make on your first day of school, you had to choose the headmistress," Piper chided.

"Can you, like, get off my back?"

Thankfully, when they reached the office, they found it empty, so, making sure that the door was shut, the girls pulled out their Enchantix wings and held it up to the mirror before crossing the threshold into the Hall of Enchantments.

"This sucks," Piper complained as they descended down the stairs. "I was actually looking forward to my seventh period Spell Studies."

"I was looking forward to teaching Spell Studies," came a voice from behind the circular bookshelf.

A woman walked out from behind the bookshelf with her arms full of books taken from the bookshelf, one of which Sylvie recognized as the Census of Covens. She had long red hair and rectangular glasses that sat on the edge of her nose. Her skirt was long and flowy.

"I'm Professor Mirta," she said cheerily as the girls met her halfway in the foyer. With a wave of her arm, a squat table appeared in the center of their circle.

"Please, take a seat."

The girls looked at the ground, at each other, and then at their teacher before they sat on the ground around the table. Mirta sat with them.

"Headmistress Faragonda has big plans for you girls," Mirta explained. "I'm sure she explained about the new dark force in the Magic Dimension."

The girls were silent, so Sylvie told the professor, "Explain is a strong word."

Mirta laughed and said, "That sounds like Faragonda. As far as she's concerned, if it isn't cryptic advice, it isn't good advice."

The girls laughed at that. Sylvie decided that she might like her Witch Studies class.

"In all seriousness, though, there is a darkness creeping into the witch world. Don't be fooled; witches have a culture entirely separate from ours and it is in that culture that they keep their secrets. Different traditions, customs, even entirely different cities lying right beneath ours."

"Like in Harry Potter?" Jane piped up. They all gave her a weird look. "Never mind. It's… it's an Earth thing."

Mirta just kept going.

"Magic flows in the veins of every living creature in the Magic Universe, even the ones that can't use it," she explained. "The creatures most proficient at using their magic, however, are fairies and witches. Believe it or not, our magic comes from the same place. The only difference is that fairies fuel their magic with positive emotions and witches fuel their magic with negative emotions. The headmistress plans for you girls to infiltrate this witch culture by learning the art of witchcraft."

"What?"

"Excuse me?"

"Isn't that… illegal?"

Mirta laughed at their questions before explaining, "Don't worry, girls. You will be perfectly safe. I'll be guiding you."

"No offense, Professor," Delta said in her trademark I'm-about-to-say-something-offensive voice, "but what makes you, like, qualified to teach us witchcraft?"

"I was a witch."

The girls tried not to act too shocked for fear of being rude, but Mirta recognized their surprise and handled it with grace.

"Sorry, I just wasn't expecting that," Marissa said as she began chewing at her lip. "I mean, I knew it was a thing, but I didn't think that Alfea hired… never mind. Sorry."

"It's alright, Marissa. College is a time in your life where you meet many people who are very dif f

After their initial shock wore off, Jane asked the most important question, "What makes us qualified for this mission?"

"You're the daughters of the Winx Club."

Growing up, all Sylvie wanted to be was her mother. She ate, slept, and breathed Winx Club. She was probably their number one fan in the world. Here at Alfea, however, she was starting to realize that becoming the next Winx Club meant losing herself. She got less and less excited every time she heard the word 'Winx.'

"So?" Piper asked bluntly. "That doesn't mean anything. We only got here yesterday. How can you expect her to go head-to-head with sophomore witches? How can you expect that from any of us?"

Mirta began with a sigh, "Girls-"

"No, that's a genuine argument," Jane said, hugging her freckled knees to her chest. "We aren't our moms."

"I need you six to listen to me very carefully," Mirta said. She looked at them over her glasses with heavy eyes that seemed to know more about this topic than the six teens would ever understand. Sylvie felt she was talking from personal experience when she said, "Regardless of what you feel, who your parents are will play a heavier hand in your life than anything else."

Even after class had ended and they returned to their dorm, Professor Mirta's words rang in Sylvie's head like a funeral bell. Delta stopped her before she disappeared into her room.

"Don't listen to that stuffy, old professor," she said with a smile. "We decide who we are."

"Did you just read my mind?" Sylvie asked with a small smile.

"Nope," Delta said, popping the 'p' at the end, "I just read your face."

Delta squeezed her shoulder and walked away, leaving Sylvie to the mountain of unpacking she had left to do.

"I told you that you would be too tired after classes to unpack your things," Ace chirped from her perch on Sylvie's desk. "You should have unpacked when you got here like the rest of us."

"You'll learn early on, Ace, that I'm not the most diligent of workers," Sylvie replied, pulling the last of her clothes out of her luggage.

"I guess the blonde hair isn't where your resemblance with your mom stops."

Sylvie stiffened before opening the doors to her boudoir. She tried not to take comments like that personally since there were so many of them flying around. In a dorm inhabited by six daughters of the Winx Club, it's hard to go an hour without a reference to the lore they had all grown up around. Sylvie knew Ace had been force-fed her mother's story throughout childhood, just as much as Sylvie herself was; probably more so, considering that Ace grew up outside of a castle where she could hear people talking about her mom all the time.

"I guess so."

Sylvie shrugged and hung her only sundress up on her side of the boudoir. Ace's half was already filled to the brim with colorful pleated skirts and bright starched blouses. At the bottom of the boudoir were two bins, one empty and one filled with Ace's shiny black Mary Janes and her pastel ballet flats. Sylvie felt bland hanging her cropped tees and black yoga pants in the same closet as her roommate's preppy clothes.

A cry from the main room distracted her from the depressing feeling of pouring her sneakers and sandals into the bin beside Ace's nice shoes.

Ace and Sylvie ran out of their room to see the other girls crowded around the balcony. Marissa was wearing a bathrobe and Delta had a hand over her cell's receiver. Sylvie could faintly make out the sound of someone calling Delta's name through the phone, but the tech fairy was focused on whatever stood on that balcony. Fortunately, Sylvie was tall enough to see over their heads. Unfortunately, Sylvie didn't like what she saw.

"Val!"

On their balcony stood the crazy cave boy, looking surreal when he was backlit by the setting sun. He seemed out of place above ground and even more out of place standing on their freaking balcony.

"What are you doing here?"

He shrugged and Sylvie was disgusted by the bones she could see sticking out of his skin when he did that. His flowy linen shirt did little to hide how malnourished he was.

"I was in the neighborhood," came his short reply.

Jane did not look amused, but Val laughed at his own joke.

"I'm kidding, Janey. I came to see you."

"W-what for?" she asked shakily. Marissa reached to clutch one of Jane's arms.

His sallow face became serious.

"I believe I found what you were looking for."

He reached into his pack and Jane raised her hands. They glowed with the fire of the Dragon Flame. Val stopped in his tracks and stared at her blazing hands, licking his cracked lips. He then looked up at her. There was an exchange between their bright eyes that made Jane put down her fists.

Out of his pack, he pulled a black spellbook studded with gold and set with amber. A handprint-shaped groove sat in the middle and it was crusted with blood. Jane pulled out the scroll Faragonda had given her yesterday. Sure enough, the book in Val's hands matched the Halotome exactly, right down to the crusty blood.

"You went back?" she asked, carefully taking the spellbook from his bony, white fingers.

The sun had set. He shrugged again, but his bright smile betrayed him.

"It's funny, the kinds of things that end up on my side of the ground."

He took a step back and the balcony doors flew shut on their own, making Sylvie jump out of her skin. He jumped off the balcony with surprising agility for such a brittle boy.

As he disappeared into the night, the girls one-by-one left the window. Marissa said something about finishing her shower and Delta put her phone back up to her ear to finish her conversation like it had never stopped.

"Well, obvi, Mo," she chided. "That's because you're not supposed to wear your binder to sleep."

Ace squeezed Sylvie's hand before heading back to their room. Just Sylvie and Jane remained, Sylvie watching Jane and Jane watching some unseen spot off in the distance.

"Are you going to get that to Faragonda?"

Jane jumped, suddenly remembering where she was.

"Uh, um, yes. Yeah. Tomorrow morning."

Just as Sylvie was about to question Jane's uncharacteristic aloofness, Marissa called them over to her bed.

"Look, guys," she said, pulling back the bed skirt.

Using her finger, she shined a light beneath the bed. Scribbled above the baseboard, Sylvie could just barely make out her mother's name surrounded by what she assumed were the names of her fellow Winx members.

"You have got to be kidding me."