Jack and Haidan were thrown back with the wall of water, the phoenix's fire extinguished immediately as they tumbled and landed either side of Yuric's hostages. Jack was spitting the salt water from her mouth when she realised she wasn't dead. The witch looked up and locked eyes with Haidan as he was wiping the soaked hair from his face before they both turned to where they'd been standing moments before.
Jack could glimpse the flare of red hair in the wall of water before them, completely loose from the sheer force of the tsunami curling around her body, but Lily held firm. Her body was clenched. The upper half of her was in the tsunami's wave and her ankles were just free, but the water churned and roared. The wall grew taller by the second. It did not waver. It was set on drowning them all.
Lily Morgan held back the tide.
Her eyes were shut as the ocean swarmed. She could feel the current stabbing at her body, pushing her back. It screamed to be released, to be free, but Lily couldn't allow it. Her hands had come up on her own accord when the tsunami hit them. All she knew in that moment was she held the ocean on a leash; a very, very thin leash.
There was a building pressure in her chest from the lack of air. Lily groaned at the growing pain and the ocean crept forward. Darkness surrounded her, unrelenting in its quest to feel the sun on its surface, to be free from the seabed's chains.
Lily's fists eased to open palms, her fingers shaking at the force pushing them back to the point of almost breaking. Her hair was fanned out in the water, her ankles almost submerged - despite the water's suffocation she was calm.
Yuric had taken her family's gravestone. Kristofer had kidnapped Niall. Lucia and the rest of the rogues had taken Andrew, Ryan, Alice, Ollie, and Claire. People she held dear to her, whom had forged her journey to Tyrill and beyond. Her past and her future.
If the tsunami got past her, they would drown and die - Lily swore she'd leave a mark on death itself if she had to bury another person in her life.
The storm above them growled viciously as the tsunami thundered higher into the darkened skies. The water flying past Lily twisted back on itself, a typhoon emerging in the cracks the ocean was making in Lily's strength.
Lightning flashed as Lily took a step forward against the current and the tsunami banked, cresting. Her hands stretched out as the tsunami reluctantly pulled back, little by little, and released Lily from its clutches. When Lily opened her eyes again, silver shone through brightly, illuminating the wall of water above them now almost ten metres high.
If it fell, her family and friends died. If Lily relented, if she didn't hold firm, she could lose the people she loved forever.
Lily was the Supernova - the strongest supernatural creature this world had seen in centuries. She didn't lose herself in her grief, survived a superbolt, and brought dozens of rogues to their knees. She had the battle scars to prove she could survive it all over again.
The tsunami pushed back, pressing against her hands. It was adamant on flattening them all, the fierce current screamed and roared in Lily's ears. Her silver eyes flickered. Lily could feel its rage and pain. Desperation clawed against Lily's strength, thundering at her to move, to let go, to free the ocean she had bound.
Lily narrowed her eyes, lightning flashing behind her and the thunder cracked with such ferocity the tsunami's current wavered. It would not fall. She would not let it fall and crush everyone behind her.
Lily took another step forward. The tsunami leered back, the water still racing towards her and still screaming. Lily's hands stopped shaking as she pushed back but the water growing towards her was too great.
She snapped her gaze up when water began sprinkling on her scalp to see the tsunami begin to crest over her head. Lily's arm shot up to halt its path. The water strained, more droplets raining down over her as the tsunami pushed against her yet again, forcing her to take a step back.
Lily clenched her jaw, her arms shaking under the strain of the ocean. The storm above her responded in kind, thunder shaking the ground beneath her feet as the tsunami roared louder.
She could not hear the sounds of rogues launching a fight against Jack and Haidan, now defending the hostages. She couldn't see Niall's eyes flare pearly pink and the huge gust of wind slam into Yuric, Kristofer and Lucia, holding them back from joining the fight.
Lily stared straight ahead at the wall of water churning in front of her, glimpsing her reflection for a brief moment. The red hair matted to her body, the paleness of her skin like glimmering pearls - and bright silver eyes of her supernatural soul shining through at full force.
Her abilities had no limits. Her strength had no bounds. She'd survived everything that had been thrown at her - Lily knew, somehow, she could live through the tsunami screaming at her if she let it go.
But this wasn't about her, or her power. Niall was bound behind her, along with old friends and family. Her family gravestone was cracked. Jack and Haidan were fighting as best they could against the rogues itching to get to Lily while her back was turned, but Haidan's fire was weakening in the darkness of the storm and the tsunami, and Jack could only rip down so many trees before they fell through the earth itself.
They were struggling without her - Lily knew that without turning, she could hear it alone from Alice's muffled screams. She could feel it from the darkness growing around her from the tsunami's growing crest. The water was winning.
No. The word clanged through her body, her hands no longer shaking. Lily took a step forward, her toes brushing the brink of the water and touched the tsunami. It trembled beneath her fingertips, her lightning-kissed skin. She knew it sought freedom, release. She could feel it writhe beneath the surface.
Lily knew it sought freedom for someone else.
"No." Lily spoke aloud, her voice firm and unwavering. The lightning struck the ground behind her before a rogue could launch itself at her back. More lightning slammed into the wolves leaping at her, flinging them away so they twitched uselessly at their leader's feet. "I said no!"
The tsunami kept roaring but the current wavered in hesitation. Lily narrowed her eyes and stepped forward again. The water banked, curling around her as she moved. It tried to resist but Lily's anger from the hostages, her determination to save everyone, held her firm. She would not break, she would not bend.
Lily Morgan pushed back the tides.
She clamped the neck of death itself and pushed it away from the lives of her friends it threatened to steal. The pressure in her lungs built up again but not from a lack of air. The starlit veins of her right hand began to burn as sparks danced on her flesh, mimicking the lightning striking out above her, stabbing the surface of the tsunami.
The storm roared in the skies. Lily's shoes dug into the muddy ground and she recalled Freida Slater's words to her. Remember what's beneath you.
Lily began to feel the tsunami push back one last time as she reached the edge of the clearing. She glimpsed twisted boats in the water, bodies struggling to reach the oxygen so far out of reach, cars bent like macaroni from the force of the currents.
The wild woman's battle had gone on long enough, Lily thought. The hand holding the tsunami was still shaking but Lily's was as still as ice. With her other arm raised to the skies, Lily only had to think before her storm responded in kind.
Her time in the dark was over. The Supernova snarled at the threat to her friends and screamed - the water before her threw itself back at the force of her voice, her command - and lightning rained down behind her in a jagged line. The ground broke apart at her electrified touch before it gave way to reveal the slim dead-end tunnel miles beneath her feet.
Lily shot her hands over her head, the tsunami following her movements, and jammed itself into the channel she'd created. Water rushed in the crevice and slammed into the cave system. The ocean thundered into the tunnel's current, launching the new wave of water up the old system so viciously it burst out the main entrance to the cave, creating a new waterfall down the side of Mount Tyrill.
One last bolt of lightning struck the ground, making the wild, red-haired woman on Mount Tyrill's cliff edge jump. The scorch mark was seven centimetres from the edge of her boots. She fell to her knees, her head bowed in submission and defeat towards Marlin's Bay.
Lily was standing tall as what was left of the tsunami was now a new river in front of her. The ocean was calm again. The twisted boats were back by their moors, the cars returned to the streets, and the people that had been caught in the ocean's wrath were now standing on their feet once more.
The Supernova stared down Yuric. Her eyes remained as bright as the crest of a wave in the moonlight, and hair a deep blood moon. Lightning sparkled up her arm, no longer paralysed as Lily drew back her shoulders and held her chin high.
The zip ties were still around her friends and family. Haidan had bleeding claw marks down his arm and Jack was bruised from being tackled. Rogues were scratched from tree roots or singed from flames, and the rest twitching from the fierce current racing through their bodies like lightning. Only three wolves remained standing. Niall's eyes returned to violet when he saw Lily unharmed and the tsunami gone, exhaustion forcing his hand, and the wind holding the rogue trio fled.
Kristofer and Lucia snarled together, eyes flashing feral gold, and launched themselves towards her as soon as the wind died out. Lily held firm as they sprinted, watching them both with a molten gaze, weaving between their defeated brethren. Kristofer reached her first.
As his hands reached out to tackle her around the waist, Lily grabbed them, spun, and flung him aside like rubbish, his body crashing into Lucia before she could reach Lily. Lily turned as they both got up, shook off the landing, and Lucia tried again.
The werewolf curled her lips up in a silent snarl, fainting one step before jumping at Lily's throat. The Supernova smiled before roundhouse kicking Lucia so fiercely she flew back over the field at Yuric's frozen feet. She turned in time to catch Kristofer leaping over the river, standing between her and his leader as the last line of defense, but it didn't matter. Lily wasn't afraid anymore.
Lily took a step forward. Kristofer and Lucia stepped back. Yuric flinched.
"Give them back to me." Lily said fiercely.
Yuric swallowed, his dark eyes sweeping over his fallen army, like ants to a flood. Lily Morgan was unbeatable. Her power was too great, her abilities too vast. The rogues were never a match for her.
"We couldn't stop you." Yuric muttered but Lily heard his words. "We're never going to. We could have killed everyone you loved, and you, broken, would still be more powerful than us."
Lily waited for him to accept his realisation - and his mistakes.
Yuric didn't move to free his hostages. Jack and Haidan, soaked from the tsunami, froze. Their hands were splayed ready to use their powers again but the rogue still didn't move.
Lucia gently placed a hand on his slung arm. "Yuric, my love-"
"How can we be free when there is power like that," Yuric pointed at Lily, "power like her, around? She can march into our forests and drown us all. She can kill all our rogues, all our people, and the Supernova could still run wild and free. How are we meant to be safe if she lives? How can we be free when she will always loom over us?"
Lily stepped over the river, now eerily calm. When she was on the other bank, she didn't stop walking until she was at the feet of the hostages, flanked by Jack and Haidan, and not once looking away from Yuric's eyes. "I have not attacked you Yuric. I have only defended myself and others."
"You've broken my family." Yuric snarled, eyes flaring gold but they quickly died out when Lily's silver eyes remained unblinking, unchallenged.
"You've kidnapped and murdered," Lily said. "You claim you want no leaders, no one above you, and yet you lead a free people. Rogues have no leader Yuric, they're not bound to a hierarchy like in a pack. They have no alphas - I know that."
Lily's voice lowered to a whisper only those around them could hear. "You're seeking freedom. I understand, I really do. You had it Yuric, you still have it. Rogues are not bound to alphas. Your freedom is yours."
The lightning on Lily's arm brightened with her eyes as the last clash of thunder echoed in the clearing before the storm dispersed. Dawn broke through at last, light resting on everyone like the warmest of blankets.
"But," Lily's voice hardened. "Rogues are not above me. If your freedom harms anyone, I will be there to remind you who is granting you your freedom - because I can take it away just as easily."
Yuric trembled under the threat, whispering. "You are a force of nature."
"Yes," Lily said fearlessly. "You can't keep crossing these lines Yuric. It ends in destruction, chaos, and that's not my doing. I am the Supernova but I am not the villain. I'm here to get my people home safe - so give them back to me."
Yuric shook his head as Lucia pulled him back. Kristofer clutched Yuric's other shoulder as he began to protest. Lily saw the fear in his dark eyes, the dawn light resting over the scars on his body. She was familiar with wolf claws - knew the deep grooves they embedded in your soul.
"I am not the old supernovas Yuric," Lily pieced together. "I haven't harmed you and I won't - if someone crosses a line, I will retaliate. I'll never harm you out of spite. I won't leave scars like that."
Yuric snarled viciously. "My grandfather had a similar way of control. While you speak of peace as a leash to keep us bound and calm, he used his claws! Chains are the same no matter how nicely you word it. I can't forget his ways even if you speak of a kinder punishment for the damage I've done - Supernovas rule with an iron fist and I won't lay beneath it! We will not lay beneath it!"
Lily looked to the hostages at her feet. The zip ties were still around their wrists but the bruising had faded from Claire, and on Andrew and Ryan on either side of her. She had been using her fairy magic but she couldn't reach the others to heal their wounds.
Her gaze rested behind Ollie. She could hear his heart beating rapidly, his hands gently on Ollie's shoulders as reassurance. He'd told Claire to heal the others, speaking over her fear of the rogues to encourage her, but he didn't have the means to cut the ties without drawing attention.
"What if you could forget his ways?" Lily whispered, staring into Jacob's invisible eyes. The shade, her predecessor, who could hide memories like socks in a laundry. "What if you could live without those chains?"
Yuric's feral gold vision returned but he only saw red. "You plan to kill me?!" He roared, Lucia and Kristofer struggling to hold him back from launching at the still-electrified Supernova. "You speak of peace and now you threaten me with death? You are a liar! A fraud! You're just like all the other supernovas before you, seeing us all living beneath your will - the rogues will not live under another!"
Lily held firm as he writhed in the grip of his fellow rogues, fear pushing his anger to crush Lily like a wave against a cliff. She'd had enough of tides and currents, instincts and fear, guiding people to do reckless things.
Before she could do or say anything, Jacob moved. When Yuric was once raging in the hands of others, he was as still as a flower with no breeze. Jacob materialised in front of them all but his eyes remained invisible, Yuric's in kind, and his hands rested on the rogue's temples.
As Lucia was about to step forward and rip Jacob's hands from her lover's face, he stepped back himself. Yuric blinked rapidly as his dark eyes returned.
Jacob looked at all the rogues around them; the ones slung in vines and roots from Jack's furious attempts to keep them off Lily and her friends, the singed wolves from the phoenix's flames, and the electrified still under Lily's control. All of them had defeat and fear in their eyes at the power they'd witnessed, but also at the death the tsunami could have given them.
"You are alive!" Jacob shouted at them. "You are alive, and it is because of your new Supernova! She has saved you from death, and she will continue to do so, because it is her role to keep the supernatural alive. To keep us breathing, living, more than just surviving!
"Are we not more than what we choose? We can choose to live alone, to live in the shadows, in the streets, cities, mountains, and forests. We can be who and whatever we want to be - and choose who is above and below us all - but knowing someone will always be there for you if you need? That's the role of the Supernova. It's not to threaten, to dictate, to control..."
Jacob looked Yuric dead in the eye as the rogues around them all finally realised what they'd been fighting for. "It's to save. She will always be there to save you, to help and to empower you. The Supernova is on your side - and Lily's proven that, by saving you now from death itself. She is your freedom, not your foe."
"You saved us all." Yuric said softly, accepting the epiphany that had just flashed before him. He couldn't remember a time when he felt as safe as he was now, standing in front of the merciful Supernova. "You saved us, Lily, when you could have let that tsunami flatten us. We're truly free thanks to you."
No one moved when Yuric extended a hand. No one dared to breathe before Lily reached out with her right, her lightning settling down before it touched the rogue's skin.
As the lightning fled from Lily's arm back into her bones, the rogues around them stopped twitching. They stood on shaking legs as Yuric smiled in relief. "It's done," He declared, stepping back. He felt as though a weight had been lifted, the wool gone from his eyes. "We're free - we're free."
With a nod from Lily, her searing silver eyes forever ingrained in the rogues for the rest of their lives, they all fled into the forest from which they'd come. When they were alone in the clearing, her eyes snapped back to brown and locked on Jacob. "I'm not going to thank you for that. It wasn't right."
The shade shrugged, grabbing the small knife from his pocket, and began cutting the ties of the hostages before him. His black skin glowed in the sun now resting above the trees, his dark eyes almost laughing in relief as he turned to Lily. "It doesn't matter what I did, Lily. You were never going to kill him and he was never going to stop; one of you had to be defeated and it wasn't going to be you. But Yuric was right about one thing - you did save us."
Jack smiled on her left. "Not just us. You stopped the tsunami before it got further than you - you saved everyone at home too."
Lily's dark eyes were shining. As Niall gently lifted his now free hand to proudly grasp hers, relief forced a tear from her eye as she finally relaxed, a weight freed from her shoulders.
Lily Morgan had calmed the wild tides.