Lily wasn't a morning person by any means but waiting by Jack's car that morning she never seemed more awake. Storm clouds silently loomed above them with a orange halo thanks to the first light beginning to crest the horizon. She tucked the rebellious strands from her rough plait back behind her ears, the wild winds rustling them free. Her right shoulder was still paralysed so she couldn't lift her arms to braid her thick hair back, it rested heavily over her carved shoulder. Lily released a shaky breath.

Their plan was rough. Haidan, Jack, and herself would walk in while Cody kept Tyrill safe in case more rogues came back. Then, they'd get Niall out, and leave without a scratch... No one had really elaborated on how they would free Niall from a hundred rogues hellbent on murdering Lily and anyone more powerful than them.

Lily breathed out the anxiety swirling in her belly, pushing her fists further into the pockets of her jumper. She'd donned her leggings and a sturdy pair of shoes - she figured she'd be doing a lot of running.

What she didn't want to do was kill anyone. She'd accidentally come close a few times, yes, but death always left a mark. Every day Lily woke to its hand clamped around her heart; one finger for each member still nestled within, and the thumb for the grandmother that never came back.

Loss was an old and familial shadow walking with her every day.

But if Lily lost anyone else in her life she'd leave mark on death itself. She would not bury another person if she could help it. This time, unlike in her family's car accident, she could help.

There was lightning in her veins and a wild ocean in her soul. She was the Supernova - and utterly terrified - but if anyone could stop Yuric and his rogues, save Niall, and walk away unscathed, it was her. She just wished someone told her how.

It would have been a great time for her grandmother to give her some answers, especially while they were planning how to rescue Niall. Unfortunately she was silent the entire time. She glowered at everyone as they threw suggestion after suggestion, rolling her eyes when Nick and Cay suggested getting the police involved.

Leaning against Jack's car now, Lily braced herself when Nerida walked towards her. She could hear her boots against the cobblestone road, as fierce as the gleam in her dark eyes. Her grandmother's hair was fastened back into a pony tail, and she wore a thick, long coat to protect against the icy wind.

"Little Lily," Nerida began. "You need to be careful with Yuric."

Lily kept leaning against Jack's car, if only to have some support. "I know."

"No you don't." Nerida's fierce glare wavered. "He is a man seeking freedom from hierarchy. He escaped it when he became rogue, and when a new, naive Supernova stepped on his toes, his freedom was threatened."

"I didn't step on his toes-"

"You did," Nerida snapped. "You stopped his rogues from killing the little alpha girl. If you'd let them, let them go and hadn't got involved, you wouldn't be in this mess. His orders failed when you stepped up and now you're in the same situation as before."

Lily couldn't move. "Are you asking what I think you are?" She said quietly with ice lacing her words.

Nerida shifted on her feet. "I can't stop you from going, but I can tell you this - letting Niall die is the only way to be free from the rogues. Don't go, let the nymph die, and then you'll free." Her voice wavered. "Yuric will kill you if you go to Marlin's Bay."

"I'm not letting anyone else die." Lily said sharply, standing up to Nerida. She was taller than her grandmother but Lily looked down on her in more ways than one. "I'm not letting Niall die."

"You barely know the boy," Nerida hissed, "you'll forget about him in a few months anyway!"

"No." Lily shook her head. "No, I'm not losing someone else."

"He's probably already dead if Yuric's smart enough-"

"No!" Thunder cracked above them. "I've lost my parents and my sisters, Nerida. I lost you as well. I won't be able to take it if someone else dies when I could have done something! I can do something here, I have the chance to help, and I will!" Lily was breathing hard, the loose red strands framing the determined set of her brows, the clenching of her jaw.

Nerida took in her granddaughter's stubbornness and stepped back. The two were silent as Haidan and Jack rounded the corner, the witch frowning at Nerida's presence. "Time to go Lily." Jack yawned. "Nerida, piss off."

Lily stepped back into Jack's car and hopped in the front seat to direct the witch to Marlin's Bay. When Haidan fastened his seat belt in the back middle seat and Jack turned the car over, the engine rumbling to life, Nerida rested her hand on Lily's door before she could shut it.

Her dark eyes were wild as they roamed over her, taking in every detail about Lily's face. "I won't lose someone else either." Nerida promised. "I'll make certain of it."

Lily didn't respond. She believed her - the fear in Nerida's eyes was true. Lily pulled the door shut when Nerida let go of the frame and Jack began driving.

Nerida was left, alone, outside of the Guthrie house watching Jack's battered car leave Tyrill. Without another look at Rodger's home Nerida turned to the alleyway where Jack's vine cathedral still stood beyond. She walked over the ashes of the bonfire, round the back of the mountain side to the cliff's edge overlooking the east. She could see the yellow lights of Marlin's Bay and the quiet, rumbling ocean beyond beginning to glow with the rising sun.

Her eyes flared an opaque grey and she rose a dry hand to the waking ocean, shaking slightly.

Jack released a breath as she pulled onto the main road off the mountain and Lily finally turned to her friends. The bags under her eyes were swollen from the lack of sleep and Jack couldn't blame her - she knew she had a matching set.

"Good morning," Lily finally said and Jack rolled her eyes.

"It would be a good morning if it wasn't morning," Jack said. "And if we weren't driving into a rogue trap to rescue a kidnapped friend. How many kidnappings am I going to be involved with in my life Lily? This is two in two weeks."

Haidan blinked at her. "What was the first one?"

"That was when Yuric kidnapped a wolf from our school, Poppy, and told Lily to trade places with her." Jack waved her hand about. Her newly polished rings gleamed brightly as they drove past the street lights looming above them.

Haidan looked out the window then frowned in Lily's direction. "Have you had any peace and quiet these past few weeks? Sounds like you've just been in every bad situation imaginable."

Jack narrowed her eyes at the rapid blush over Lily's cheeks. A memory as delicate as snow flickered in Lily's gaze before flying away. "Not since I met Jack, no." She joked instead.

"Hey!" Jack perked up in the seat as Haidan laughed, nodding in understanding. "I'm the best thing that's happened to you in years."

Lily laughed. "That doesn't mean I've had peace and quiet though!"

"Yeah well, you gotta sacrifice something to be friends with someone as fantastic as me - you won't miss the silence." Jack joked but halted when she saw Lily stiffen at the word 'sacrifice'. They all immediately thought to Niall, trapped in Yuric's grasp.

Haidan sensed the change in Lily's mood before Jack could make a joke to ease the solemn look from her friend. The car seemed colder when Lily wasn't smiling. "Hey," he said gently. "Niall will be okay."

Lily nodded slowly, looking at the rickety road ahead of them, the twists and turns leading to the clearing where Niall was. "I just... All my rogue interactions have never turned out the way they're meant to. Something's always gone wrong."

"The previous times you didn't have the both of us," Haidan said. "You have a phoenix, a witch, and yourself. And on top of that, we have Niall too. He's going to be fighting with everything he has to get back home."

Jack grinned, sensing her opportunity to joke again. "Yeah, to us and his family... Not so much Cody and Nerida, but especially back to you."

Haidan frowned as they came up to a junction, Jack took the turn to Marlin's Bay. "Cody helped Tyrill when the rogues came Jack. She's good at heart you know, she's just lead on by Nerida."

Jack scowled at Haidan's defense of the other witch. Lily turned to him. "What do you mean 'lead on'? What's Nerida been doing?"

"Cody mentioned at the bonfire yesterday that she been following orders." Haidan explained. "I think they're from Nerida."

"You think Nerida told Cody to dunk Lily?" Jack straightened in her seat, her opinion on the witch shifting. Haidan rather annoyingly did have a point - Cody had helped against the rogues yesterday, sealing the house with Tyrill's residents and making herself the last line of defense.

Jack also had a small touch of understanding for Cody. If Nerida and Lily were truly the same creature, Jack could understand being lured to a magnetic aura with a power addicting to witness. She was drawn to Lily, Claire was right, but Lily and Nerida were two very different people.

Lily let people in and she laughed with them. She opened up and she listened - Nerida had shut everyone out a long time ago - Cody was being manipulated if Haidan's theory was true. Jack bristled. "Since when is a witch a puppet for someone else?"

"It doesn't surprise me," Lily admitted. "My grandmother has her own agenda."

"As long as it doesn't involve us and Niall I don't care." Haidan said.

Lily paused, remembering Nerida's last words to her. "I hope it doesn't."

Jack looked between the two of them and cracked. "You're both awfully dismal company and this conversation is depressing." She reached forward and flicked on the radio, soft music playing through the speakers. "That's better! Nothing like a good upbeat song to cheer us up."

"Oh yeah, because when I want to cheer myself up I listen to Adele."

"Shut up Haidan, just listen." Jack scolded as the lyrics to River Lea echoed around the car.

When I was a child I grew up by the River Lea

There was something in the water and now that something's in me

Lily shifted in her seat and let the song wash over her to drown out any anxieties still latched to her bones like clams. Haidan softly tapped his fingers against his knees when the tempo increased to a fiery, alluring rhythm.

Jack, however, looked to her hands as the song continued. The pads of her thumbs brushed the antique rings - the stones refracting the ever-growing light of the sun stretching its rays across the earth. Dirt was still ingrained under her nails, it always was as a witch, but her tanned skin made her magic-guiding stones vibrant in the dawn.

Oh I can't go back, but the reeds are growing out of my fingertips

I can't go back to the river

But it's in my roots, it's in my veins,

It's in my blood and I stain every heart that I used to feel the pain

She'd pierced Yuric's shoulder with her magic on a whim - she wanted him to freeze in his tracks, to not lay a hand on Lily, but she failed then. Jack had hurt someone. She had hurt people before, but she was a verbal executioner not an actual one.

Briefly looking at her Supernova friend, her red plait bound in front of her scarred shoulder while she watched the world go by, Jack wondered if she'd be faster this time. If she was able, with her supreme witch abilities, to save her friend from Yuric - and save Niall too.

The drive was slow. The only fascinating part was seeing any of Haidan's skin light up like a Christmas tree when the rays of the sun hit his knuckles, white with tension as he hid them under his arms. Jack called him a 'human solar panel' and while Haidan wasn't warm to his new nickname of Tesla, Jack would never stop using it.

When they drove into Marlin's Bay Jack was surprised to see people outside at the early hour. Lily turned off the radio and gently rolled down the window. The three of them were instantly smacked with the smell of salt in the air, the gentle rush of waves brushing the shoreline and rocking moored boats. Jack heard someone shouting, waving hands at his fellow crewmen to set sail and begin fishing out at sea.

"You grew up here?" Jack asked Lily quietly, taking in the signs of life. Someone had already opened their cafe, handing warm lattes to those beginning their day on the water. Jack was nipped on the nose by the smell of fresh bread, a carnal hunger rumbling her stomach as she drove reluctantly past the bakery. I'll come back for you, she vowed.

"Yeah." Lily said quietly. "I was here until I was eleven."

"Why did you move?" Haidan asked, peeking between the front seats. "I mean, it smells like fish and salt, so I can kind of get it."

Jack saw a shadow of pain across Lily's face and knew the real answer. "It was far from school..." Lily was too swamped with nostalgia to finish the sentence. She hadn't been back in Marlin's Bay since the year her family died.

Jack locked eyes with Haidan in the rear view mirror, and she knew Haidan had pieced together the rest of Lily's answer. He wisely didn't ask anything else, not wanting to tread on a sensitive subject just before they rescued Niall - they needed to focus.

"Where's the best place to park?" Haidan diverted conversation as they slowly drove through the town, passing the sailing clubs and anchored fishing boats and merging into the line of little shops and cafes on the beach front. Jack blinked at the crisp sand being brushed calmly by the waves.

Lily gestured to the parking against the shops and Jack pulled over, flawlessly parallel parking between two utility trucks loaded with tackle. As they got out, Jack was still overwhelmed with how sweet Lily's hometown was. The waves were shallow, the sun sparkling off the clear water, and the people waved at them kindly before discussing how prime the conditions were to fish.

There was a beautiful and quiet lure about Marlin's Bay - Jack just hoped they weren't about to destroy its spark.

"Where now?" Jack asked as Lily swallowed the lump in her throat. Of all places Yuric wanted them to meet, it was her hometown. Why were they meeting here and not at the clearing Lily met them before? Or the graveyard where the rogues took her to be struck down?

"This way." Lily said, pointing at the path in front of the beach, leading in the forest. The same forest that would lead to the back of Nova High, or the edge of Mount Tyrill, or the end of Haidan's back garden in Widderin. Stories always began in mysterious woods, Jack thought, and many ended there too. It was never a happy ending.

"It's a few minutes down the path," Jack heard Lily explain to them. "If it hasn't changed in eight years, the woods should open up to a large clearing. When it snowed in the winter I used to build snowmen here with my family-"

Lily stopped talking, clearing her throat. Jack reached out and gently squeezed her hand in comfort. "We're going to be okay Lily." The witch said softly, and manoeuvred so she stood in front of Lily next to Haidan.

The phoenix nodded to Jack, thinking how he was wrong about her all along - she was not wicked but otherworldly in her care and loyalty to others. The look in her bright olive eyes said everything it needed to - Haidan and Jack would lead the way for Lily.

"How do we know that Niall's here?" Haidan hesitantly asked when they began walking, all of them now beginning to feel the fear coil in their bellies.

"He's here." Lily said strongly. "There's no wind here - it's wild everywhere else. He has to be here."

Jack raised an eyebrow, only just noticing the trees not swaying in the breeze, her hair not ruffled by the playful gust of wind, or her body threatening to fly away in the wild wails in Tyrill. There was no wind in Marlin's Bay. As they wondered through the dreaded forest, Jack couldn't help but think with Lily quietly walking behind them, that this was the calm before the storm.

It was always the deadliest part.

"Wait." Haidan said. They all froze as his dark eyes narrowed ahead of them. "There are people ahead."

"Rogues?" Jack asked. "Humans? Can you see Niall? Is Yuric there?"

Jack noticed Haidan hesitate, a feather-like tick in his jaw as he clenched for a second. "Let me go on ahead and check." His voice wavered as he took a step forward.

"Absolutely not." Jack stepped forward in unison. "I'll go with you."

"No." Haidan looked alarmed. "I'll go."

"You're not going alone-"

"You're not coming with me-"

"Enough!" Lily pushed passed them. "If it's rogues they would know we're here by now by scent alone, not to mention our talking. They're waiting for us."

"Wait, Lily don't-" Haidan rushed after her, his gaze flickering between the path ahead of them and Jack behind Lily, jogging after them. His expression was pleading. "Wait, we don't know anything-"

Lily turned to Haidan and Jack noticed the swirling determination in her eyes as she opened her mouth to tell him to step back. Jack quickly put two hands over their lips and hissed at them. "Let me check if it's clear first!" She whispered, removing her hands and cupping them over her own ears. Her rings glimmered as her magic unearthed itself over her palms. "Both of you stay quiet and don't move."

Jack's magic hugged her ears and pulsed, enhancing her hearing. She'd used the trick a few times to eavesdrop on people for fun. Those times were limited in range but Jack pushed her abilities further now.

Her hearing spiked and at once she heard all; the sounds of birds wakening in the canopy, the pull of the current rapidly taking waves further from the shore, the clanging of metal as the boats pulled their anchors above the surface, and the scrapes of wolf claws over chipped tree roots.

Jack focused on the wolves she could hear and knew Haidan was right. The rogues were in the clearing, pacing and panicking. She could hear their hurried pants and the scurry of werewolves in human form moving quickly. As her focus sharpened, Jack heard them talking in hush whispers.

"-this wasn't the plan!"

"Of course it wasn't Lucia!" A low, masculine voice hissed. "There was obviously some miscommunication!"

"You think?!" Jack clenched her jaw hearing the former PE teacher shriek at her rogue comrade. "We were warned about the Supernova's lures Kristofer, and we went after one!"

"Yes, but you told every other team of rogues the same thing!" Kristofer snarled loudly. "Your orders, Yuric's orders, were that we find a lure, and not the one she loves the most, and to bring it here!"

"Yes they were our orders, but-"

"But you didn't say it had to be one between us all!" Kristofer's growl reverberated in Jack's toes, the same place Jack's heart had sunk to. "What are you going to do? We can't put them back, it's dawn!"