Jack was right as usual; Niall was annoyingly loyal. They'd been parading around Tyrill for hours already, Jack had forgotten most of what she'd seen, and all the comments she'd made about the two mysterious supernaturals also in Tyrill had been swatted aside by his unwavering promise to keep their identities a secret.
"I'm not telling you Jack, it's not my place." Was all he would say, again and again, but Jack wasn't giving up. She crossed her arms, glaring at him even though he couldn't see her look.
"Niall I'm just saying if we're eaten by a pack of rogues tonight, I'm going to haunt you." Jack said. She looked at Lily to see if she'd back her up, but Lily's eyes were roaming over Tyrill's large wood cabins and the surprisingly abundant array of snow-gear shops. "Lily will haunt you too." She added for good measure, capturing Lily's attention.
"Who am I haunting?" Lily asked.
"Niall."
"Why?"
"We're going to die by a pack of rogues tonight and it's his fault because he didn't tell us the mystery supernatural was a werewolf." Jack beamed at her friend, not blind to the rapid blush on Niall's cheeks. His violet eyes were dancing around them all and his hand drifted out to stabilise himself.
Jack also wasn't blind to how he used is right hand so Lily had to be the one to grab him. Hmm. "Are you in league with the rogues, nymph?" Jack taunted. "Do you want to see Lily and I dead?"
"No!"
"Then tell us what your boyfriend and girlfriend are!"
"They're not-I mean," Niall bit his lip. "I can't tell you anything about them."
"You let slip one was a witch."
"You jumped to conclusions and I didn't correct you, Jack." Niall's grip on Lily's hand tightened.
"Ha! So I'm right!" Jack rubbed her hands in glee, her rings sparking with her magic. Jack ignored the jasmine flowers along the wall that suddenly bloomed - no one would notice a non-winter plant blooming in winter, right?
"Jack, this is meant to be a tour, not an interrogation." Lily said and looked to Niall. "The rogues haven't been after us for long but they've been pretty, um, determined to find us. We've had a few close calls."
"A few?" Jack muttered. "More like several."
"Can you at least tell us if they're werewolves?" Lily asked, her large brown eyes staring deep into Niall's violet. Jack was silently cheering her on. Yes. Puppy dog eyes, great tactic. Please work, please work, please work-
"I-uh," Niall stammered. "Look, I've known them for years, before this rogue hunt for us. I promised them I wouldn't say anything; I really can't say more."
Lily smiled. "That's okay. If it was before the hunt, then it was before Yuric, right Jack?"
Jack was still glaring at Niall. "Because that's a rock-solid fact right there."
"Jack-"
"Nah, nah, I get it Lily." Jack shrugged. "I'll write my will tonight. Would you like my collection of voodoo dolls?"
Lily snorted. Niall laughed awkwardly. "How many do you have?" He asked, letting Lily's hand go and drifting down the path. He was wearing shoes today but Jack noticed his feet always hovered slightly off the ground - he left no footprints behind on the wet pavement.
"One for each of my enemies." Jack narrowed her eyes on the nymph. "Should I be adding two more wolves to my collection?"
"Nice try."
"Dammit." Jack hissed. She went to nudge Lily's shoulder before remembering she'd be hitting her swollen-Yuric-infested one and instead swayed on her feet. "I have ones of Ryan and Andrew if you want to repeatedly stab them?"
Lily's smile dropped at the mention of them. "Have they been calling you still?"
"I wouldn't know - I blocked them."
"Really? What if it's an emergency Jack?"
"Then they can call someone who will help and actually cares." Jack watched Niall walking on ahead. He was probably eavesdropping - she would be. "Haven't you blocked them yet?"
"No." Lily muttered, looking down at her feet. "What if they need something?"
"Lily, there's a difference between want and need." Jack said. "If they really need something, they'll find a way to do it themselves. They just want to pester us and want us back in town. Who wouldn't? We're great fun."
Lily sighed. "I can't block them Jack. It could be an emergency."
"What is it with you and emergency calls?" Jack stopped them in the path, Niall carrying on. She kept one eye on the blind boy and the other on Lily, who bit her lip in hesitation.
"When my family died, the emergency services tried calling my grandmother." Lily admitted. "She didn't pick up the phone. The only reason I wasn't put in the foster system was because of Aunt Ollie - my mum wrote in her will that if anything happened, I'd be safest in Ollie's care."
"Ah." Jack realised. "Was that because Ollie was your mum's best friend or more because Ollie knew the old supernova?"
"Both, probably." Lily fiddled with her fresh sling, lost in memory. "A lot of hassle would have been solved if my grandmother had picked up the phone, though. I don't want anyone else to be in that position."
Jack grew a lot of respect for Lily. She'd gone through a lot these past few years and she was still sane, still standing and unharmed - if being half paralysed and scarred counted as unharmed.
"Are you guys coming?" Niall called to them, waving at a large building at the end of the cobblestone path they were on. "This should be the pub."
Jack and Lily raced to catch up with him and looked to where he was pointing. The pub's architect must have taken inspiration from the classic English look; there were pillars framing the door and lots of picnic-like seating around the pub. It was built from stone and brick with a chimney billowing dark smoke. The sign swinging in the wind made Jack's expression fall.
"The pub is called Barbara Inn?" Jack deadpanned. "That's a boring name."
Lily chucked. "As in Barbara Ann? Like the song?"
Niall beamed, his cheeks creasing. "Yes! You're a music fan? Do you listen to The Beach Boys?"
"Well it wasn't originally by them, it was sung by The Regents." Lily corrected with a soft smile. "But yeah, I like music. My dad's a music nutter and it rubbed off on me, I guess."
Niall's grin somehow got wider. "That's awesome, what do you like to listen to?"
"Um, a mix of things? I quite like Lorde's stuff."
"No way! I like her stuff too. I like a lot of the old classics though, my mum listens to a lot of stuff from when she was a kid." Niall said. "Do you listen to any old bands?"
"Like, what, Rolling Stones?" Lily pursed her lips in thought. "I haven't listened to everything but I do like I Can't Get No (Satisfaction)."
"That's my favourite song of theirs!" Niall practically jumped for joy, grasping Lily's left hand and pulling her gently to the pub. "You have to check out their jukebox, they have so much stuff, come on!"
Jack scoffed as the two trotted off to the pub. She wasn't getting any satisfaction from this conversation to say the least. She lifted her chin and followed at a distance.
Her role in life had apparently changed in seconds. Instead of leaning against walls narrating her friends lives sarcastically, she'd become the third wheel and chaperone. Jack would take it in her stride - no one was going to hurt Lily and she'd make sure Niall didn't either. She'd been hurt once already by Ryan and whatever he said to her the night of the formal. If Niall tried something, Jack was first in line to punch him in the face.
Jack smiled at the thought of defending her friend and followed them into the merry pub, wondering if she'd be third wheeling for the rest of her life or if someone would come into the picture for her soon.
As she sat at one of the tables, watching Niall wave at the man behind the bar with a cheery smile at the sight of the pale nymph, Jack watched Lily carefully. She was always assessing with those dark eyes of hers, making sure she was safe - probably a result of whatever they'd done to her in the graveyard last week. She tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear (brushed expertly by Jack before they left) and Lily smiled at the array of songs Niall was bragging about in the jukebox.
Jack cocked her head to the side watching him speak about music. She expected Lily to join in, she praised her music collection when Jack was driving them up to Widderin, but was surprised when Lily gently motioned to her sitting alone at a table. Jack subtly turned her head and twisted her hand up, focusing subtly.
"Let's have something to eat?" She overheard Lily suggest. "Jack's not really a music person and I don't want her to feel left out."
Jack immediately shot her hand away from her ear as Lily and Niall began walking to her table. Jack was blushing at her friend's perception - and flattered. She wasn't used to being seen so vividly. It was as though Lily was a mirror and constantly reflecting Jack's wishes aloud. Was she so obvious about feeling left out?
Jack smirked when they approached. "Sorry, I'm waiting for a friend." She joked.
"Oh?" Lily said playfully. "What does your friend look like? Maybe we can help."
"She's carrying a gigantic wizard staff and wearing a big grey hat. Also has a majestic long beard." Jack's smile fell at Lily's confused expression. "Please tell me you've seen The Lord Of The Rings."
"Nope, sorry." Lily sat down at the table, Niall gently following suit. His fingers were skimming over the wood, feeling each rivet and scratch. His violet eyes drifted over where Jack was sitting across from them after she slammed her head on the table with a groan.
"Come on Lily!" Jack cried, flicking her dark hair out of her eyes. "It's a cinematic masterpiece! A classic! It's been nominated for, like, a thousand awards and won three hundred of them, it's the highest awarding trilogy of all time, it's dope, and it has elves and swords and explosions and death and carnage and it's glorious!"
Lily reached for the menu. "How about you tell me all about it while we're eating something?"
"I see what you're doing," Jack narrowed her eyes. "You're trying to distract me with food. Well it's not going to work Lily."
"Oh look, they have pancakes!"
Jack paused. "You win this round."
"Shall we share a stack?" Niall suggested when Lily's laughter had eased. "I could go for pancakes too."
"I'll be eating a whole stack by myself." Jack rubbed her hands together in glee.
"You can eat a whole stack by yourself?" Niall asked. "That's awesome."
"Damn right I can. There's this thing I possess called hunger and I can't ignore it."
Lily smiled between them, Jack noticed a little more colour to her cheeks as they ordered. The cheery man behind the bar was an old family friend of Niall's apparently and discounted them - two stacks of pancakes and a parmigiana for Lily for half the price. They were chatting casually amongst themselves as their food arrived and Jack was immediately distracted by the maple syrup drizzled over the fluffy, golden pancakes with some strawberries dancing in the sauce that had flooded the bottom of the stack.
"Do you have a favourite film Jack?" Niall asked but Jack held up her hand.
"Niall, a fact about me." Jack said staring at her food. "Nothing will come between me and my food - that includes conversation."
They laughed before digging into their dishes. Jack and Niall were the only ones to finish their meals - Jack noticed Lily paling halfway through her chicken parmigiana. Her friend tried to nibble on the chips that had come with it, or sip the water in her glass, but Jack wasn't blind to the sickly complexion making her freckles almost dark brown in the light. Lily's hands were shaking as she fiddled with her clean sling.
When the cheery barman, an Australian who went by Jonesy, approached again Jack asked for the rest of the parmigiana to take away. Jack didn't know what was wrong with Lily so suddenly, but the right side of her neck was redder than it was this morning.
Jack had been in enough Agriculture classes with Mrs Khan to notice the effects of a sick plant - Lily was getting an infection. Yuric's claw had to come out and it had to come out soon.
"Come on, let's head back to Niall's then?" Jack asked and Niall grinned at going back to his family. The nymph hadn't noticed Lily's sickly expression, Jack was angry for a moment before remembering he probably couldn't see her face.
The witch held onto Lily's left arm gently, letting her lean on her as Niall walked them back to his house. Jack was half listening to him talk about his home town; she vaguely registered him talk about how Tyrill had perfect snowfall for most of the year, the cooler, rainier climate these recent few years allowing for great ice sledging tournaments down the streets in makeshift sleighs - Niall was reigning champion for the past five years.
Niall was still talking when they came up to the house. The sun had started to set already and Lily hadn't said a word since leaving the Barbara Inn.
"The bonfire will be starting up soon." Niall said cheerfully. "I can lead you guys over in a few minutes? I'll introduce you to everyone."
"I..." Lily swallowed. Jack noticed her eyes glazing over. "I'm going to lie down for a...a while."
Niall realised then something was wrong. "Are you feeling okay?" His hand stretched out to feel where Lily was but Jack moved Lily out of his reach and towards their room.
"Probably food poisoning." Jack covered. She didn't want to voice her theory with Lily around. "Come on Lil', let's lay you down."
Lily nodded but her head drooped lower. Jack left Niall at the front door and guided Lily to their bed, gently easing her on the mattress. Lily winced as she lay down on her back, releasing a shaky breath. "Anything I can get you Lily?" Jack asked quietly.
Lily shut her dark eyes to the world. "I just need to rest. I'm exhausted."
Jack didn't like that answer. "Okay, I'll check on you later then."
Lily said nothing else as Jack left the room and went back to the front door. Niall was frowning as she approached. "Is Lily okay?"
"For now, maybe." Jack pushed open the front doors and Niall floated after her, the breeze around them kicking up as Jack marched down the street to where Niall had mentioned their bonfires were.
Apparently a Tyrill tradition - every night everyone in the village went to the back of the town to a large clearing stacked with a mountain of wood. It was a way to keep warm in the winter months and Niall's nymph abilities, unbeknown to everyone else, kept the smoke away from the people around them and the fire low enough so it didn't burn all the wood away in one night. It was another thing he spoke about proudly when they were walking back to his house.
"Listen," Jack slowed down so Niall could easily keep up with her. "Is there anyone here that's a surgeon? Specialising in supernatural clients, by chance?"
"A surgeon?" Niall frowned. "No, not really. We have nurses and doctors but they treat the minor stuff. Anything that requires surgery gets them sent to the Trawalla or Widderin hospitals, sometimes the city. Why?"
Jack swallowed the sick feeling in her stomach. The memory of fingers around her throat tightened her voice. "Do you remember what my Mama said on the phone yesterday?" She coughed to dislodge her wavering words. "Lily has a claw fragment in her shoulder the rogues are tracking."
"I remember. I still don't know how she got my phone number, by the way."
"Neither do I - listen," Jack waved off his confusion. "I think the fragment's giving her an infection."
"But, it's a claw, right? How?" Niall lead Jack behind one of the houses when she started walking the wrong way. Maybe she wasn't paying as much attention to Niall as she thought, too focused on her sick friend on their bed. "Doesn't it have to be an open wound?"
"Lily doesn't know what creature she is." Jack said. "We don't know how she reacts to things."
Niall's violet eyes swirled a pearly pink when they emerged into the large clearing at the back of the house - someone had started the tall bonfire already and there were a few people circulating for warmth, but as soon as Niall arrived the smoke billowed into a column away from everyone's eyes. Jack stopped Niall before they got too close for people to overhear. "How's her creature going to react to a surgeon then?" Niall wondered aloud, a protective eye over his village.
"She might blow something up."
"What?!"
"Kidding!" Jack paused. "Actually, she might. I have no idea."
Niall glared at her. "That's not funny."
"It's kind of funny." She muttered under her breath and looked around. The clearing sloped away to reveal the beginnings of the forest that connected Tyrill with Widderin, Trawalla, and Marlin's Bay. Jack could glimpse the dirt track leading from the cover of the trees to the start of Tyrill.
She frowned when she spotted lights emerging on the path, rocks illuminated by the car coming up the road. "Expecting visitors?" Jack asked, green eyes narrowed on the four-wheel drive emerging from the shadows and turning towards the bonfire.
The car halted in front of Jack - the lights blinding her from seeing who was inside until the car switched off. The two back passenger doors swung open and the witch blinked in surprise seeing two familiar faces.
"Claire?" Jack burst. "Karen?!"
Karen immediately dry heaved into a bush; Jack remembered the vampire had bad motion sickness. Claire beamed at the sight of her friend. "Hey!" She chirped, bouncing over and hugging Jack tightly. Her ringlets sprung in her face, Jack caught a whiff of raspberry shampoo. "You would not believe the drive we've had!"
Karen then walked over and hugged Jack too. Jack puzzled over the raspberry scent still in her nose as Karen's long black hair tickled her face. "How are you?" The vampire asked shyly, her doe eyes flickering between Niall and herself.
"How-How are you guys even here?!" Jack couldn't think. Her mind was a whirl with questions and seeing her friends here made no sense.
"Oh your new friend drove us up, said you would need my help?" Claire smirked. "Where did you meet him? He's gorgeous. Does he have any hot relatives? For research purposes, of course."
Jack frowned, stammering, before the driver's door of the car opened and Haidan stepped out with a large duffel bag the same deep tan as his skin. His dark eyes landed on her, taking in the bonfire behind, and then Niall at her side.
"Your mum said you'd need a fairy to guide your healing hand." Haidan said, nodding to Niall in greeting. "And apparently a nymph and phoenix to stop things from blowing up."
Niall gave Jack a flat look. "Nothing blowing up, huh?"
Jack didn't bother giving that a response. It had all clicked - they didn't need a surgeon. They needed her. She was the Witch Who Could Heal after all.
And now she had Claire to guide her.