Typhoon & Tempest

Chapter Six

Jack groaned, her bones throbbing at the force of whatever knocked her off her feet. The magic that was wrapped around her hands vanished when she landed, leaving her wrists throbbing with pain branching through to her knuckles. Her rings flickered as Jack tried to focus, her magic attempting to soothe her torn muscles, when the ground beneath her grunted.

Her eyes widened. She'd landed on top of Haidan.

Haidan opened his eyes, now back to a dark, sultry brown and stared at her. Jack blinked and had every intention of getting off Haidan but her hands were bruised and sore. She couldn't tell if she was just making up excuses.

Haidan frowned, realising their position, and gently placed his hands on Jack's waist to roll her off. Jack raised an eyebrow as she now lay on the ground, not blind to the blush on his cheeks.

"We just became friends for life." Jack teased. "I hope you realise that."

"Shut up."

"We're inseparable now." Jack was more than aware of the blush on her own cheeks and stared at her hands, seeing her swollen wrists. She'd definitely torn something when Ms Winters kicked her over earlier but she could still move her fingers. Nothing broken but she wouldn't be pushing people around anytime soon.

Haidan frowned, glancing over at the wicked witch. With her magic gone, her eyes dimming to a soft green, she almost appeared normal. He noticed her swollen hands and rolled to his feet, extending a hand to her. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, perfectly normal." Jack said. "Being attacked by wolves, tearing my wrists, and practically flying ten metres is a daily occurrence for me."

Haidan glared at her. "Do you need help up or not?"

Jack's return glare weakened when she nodded. Haidan gently grabbed her upper arms and hauled her to her feet, careful not to jar her wrists. Jack was more focused on his warm, gentle touch and cursed herself for blushing yet again.

When they were standing up Haidan stared at her once more to see if she was alright, and noticed the bruising around her throat. "What happened to your neck?"

"Nothing." Jack quickly said and stepped out of his hold. The warmth of his touch left immediately, replaced with the icy memory of her mother's madness latched around her neck. "What happened to Lily?"

Haidan didn't believe the witch, wondering just how wicked she really was, and turned to where they'd been standing only moments ago. Jack followed his gaze to see Lily had barely moved, skidding back only a metre, and that Niall had followed her as promised.

Niall grinned in her direction, his violet eyes not quite landing on her face. "Did you get rid of the rogues before I got here? It's only you three for miles."

"It was just Lily and hot shot here when I arrived." Jack frowned. "What happened to those reinforcements?"

Niall stretched out his arms and bowed mockingly to her. "That would be me."

"You're your own reinforcements?!"

"Hey, it would have worked if you guys were surrounded by rogues!" Niall defended, his violet eyes flickering over the two strangers in the clearing. "Are you going to introduce me to your friends, Jack?"

"Oh yeah," Jack looked to Haidan first. "Well, we're not friends. We've just met - but this is Haidan?"

"Haidan Tariq." He introduced, frowning at Niall and taking in the turmoil of the clearing around them. Jack had spotted it too - the earth was dented under Niall's feet like he'd dropped from the sky. "You?"