Jack hadn't been happy for the past twenty-four hours. Sat on the edge of the bed she shared with Lily, her fingernails tapped the bed post out of tune. She stared viciously at the knot in the carpet beneath her shoes, wondering how long it'd been there, as she waited for the all clear to look up.

Lily cleared her throat. "How's this?"

Jack looked up and blinked. "It's blue."

Lily sighed, her hands brushing the soft fabric of her dress. It had a wide neckline, brushing the edges of her collarbones, and the sleeves ran down to her elbows. It was tight across her chest before flaring at her waist, scraping her knees. "It's the dress Claire lent me for the formal. Is it appropriate, I mean? For Cody's party tonight? It has pockets, if that means anything."

Jack frowned. "Yeah it's fine."

"You don't look happy."

"Well, I've been roped into a party I don't want to go to, by a person I don't completely trust, and..." Jack looked back at that knot in the carpet. "Something doesn't feel right."

"About the party?" Lily sat down next to her, the mattress dipping. "Or about something else?"

Jack's nails scraped the bed post, unintentionally leaving marks in the wood. "I don't know, something. Something's just off, you know? It doesn't feel right. Like, Cody suddenly throwing this party because you can almost move your arm? No offense but that's not a reason to throw this big a party."

Lily looked down at her lightning-kissed arm, stretching the fingers she could now move. "I agree," she said quietly. "I think Cody does want to throw a party, but I don't think my arm is the reason why."

"What's your take, Watson?" Jack leaned back on their bed, her hair tickling her ears before she pushed it out the way. "What deductions do you deduce?"

Lily snorted, leaning back as well. "Well, Holmes, I don't think Cody's acting genuine."

"That's quite a theory," Jack mimed smoking a pipe. "You see Watson, you'd made quite a detective. I, too, have deduced that Cody is not all she seems."

"Based on what, oh great Sherlock Holmes?"

Jack paused. "...Deductions."

"You have no evidence do you?"

"No."

Lily laughed, sitting up. "Look, we won't know if something's up with the party unless we go."

"Or, we could wait and watch the party go into chaos from afar and tell everyone, I told you so!" Jack pointed with her imaginary pipe, raising another chuckle from Lily. "Come on, why are we even going to this party?"

Lily's gaze flickered to the mirror in the corner of the room before quickly looking away, pushing her long hair over her scarred shoulder. "If Cody's invited everyone, then my grandmother's probably going. I want answers Jack."

"So you don't want a dance with a certain sprightly guy named Niall?"

Lily's cheeks flamed. "I-no, w-what? That's crazy, why, why would you think that?"

Jack blinked slowly. "Wow, that was so convincing. I completely believed you."

"Shut up." Lily dipped her head, her hair hiding her blush.

"Nah," Jack smirked. "You weren't asking about the dress because you were worried about standing out, you were asking because you want to know if Niall would like it."

Lily choked. "I-no! That's not true!"

"Wow, that was even more convincing."

"Jack." Lily said, twisting to look at her. "He's really nice, Niall's a...a friend, you know? Like you and Haidan are friends."

Jack frowned. "Don't try and insinuate there's something going on between me and Haidan."

"I wasn't insinuating anything, I wouldn't dare." Lily smiled.

"You totally would, don't lie to me."

"You look lovely, by the way." Lily's dark eyes ran over Jack's black shorts and off-the-shoulder grey top. "I'm sure Haidan would agree... Wasn't the dress code to wear a dress though?"

"I put the 'dress' in dressed." Jack said, ignoring everything else Lily said. "Deal with it."

Lily laughed. "I can't wait to see Cody's face when she sees you've disobeyed her wishes."

Jack sat up, her fingers tapping the bed post again. "I can't wait either." The witch glimpsed the knot in the carpet once more. A flaw in a perfect design. A party sounded fun, a way to let loose the tension from the past few weeks with rogues chasing their heels and stupid alphas too proud to be honest, but something was eating at Jack.

"What's the time now?" Jack asked.

"Almost six," Lily said, checking her phone, ignoring the notifications flooding her screen. "Ooh, sunset's happening in a few minutes, that's cool."

"So it's half-an-hour until Cody's party?" Lily nodded in agreement and Jack jumped to her feet, slipping on some shoes. "Great, I'll be there in an hour."

"You'll be late?"

"Don't care." Jack shrugged. "I'm going for a walk, see if I can shake off this itch."

Lily stood up as Jack left their bedroom. "O-Okay, um, don't run into any rogues please?"

Jack looked back over her shoulder at her nervous friend. "They won't run into me, and if they do, they'll be running away quickly." She joked.

Leaving a laughing Lily in their room, Jack sauntered across the main foyer to the front door of the Guthrie household, tuning out Nick and Cay yelling about who used the rest of the hairspray and Niall shouting for toilet paper. Jack glimpsed Annie running over the landing with several rolls in hand, yelling that Nick used the rest of the hairspray, causing shrieks of 'I knew it!' from Cay.

When the front door shut behind her, Jack breathed in the silence. The crisp air bit at her arms but she embraced the sharpness of the cold. For a moment she stood on the porch of Niall's house, overlooking Tyrill's streets. She spotted people already walking up to Cody's party, hosted at the bonfire, dressed up in smooth shirts and flowing dresses. Carrying bags of marshmallows, cases of alcohol, bowls of food; apparently Cody had gone all out in making this party as lavish as possible...for Lily's arm.

Jack sighed, pressing her pulsing temples. Tyrill was in full swing, obeying the pull of Cody's command. Cay was right - Cody was the most powerful person in town. She might not be as supernaturally strong as Jack, or Lily, or even Haidan and Niall, but she had a higher influence than the four of them. So what was Cody's plan with this party?

As Jack pondered Cody's motives, wondering if someone was tugging on Cody's strings, she heard sticks snap to her right. She turned sharply, her rings flaring ready, only to glimpse Haidan walking into the forest with a bag over his shoulder.

She immediately followed him. He always disappeared at weird hours for a while. The others might not have noticed, or if they did they didn't bring it up, but Jack wanted to know what he was up to. Was his peace and quiet from everyone a phoenix thing? Did he like to file his nails without anyone around? Or pluck his eyebrows? What was his agenda?

Jack walked to where he'd entered the forest, looking back to see the sun about to set over the horizon, casting the ski village in the beginnings of a fiery flare. When she saw no one looking, she followed Haidan down the narrow, barren path.

The witch glimpsed him further ahead, too far away for him to hear her footsteps but she made sure she didn't step on twigs all the same. His dark hair and darker clothes let him blend in with the shadows of the forest, but Jack heard his heavy-footed boots crushing crisp leaves beneath him.

Jack lost sight of Haidan for a moment, rounding a bend she couldn't see past. She was about to run after him when his footfalls fell silent. Frowning, Jack delicately trod on the open ground beneath her, eyes flared ready to enact her magic if needed, gently pressed a hand to the tree blocking her vision, and peaked.

The bend had lead to a small opening, the sun beating down on the open grass besides the tall oak swaying in the evening wind. At its roots, Haidan had set his bag and jacket aside, an intricate wooden box next to him, and was on his knees, head on the floor, with his arms stretched forward to the east.

Jack knew instantly she wasn't meant to be here. Haidan wasn't filing nails, or doing a phoenix thing. He was praying. Suddenly his denial of the supernatural made sense, Jack realised, watching as he sat back up. The setting sun kissed his bare arms, neck, his skin flaming like the sun itself coursed through his veins and wrapped around his bones like muscle. Jack saw the air ripple across his shoulders and back almost akin to a mirage on the horizon in a desert crippling with heat.

When Haidan opened his eyes, they weren't their normal sultry brown - they were the purest flame like a sun setting over an ash-covered sky. Jack was mesmerised watching Haidan rock back onto his ankles, running his sun-blessed hand over his dark locks, tendrils of flame licking his skin.

"You can come out now." Haidan said, his eyes locking onto where she hid leaning against the tree, one hand gripping the bark tightly.

Jack licked her lips, hesitating. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have followed, I was just curious where you were going all the time."

"It's okay, I'm not hiding anything." Haidan's smile was soft despite the fierce flame still in his eyes. As Jack slowly approached, walking into the clearing, the sun hid beneath the trees and the flames disappeared from his skin and eyes like they were never there.

"What were you doing?" Jack asked, taking a seat next to him, her eyes drifting the intricate design on the wooden box at his side. "Cool box."

"Thanks." Haidan watched the witch carefully. "You can open it if you want."

"Nah, not interested."

"Yes you are." Haidan flicked open the box, baring the contents to the world. "You're curious by nature Jack but you're also a bad liar."

Jack glared at him but focused on the box instead of a rebuke. Her brows rose seeing the folded letters threatening to flow over the edges. "Secret love letters Haidan? I didn't peg you as a romantic."

Haidan snorted. "They're from my dad."

"Okay I'm usually not one to judge-"

"Ew, no Jack." Haidan opened one of the letters and held it out to her. "My dad's in Abu Dhabi for work. He's gone for weeks at a time so he sends letters to keep in touch."

"You keep every single one?" Jack wondered, her fingers brushing the whorls of ink on the paper forming a symbolic cursive she couldn't read. "What language is this in?"

"Arabic." Haidan took the letter back and put it back in the box, sealing it away from her wondering fingers.

"You speak Arabic?"

"Yep." Haidan shrugged nonchalantly , shifting so he leaned back casually to stare at her.

"Neat." Jack smiled. "I'm bilingual too."

"Let me guess, English and sarcasm?"

"...Okay three languages then." Jack admitted, coaxing a chuckle from Haidan. "Nah, I speak a bit of Spanish too."

"That's where the Garcia comes from?" Haidan asked.

"Yeah, my dad's from Cuba originally." Jack's mind drifted to her father. "He's pretty cool, he and my mum were never together but they're great friends. He calls every now and then; wants me to visit his lot, my abuela, and the other five hundred family members I have over there."

Haidan smiled. "I know the feeling. I have so much family in Saudi Arabia it makes holidays exhausting."

"Holidays are always exhausting when family's involved!"

They both laughed, knowing just how tiring family getting together could be. The food was the only salvation from chats from nosy members asking about relationships, whether you were working a well-paid job to pay off your parents mortgage or becoming a doctor or lawyer, and asking a dozen times about when you were going to get married.

"Jack?" Haidan swallowed a lump in his throat when their laughter died down. "Could you answer a question for me?"

"I could."

"Will you answer a question?"

"Sure, I'll give it a shot, but I don't know if I'm quite as knowledgeable as Lily." Jack admitted, wishing now she'd spent a little more time in school listening so she could ease the shadows in Haidan's eyes now forming.

"Is there a cure for being us? Being supernatural?" Haidan asked, unable to look her in the eye as he asked the question that had been on his mind since he discovered the fire laced in his veins. Even now it flared deep in his bones at the idea of leaving his flesh.

Jack didn't answer. The witch remained silent as she watched the phoenix' walls begin to crumble, the weight on his shoulders finally getting too much to bear alone. "I've been told all my life there's Allah, you know? That power like this is His and His alone, and the suddenly I wake up literally in flames after I'm eighteen.

"I get it, I know ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things, and I know that He is too, but what on earth am I? It's thrown me. I'm religious, as you've gathered from snooping on me praying morning, noon, and night, but what am I praying to? If I can do this stuff that only, only Allah is capable of, then is He even out there? What have I been believing in this whole time, have I been believing in anything at all?"

Jack's heart cramped seeing Haidan's voice shake talking about his fracturing foundations, his eyes dark from a shadow Jack wasn't sure she could lighten. It didn't mean she wasn't going to try.

When Haidan looked back up at the witch, seeing her olive eyes sharp, focused completely on him, he spoke the thing that propelled him to Tyrill in the first place. "I've read my Qur'an back to front, I know what it says about fire and power, how monstrous it can be. So how do you have faith in this? It's why I'm here Jack. I need to know what this is and how this began. What's the tale, the origin? What are the rules? And... I need to know if it can be reversed."

Jack didn't say anything for a while, watching the last of the sun face from the sky, the stars sparkling into view. "Is this about faith in something more or faith in yourself?"

Haidan frowned. "Does it matter? You can't have both."

"You're an idiot. You can have both. You need both - you need a balance, a foundation." Jack snapped. "A witch's power relies on the nature around them and how knowledgeable they are with flora. A werewolf needs to know how to shift to cope with their wildly enhanced senses, and a community for the pack nature ingrained in them that normal wolves have. Vampires have to find ways to expel their extra nutrients they get from drinking blood because they're physically unable to produce their own energy - blame my grandmother for that necromancy experiment - and fairies need all the knowledge of anatomy before they even begin healing. Niall's a nymph, probably why he's so sprightly when most of us are out of breath with the mountain altitude. Lily? Who knows, she's still learning like you are.

"You?" Jack jabbed a finger where Haidan's heart was racing. "You're a phoenix, whether you like it or not. You can't change who you are, there's no spell to reverse it. You can be a hot fire-manipulating guy and you can believe in something more - you're literal proof there can be something more. Why not believe in your god too?"

Haidan's gaze flickered between Jack's determined eyes before blinking. Her words nestled in his chest, kindling to the fire burning in his bones. She was right, so completely right, but he didn't want to focus on that when something else caught his attention. "Did you just call me hot?"

"Is that seriously all you took from that?"

"You think I'm hot."

"You're impossible." Jack rolled her eyes. "You know I don't make these motivational speeches for anyone! I just make threats when Lily's upset until she laughs. You should have recorded that because it's not happening again."

Haidan smiled, his eyes sparking in amusement. "You still haven't denied it."

Jack groaned, throwing her hands up. Flowers sprouted around them from her magic bouncing off her rings, and as Jack was about to stand and walk away, Haidan grabbed her hand before she could. His thumb brushed over her rings, unafraid of the green tendrils now kissing his fingers. "Thank you, Jack." He said quietly, his soft smile stopping Jack in her tracks.

Jack smiled, sitting back down and nudging his shoulder playfully. "You'll be okay Haidan. We all will be." They fell into silence staring at the last of the setting sun, a blue hue spreading across the sky before darkness would fall. "And if I hear you talk about cures for the supernatural, I will turn your mattress into a cactus while you sleep."

"Hey Jack?"

"What?"

"You still haven't denied that I'm hot."

"For goodness sake!" Jack snapped, getting up as Haidan began to laugh. Jack ignored his laugh and her racing pulse, walking away. "You're so annoying!"

"If it's any conciliation, I think you're hot too." Haidan smirked.

Jack, for once, was speechless. A blush rose on her cheeks. Her mouth parted.

"Well now I know how to shut you up." Haidan mused, getting up as well and putting his box of letters back in his bag.

"Zip it Tariq!"

"Darn, I'll have to find another way..."

"Duct tape is out of question!" Jack's fists shook as irritation fizzled in her chest. "If you try I'm going to get a cactus and shove it up your-"

"I was thinking another way." Haidan's eyes glinted with more than just amusement.

Jack paused, then flushed, then scowled. "I'm going to the bonfire." She said, shoving the clog of emotion down with the irritation fizzling in tune with the pounding in her chest.

"You do like hot things."

"Don't talk to me!" Jack yelled, already walking back down the path to the Guthrie house.

"See you later Jacinta!"

"Ugh!" Jack gripped her hair tightly hearing Haidan bellow in laughter, weaving her way back through the trees, telling her heart to stop beating so quickly. She cleared her mind and focused as she went back to get Lily.

She had a party to wreck - but the itch of something going wrong tonight still hadn't left her.