Jack groaned, her bones throbbing at the force of whatever knocked her off her feet. The magic that was wrapped around her hands vanished when she landed, leaving her wrists throbbing with pain branching through to her knuckles. Her rings flickered as Jack tried to focus, her magic attempting to soothe her torn muscles, when the ground beneath her grunted.
Her eyes widened. She'd landed on top of Haidan.
Haidan opened his eyes, now back to a dark, sultry brown and stared at her. Jack blinked and had every intention of getting off Haidan but her hands were bruised and sore. She couldn't tell if she was just making up excuses.
Haidan frowned, realising their position, and gently placed his hands on Jack's waist to roll her off. Jack raised an eyebrow as she now lay on the ground, not blind to the blush on his cheeks.
"We just became friends for life." Jack teased. "I hope you realise that."
"Shut up."
"We're inseparable now." Jack was more than aware of the blush on her own cheeks and stared at her hands, seeing her swollen wrists. She'd definitely torn something when Ms Winters kicked her over earlier but she could still move her fingers. Nothing broken but she wouldn't be pushing people around anytime soon.
Haidan frowned, glancing over at the wicked witch. With her magic gone, her eyes dimming to a soft green, she almost appeared normal. He noticed her swollen hands and rolled to his feet, extending a hand to her. "Are you alright?"
"Oh, perfectly normal." Jack said. "Being attacked by wolves, tearing my wrists, and practically flying ten metres is a daily occurrence for me."
Haidan glared at her. "Do you need help up or not?"
Jack's return glare weakened when she nodded. Haidan gently grabbed her upper arms and hauled her to her feet, careful not to jar her wrists. Jack was more focused on his warm, gentle touch and cursed herself for blushing yet again.
When they were standing up Haidan stared at her once more to see if she was alright, and noticed the bruising around her throat. "What happened to your neck?"
"Nothing." Jack quickly said and stepped out of his hold. The warmth of his touch left immediately, replaced with the icy memory of her mother's madness latched around her neck. "What happened to Lily?"
Haidan didn't believe the witch, wondering just how wicked she really was, and turned to where they'd been standing only moments ago. Jack followed his gaze to see Lily had barely moved, skidding back only a metre, and that Niall had followed her as promised.
Niall grinned in her direction, his violet eyes not quite landing on her face. "Did you get rid of the rogues before I got here? It's only you three for miles."
"It was just Lily and hot shot here when I arrived." Jack frowned. "What happened to those reinforcements?"
Niall stretched out his arms and bowed mockingly to her. "That would be me."
"You're your own reinforcements?!"
"Hey, it would have worked if you guys were surrounded by rogues!" Niall defended, his violet eyes flickering over the two strangers in the clearing. "Are you going to introduce me to your friends, Jack?"
"Oh yeah," Jack looked to Haidan first. "Well, we're not friends. We've just met - but this is Haidan?"
"Haidan Tariq." He introduced, frowning at Niall and taking in the turmoil of the clearing around them. Jack had spotted it too - the earth was dented under Niall's feet like he'd dropped from the sky. "You?"
"Niall Guthrie." Niall spoke with a slight accent, Lily noticed, still staring at him. He waved at Haidan and his gaze flickered over to where Lily was standing. He could see her more clearly than the others with her red hair. "What about your other friend?"
Jack frowned at Lily's silence and walked up to her. Her red hair was completely dry from Niall's air arrival, her sling in tatters, but Lily's eyes were wide in shock. "Lily?" Jack rested a hand on her arm. "Lily Nerida Morgan, are you in there?"
Niall frowned at the name but Lily spoke before he could say anything. "This is too much of a coincidence." She said, looking between Haidan and Niall. "This is crazy."
"Crazier than being flown back metres by someone falling from the sky?" Haidan scowled, walking over to the three of them. He wasn't thinking about how there were three other supernaturals in front of him, how he wasn't alone. If he started to think about that then he'd lose the rest of his mind.
Lily shook her head. "I told you that the rogues were hunting for four supernaturals - we're now all in this clearing."
"Hang on," Niall raised a ghostly pale hand. "Me? Hunted? Since when?"
Lily stared at Jack as the pieces started to fit in her mind. Jack was wondering if she'd eventually spit them out or if they'd be waiting for hours to hear her answers. "The rogues want to get rid of anything stronger than their leader, so there would be no higher power to threaten the freedom they chose." Lily explained, "And those threats, us, are all standing right here."
Haidan raised both his hands while Niall's violet eyes widened in shock. "Wait, I still haven't agreed to this group thing." He scowled, stepping away. "You still haven't told me anything. For all I know werewolves don't exist and you're all from an insane asylum."
"Oh for goodness sake Haidan!" Jack glared at him. "I came in this clearing glowing green and Niall here fell from the sky and isn't a pile of broken bones right now. Our eyes glow. We're supernatural. You're in denial!"
Haidan narrowed his eyes. "I get we're different Jack, but this whole 'Team Up to Stop Evil' thing? 'There are people trying to kill us and you're our only hope'? It just sounds like it's from a movie, it doesn't sound real. I don't believe it."
Jack's glare didn't ease. "Why doesn't it sound real?" She said bluntly. "Do I look like a liar?"
"Is the latter meant to be a trick question?"
"How dare-"
"Jacinta Garcia-Slater." Lily spoke over them, rendering them silent and a fierce glare from Jack at her full name. "The witch who can heal."
Lily stared at Haidan, swallowing her nerves. "Haidan Tariq, the phoenix whose fire births the sun." She watched his eyes widen before turning to the other boy who'd fallen from the sky.
Her expression softened for a moment. "Niall Guthrie, the nymph who has leashed the skies."
Niall raised an eyebrow, his eyes brightening from violet to a pearl pink as the wind picked up beneath his bare feet. "What about you?" He grinned, his eyes dancing around her blurry outline. He wished he wasn't almost blind so he could see their faces, see Lily's face. "What's your epic superhero title?"
Supernova. The word echoed in her mind for a second before Lily looked away from Niall's bright eyes and shrugged, finding her feet suddenly fascinating. "I'm just Lily, I don't know what I am."
Jack paused, knowing Lily could tell them she's the Supernova. Why was she holding back on that? She was powerful, the most powerful, why wasn't she embracing it and shouting it to the world?
Haidan crossed his arms. "It still seems like we're something out a Disney movie."
"Zip it hot shot." Jack smirked. "Guess my nickname was right, phoenix."
Haidan tried not to show how much it meant to him to know what he was, even if he had no idea what it meant. "Guess I was right about the Esmeralda nickname as well."
"Esmeralda's a fictional character, I'm a witch." Jack's fingers twitched as her magic jolted from her fingers, flowers blooming at her feet. "I'm no trickster. I'm real."
"Enough, you two." Lily pinched her nose as a headache formed behind her eyes. If Jack and Haidan kept going with their snark she'd be exhausted in minutes. In fact, her energy was wavering; she was cold from the waterfall jump and was desperate for a good night sleep...or five.
"Are they always this snappy?" Niall joked, floating over to Lily. His toes brushed the grass beneath them, Lily pausing when he was next to her. It was almost unnerving to have someone's eyes never meet your own, Niall's violet gaze was dancing around her face like he couldn't quite see what she looked like.
"I think they will always be this snappy." Lily said under her breath, seeing Jack and Haidan continue to glare at one another. She was thinking of anything else to say, feeling the awkward tension lock in place around the four of them, when Niall's phone rang.
He frowned as his phone recited a number aloud, the text-to-speech setting so distorted through the speakers it forced Haidan to cover his ears briefly. Jack, after hearing the number, paled slightly.
"That's my mother's number." Jack whispered into the silent clearing before Niall answered the call and put it on speaker.
"Jacinta?" Frieda's voice was crackling from the poor signal in the forest. Lily was so confused - what was Jack's mother doing calling them? How'd she get Niall's number?
"Mama." Jack's voice wasn't breaking from the signal like her mother's was but she cleared her throat afterwards all the same. Memories echoed in her mind again; Freida's hands wrapped around her neck, screaming that she needed to be silenced.
"The rogues...tracking..." Frieda said and Niall held his phone up in an attempt to get better signal. "Did...hear me?"
Jack frowned, taking a breath hearing her mother's voice again. "Tracking?" She repeated, staring at the phone in Niall's pale hand. "Tracking what, Mama?"
"L-" The phone line went static for a heartbeat. "...Her shoulder... Claw... Frag-"
"Mama, you're breaking up." Jack said, frowning as the line went static indefinitely. Niall hung up when he realised there was nothing more that Freida could say and instead asked the obvious question.
"That was your mum?" Niall cocked his head to the side. "How'd she get my number?"
Jack just waved him off. "Mama knows everything."
"That...isn't an answer."
"Neither is her message." Lily frowned, rubbing the ache that had formed in her healed shoulder.
Haidan narrowed his dark eyes onto Lily's movements. "Sounds like she was talking about someone's shoulder? And about a claw?"
Lily froze with her fingers brushing over the thick scar under her shirt. She locked eyes with Jack, who had a little less life to her after hearing her mother speak. "A fragment." She pieced together. "There's a claw fragment still in my shoulder."
"I thought your aunt stitched you up?" Jack crossed her arms and shifted her feet with a frown.
"...No, she just bandaged me up." Lily said, eyes flickering between Niall and Haidan - would they be afraid of her if they found out she healed within moments? That by the time she was taken back to her aunt after the events of last week there was no need for stitches?
Jack slammed her palm against her forehead. "This day gets better and better." She muttered. "You're telling me that the rogues are tracking you through a claw fragment in your shoulder?"
"That sounds like what Freida was saying to us." Lily was pale. Her knees began to shake as the ache of pain echoed in her shoulder, under the knot of scar tissue that had formed. Nausea churned her stomach and licked her throat.
Haidan scoffed and turned away. "Have fun with that." He said in farewell before walking back towards the charred forest, back into the ashes.
Lily, clutching her traitorous shoulder, fell to her knees in shock. If Freida was telling the truth, she'd never be free of the rogues. They would find her, they would always find her.
Jack looked between Lily on her knees, wide-eyed and pale, to Haidan marching off. "Hang on!" She called, running after him. To her surprise he stopped, glaring at her.
"If I go through with this then my family's in danger, Jacinta." Haidan began walking again, running his hands through his hair to stop it going in his eyes. "I'm not risking them."
"I get that," Jack said. "But don't you have questions? About who you are and what you can do? Wouldn't you want to learn?"
Haidan frowned at her but Jack wasn't blind to the flicker of desperation on his face. "I know I'm a, a phoenix. What more is there?"
"Don't you want to know all about the supernaturals?" Jack put a hand on his arm to stop him walking and raised an eyebrow. "If you're going to defend your family don't you want to know your enemy?"
Haidan was still frowning. Jack looked back to see Niall had sat down next to Lily, who had some colour back to her freckled cheeks. "Look, Lily's gonna need to get that fragment out. We're going to have to defeat the rogues, and I know-" Jack held up a hand when Haidan was about to talk. "-you're not going to fight, I heard you the fiftieth time, but you could come along anyway. You might learn something, hot shot."
"Jacinta-"
"It's Jack." She corrected.
"Jack?" Haidan raised his brows. "That's a boy's name."
"So? I've been going by Jack for years. It's stuck. I don't care if it's a boys name or not - it's my name."
"Wouldn't it be Jess because Jess-sin-ta?" Haidan asked and Jack shivered at the name.
"No!" Jack groaned. "I'm just Jack!"
"You don't like being called Jacinta?"
"No!"
Haidan smirked, his tanned cheeks creasing at the stern tone the wicked witch was using. "Look, I'll think on your offer, okay?" He eventually said.
Jack narrowed her eyes at the amusement on Haidan's face. She didn't trust the teasing tug of his lips as he smirked a little more. "What's so funny, hot shot?"
"Nothing Jacinta."
Jack's eyes widened. "No, no, no, no, no, nope!" She shook her head vigorously. "Nope! I'm Jack, that's it!"
Haidan shrugged before he began walking again, the ash at his feet shifting with each step he made back to his home. "Thank you for your offer Jacinta!"
"My name is Jack!" She called after him but he didn't listen, waving as he walked into the shadows. Jack glared at his back, hoping she never saw that smug smirk again, before turning back into the clearing.
"You two!" Jack greeted when she walked up to Lily and Niall, who were still sitting on the ground. "We're heading back to my car."
"Your car?" Lily whispered before she forced her voice to stop shaking. "It's probably surrounded by rogues."
"Well good thing we have the Nymph With Trapped Wind or whatever the title is." Jack waved to him, who chuckled at the nickname. "He'll blow them away."
"Whose Leashed The Skies, Jack!" Lily corrected but Jack's work was done - she had a smile on her face. "And where will we go? If the rogues can track me we'll never escape their noses."
"You can in Tyrill." Niall said, smiling at Lily. "The winds there are too strong for scents to pass through."
"A werewolf can smell through some wind, dude." Jack scoffed.
Niall, however, grinned. Jack narrowed her eyes at the action but Lily paused seeing how his whole face lit up with that smile. "No wolf can smell through a mountain wind, it's too strong." He flew to his full height, toes still barely brushing the grass. He was constantly floating or flying and Lily was fascinated by him. Not by his abilities, she realised, but by him. "You'll be safe at my village, I promise."
"Don't make promises you can't keep." Jack said.
"You'll be safe at my village." Niall promised, making Lily blink. Would they truly be safe in Niall's home? The rogues had followed her for weeks now - what difference would a nymph truly make to a pack of psycho werewolves hellbent on killing her?
Jack raised an eyebrow at Niall's vow before staring at Lily. "Okay then, it's time to go to Tyrill." She frowned seeing Lily still sitting on the ground. "I'm not carrying you there. Get up, let's go, it's the beginning of our adventure."
Niall raised an eyebrow, indigo eyes drifting off. "You mean that trapping a dozen wolves in tree roots wasn't the start?"
Lily breathed a laugh as she got to her feet, her bandaged arm tingling as she set stared at Niall and Jack. "I think my adventure began jumping off that waterfall." She admitted.
Jack's jaw fell to the ground. "You did what?!" She yelled. "That's it I'm not letting you out of my sight!" The witch grabbed Lily's good arm and began walking back the way she came before stopping. "I have no idea where I'm going."
Niall pointed north into the forest. "Your car's that way." He said before his eyes flared pink and he flew into the skies, the leaves churning in the clearing the only evidence he had been there at all.
"I knew that." Jack said aloud before turning to Lily, whispering. "I totally knew that, I was just testing him."
"I totally believe you."
"I can tell by the total lack of sarcasm in your voice."
Lily laughed, squeezing Jack's hand. Her rings were cold in Lily's grasp but she was grateful her friend was back at her side. "I missed you too Jack."
~~~
When do you think Haidan will return? How did Freida get Niall's number? How are they going to remove the claw from Lily's shoulder when she heals too quickly?
Whom do you ship together, as well? I love reading about your ships - but only I know who ends up with someone in the end.............if they live. What, who said that? I heard nothing...
Thank you for 300k on T&T. It truly means so much. Typhoon took two years through a lot of pain and agony to complete and it makes it all worth it to see it so loved. Thank you, truly, thank you.