Snow Angel

3. Changeling

As soon as Cora closed the door of the Winx Suite, she saw the door open and Aisha and Musa walk in.

"She's blanking my texts." Aisha said

"Strange. I wonder if it's because she poured her heart out to you and you called her a freak?"

Cora furrowed her eyebrows "Wait, what?"

"Bloom. She's missing." Musa answered

"Okay, and what's Aisha gotta do with it?"

"Bloom said some things that made me wonder if she was a changeling." Aisha explained

"A fairy baby put in a human baby's place?" The blonde asked

The two fairies nodded, as Aisha looked at Stella, who had been sitting on a lounge, looking at her phone. "Have you seen Bloom?"

"Not recently." Stella replied absentmindedly

Musa stared at the blonde on the lounge, her eyes turning purple. Cora looked in confusingly.

Stella noticed Musa "Yes?"

"Your face looks so calm, yet you're racked with guilt." Musa stated

Cora's eyes widened in shock "How did you do that? How could you even tell that?"

"She's a mind fairy." Aisha stated

Terra walked in at that point "A mind fairy? What's your connection? Memory..."

"Not a great time." Musa shot a pointedly gaze

"Is everything okay?" Terra asked Aisha

"Not really. I'm looking for Bloom. For some reason, Stella's feeling guilty about it." Aisha explained

Stella stood up from the lounge "Could everyone save the drama for drama club?"

"Wasn't she talking to Sky?" Terra asked Stella

Cora looked on "Sorry, what's Sky got to do with this?"

Stella ignored Cora "And?"

"And I know what happened to the last person who was talking to Sky. I was here last year, remember? Stella, where's Bloom?" Terra added

Stella became annoyed at that point "She was feeling homesick, so I did a nice thing, and I lent her my ring so that she could go back to the First World."

"You gave her a piece of jewellery to go to Earth? I'd hate to lose that then"

'Otherwise, it'll be in a pawn shop sold by some sweaty old pervert.' The ice fairy's mind spoke, Musa raised her eyebrow.

Terra asked, "Doesn't it only work outside the Barrier?"

"Yes, and there's a gateway in the old cemetery." Stella answered

"That's deep in the forest, Stella. You know what's out there, right?" Terra scolded the light fairy

Cora sighed frustratedly "What the fuck is deep in the forest? What the fuck is going on?!"

"There are Burned Ones in the Otherworld. Headmaster Silva as well as some specialists hunt them. They're dangerous and if you're hurt, you'll die."

'Seriously? What's next, werewolves?' the ice fairy's mind said sarcastically

"We're going after Bloom. Now." Aisha said sternly, and as Stella rolled her eyes and continued looking at her phone, Terra, Cora and Musa followed the water fairy.

"Did you read my mind or something?" Cora asked

Musa nodded "No. But I can read your emotions. All over the place."

"Sounds right." Cora shrugged as they left to go after Bloom.

After Headmistress Dowling found Bloom and apprehended the Burned One, the girls were sent to their dorm, where they showered and went to bed.

Cora was under her bed covers, reading a chapter from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets when she saw Terra giving Musa a speaker.

"So I know you want to listen to your music, and I, uh, I totally get that, um, but we are... stuck together for a while. So... I borrowed this off my brother. It's a speaker, so we don't have to talk. You can be in your world. You just... won't be alone in it. Or not. It's no... It's not a big deal." Terra rambled

Musa looked at the brunette "Don't be angry."

"I'm not." Terra denied

Musa was now fed up and asked in a annoyed tone "Can you stop with the fake happy bullshit for one second?"

"I'm a genuinely happy person."

Musa reported "And I'm an empath. I can feel everything that you feel. Your anxiety with me, your insecurity with Stella, and your anger right now, all of it, if not worse than you. That's my gift, if you can call it that. I put my headphones on so I can take a break from everyone else's emotions and just focus on mine. But if you really wanna know how I feel..."

The mind fairy began tapping away at her phone, while Cota offered Terra a kind smile before they all went to bed.

Meanwhile in her office, Farah and Saul were having a conversation regarding the Burned One she captured.

"...I need to get in its head. We need to know if this is an isolated incident or something more." Farah ranted

Silva looked at her with his ice blue eyes widening "Something more? Like what?"

"I found a changeling in the First World." The mind fairy admitted.

"A changeling. I've not heard of one of those in centuries." Silva spoke

Farah added "Yet there she was... left 16 years ago... right around the time the last Burned One was spotted."

"You think it's all connected." Saul stated

Farah replied "I'm struggling, Saul. Rosalind kept so much from us. I'm worried about the students. The Alfea they know is very different from the one we attended. They have so much life to experience. Even if this world were safe, what they're going through can feel impossible. But this world isn't safe, and I don't know how long we'll be able to protect them from it. I know you feel it. The... shift. They've had order for so long, they don't know what chaos feels like."

"They might soon. And what about Cora Richards? Besides being Samara's daughter." Silva asked, still stressed about the situation

"Her power. Ice. She's known nothing but being a target for cruelty, hence why she needs special surveillance." Farah calmly explained, handing the Specialist headmaster a file marked RICHARDS, Coraline in black, the surname being in all caps, along with the word CLASSIFIED in big red all across the file.

Silva's steel grey-blue eyes widened at the file. "What do you want me to do with this?"

"Study it carefully. We need to understand her and her triggers. What approaches cause positive and negative responses and how best to help Cora control her power."

Meanwhile in the Winx suite, Cora had put away her book and was listening to music as she slept, unaware of the two headmasters talking about her.