CRYSTAL TIDE HIGH Book 1: Where Magic Becomes Legend

Chapter 1: The Silver Doors Opened By Themselves

The day Crystal Tide High's silver doors opened by themselves was the day we remembered we were fairies.

I, Bloom, had dreamed about this university since I was ten years old. Not because it was the most beautiful school in the world - although it was - pink marble towers that touched the clouds, silver ivy that grew even in winter, and hallways lined with diamond chandeliers that never turned off.

I dreamed about it because every time I saw a picture of it, my heart did a weird flip. Like I had been there before.

"Bloom! Earth to Bloom!" Stella snapped her fingers in front of my face. Her Y2K rhinestone sunglasses were sliding down her nose. Her blonde hair was in the perfect 2000s bump with butterfly clips. "We are literally about to be late for our OWN senior year orientation. This is not the vibe."

There were eight of us, standing in a perfect line on the glittery pavement, with our pink suitcases.

Me, Bloom - the one who always felt too hot, like fire was under my skin.
Stella - sun in human form, literally glowing.
Flora - holding a tiny wilting plant and whispering to it.
Musa - music in her ears 24/7, but today she kept taking her headphones off.
Tecna - with her baby pink laptop, already trying to hack the school's WiFi.
Aisha - stretching, because she said the air here made her want to run fast.
Roxy - quiet, with animals following her. A stray cat had literally followed us from the bus stop.
And Lisa- our ocean girl, our calm one. Her eyes were the color of the sea after a storm.

"Guys," Lisa whispered, and her voice shook a little. "Do you hear the waves? We're not near the ocean."

We all went quiet.

She was right. We could hear waves crashing, but the school was in the mountains. And we could hear music, and humming, and a faint... giggling.

Musa ripped her headphones off. "Okay, you hear it too? The walls are singing. Like, actual music from inside the walls."

Tecna frowned at her laptop. "That's impossible. My sensor says there is no speaker system. But there is a huge energy spike coming from the main building. Like, magic levels of energy."

Flora gasped and dropped her little plant. It didn't fall. It floated. And then - it bloomed. A dead plant, blooming with pink crystal flowers in one second.

"Okay, that's not normal," Aisha said, stepping back.

Roxy knelt down and the stray cat jumped into her arms. "They're scared," she said, petting it. "All the animals around the school are running away from the doors."

We all looked at the doors.

Twenty feet tall. Solid silver. Carved with eight fairies holding hands around a wave of crystal. The fairy in the middle had red hair like mine. The one on the far right had long black wavy hair like Lisa's

My chest hurt.

"Have we... seen this before?" I whispered.

Lisa touched the carving of the girl that looked like her. The second her fingers touched the silver, the whole door went DING like a microwave.

Then, with no wind, no hands, no one touching it -

The silver doors opened by themselves.

WHOOSH.

A wind of pink glitter and cold ocean air and warm sunlight hit us so hard our hair flew back. It smelled like sea salt and roses and old books and... home.

From the black hallway inside, light exploded.

Hundreds. Thousands. Crystal butterflies. Not real butterflies - they were made of glass and diamond dust and light, flapping with no sound.

They flew straight for us.

One landed on my palm. It didn't tickle. It burned, but like a pretty burn, like when you hold fairy lights too long. On my wrist, where it stood, a faint mark glowed. A tiny flame.

Stella screamed - but in a happy way. "Oh my god! Look! A sun!"

On her wrist, a sun mark was glowing gold.

One by one, we all glowed.

Flora - a pink flower on her wrist.
Musa - a purple music note.
Tecna - a green pixel heart.
Aisha - a blue water drop.
Roxy - a tiny green paw.
Lisa - a silver ocean wave that actually moved like real water on her skin.

Eight marks. Eight tides.

The whole school shook.

On the far wall inside the entrance hall, words that weren't there before started to write themselves in silver glitter, like an invisible hand was writing.

"WHEN EIGHT TIDES BECOME ONE, LEGEND WILL RISE AGAIN. THE CRYSTAL TIDE HAS RETURNED. SENIOR YEAR WILL DECIDE EVERYTHING."

My knees felt weak.

"What does that mean?" I asked, but no one answered because -

Footsteps.

High heels clicking on marble.

Three girls walked out of the glitter fog inside the school. They wore the same uniform as us - but theirs was black with silver thorns. Freshmen uniforms, but they wore them like queens.

Red hair to her waist. Purple hair in a sleek ponytail. Blue hair, short and messy.

I knew them. I had never met them, but I knew them in my bones, like a nightmare you keep having.

Icy smiled first. Her eyes were pure ice blue. "Well, well, well. If it isn't the famous Winx. Ten years late to your own prophecy, princesses? We thought you forgot your wings."

Darcy twirled her hair. "They did forget. That's the fun part."

Stormy laughed, and thunder cracked inside the hallway even though we were indoors. "Senior year? More like your last year. This school is ours now."

Behind them, in the dark, five guys appeared in the Specialist uniform - navy blue, silver armor. Tall. Hot. Familiar.

Sky. Brandon. Helia. Timmy. Riven.

The one with red hair - Sky - looked straight at me and his blue eyes went wide.

"Bloom?" he whispered, like he knew me.

And I, who had never seen him before in my life, whispered back: "Sky?"

The butterfly on my hand turned to fire.

Senior year hadn't even started yet. And we were already in so much trouble.

TO BE CONTINUED... 💎