Typhoon & Tempest

Chapter Fourteen

Jack quickly scooted next to Cay with a bag of popcorn she'd stolen from the nearby kitchens. She'd gone in there with Haidan and Annie to help prepare the food (and sniff out what she could eat before anyone else) but left when her phone rang. She'd yanked the popcorn from under Haidan's nose to eat later, chatting to Karen quickly on the outskirts of the bonfire, before coming back to the best lot of drama she'd ever seen.

Lily Morgan had just reunited with her long lost grandmother, Nerida Haven.

Jack ripped open the popcorn, scoffing kernels down as she held the bag out to Cay, who stared with hostility at the group around the two newcomers. "Fill me in; what did I miss? Has she slapped her yet? Has someone cried? This is the best thing that's happened all year." Jack asked through bites of popcorn.

"It's not the best thing - the two could have been gone for longer." Cay grumbled. "That's Nerry, my uncle's dream woman. She's been here for years. The other, that's...that's Cody. She's a witch like you."

Jack raised an eyebrow as the crowd parted enough to glimpse the tall, statuesque woman with gold and silver woven through her hair like living treasure. Jack blinked, and blinked again seeing her dark eyes shift to a pale lime green, her magic wafting through her delicate fingers to bloom a daisy at her feet. The crowd swooned over her; Cody was drinking it all in.

"Is she royalty or something?" Jack asked. "Everyone's almost bewitched by her."

Cay blinked in surprise. "Cody's the star of the town. She's the most beautiful, the most powerful, and the most successful. She runs the ski slopes marketing team; she brings tourists in. The only reason Tyrill's on the map is because of her."

"Eh, that's all a matter of opinion though." Jack held the popcorn to her again. "Cody doesn't seem all that to me."

Cay stared at Jack for a while, baffled at how the witch wasn't under Cody's spell, before digging into the popcorn with a shrug. Jack spotted Cay's glowering, looking between the melodic laughter of Cody and the strong-willed nurse next to her. "Do you like her or something?"

"Or something." Cay ground her teeth, dark eyes flashing. "We used to be friends and she grew distant out of nowhere."

"Ah," Jack shoved the bag into Cay's lap. "You need all this then. I have a big garden if you need a place to hide the body?"

Cay snorted. "There'd be a search party for her for the rest of time."

"I can make her get on a plane to Alaska?"

"Cody would brag about it on her Instagram and rub it in when she returned."

Jack stared at the witch only to find the witch was staring back. "Well, it's her loss. Sounds like she'd eat your heart anyway."

Cay sighed. "That's the problem. She's beautiful, powerful, radiant, and she'd destroy me - it's why I got involved in the first place."

Jack's gaze drifted to Lily, who was talking to her grandmother quietly. Her red hair was tied in a knot at her neck, the dark green shirt a button out - it seemed to be a habit of hers - and the stark white sling against her. "I can understand that."

Cay looked where Jack was looking, seeing Lily. "I guess you can. Lily's actually the most powerful one here - someone more powerful than Cody, for once."

"She doesn't carry the same aura as Cody though." Jack said, looking between the two.

"No," Cay stared at Lily. "With Cody you see all you're going to get. Lily, she's a mystery - and they're more powerful a genre than a book where it's so cliché you can predict the ending."