In an effort to avoid Theo as much as possible, I spent most of the next day at school hanging out at the enchanted trees. It was perfect; Wednesday was there a lot and Theo literally couldn't get in unless he was invited in by me, Wednesday or Al.

"So, what's new, Ember?" Wednesday smiled at me warmly as we sat down together. She must've had some inkling of what had happened the afternoon before, yet she'd learnt over the years that it's politer to ask, rather than instantly assume.

"Theo and I... kinda got closer last night," I admitted, huffing, "Then he chickened out and literally ran away."

"Men." Wednesday wrinkled her nose in mock disapproval. "It'll figure itself out though, trust me on that one."

"Okay." I hesitated before presenting my palms towards her. "My hands also caught fire for the first time."

Reaching across to me, she grasped onto my hands and stared intently at them. "It's as I thought. Your abilities are beginning to develop."

I pressed my lips together and nodded — breathing deeply and trying to let the soothing crashing of the trees' leaves calm my racing mind. It was as I'd expected; my palms catching fire was the start of a long road to learning and attempting to harness the Phoenix's power.

"What do we do?" I asked Wednesday, looking up at her.

"We, Ember Hestia Milburn and Wednesday Mortelle are going to live our lives freely whilst we can."

My face scrunched up. "That sounds ominous."

"It is; I've seen it — and no, I'm not telling you — so that's why we need to live now!" She declared, pulling me up from the ground and linking her arm through mine. "We're going to make the most of who we are right now, instead of worrying about the past or dreading the future. Live in the moment. Carpe diem, Ember Milburn! Carpe diem!"

"We're not getting matching tattoos," I joked — then added expectantly, "So when and where does this living in the moment plan begin?"

She pulled a face at me. "We have History next, right?"

"Well, yeah..." Rolling my eyes, I pointed out, "There's no way we can live now while learning about the past."

"Come on Ember." She started pulling me away from the enchanted trees. "We can't hide out here forever. And, as we are taught in CAP, 'the best way to protect yourself and others is to be around others.'"

"Don't you dare start quoting Sarah," I warned her and quoted back, "And anyway, 'sometimes isolation from others is the best way to find yourself.'"

"Don't you dare start quoting my father," she feigned irritation while laughing.

On a whim, I suggested, "Can we take a detour past I.T. and flash Theo through the window?"

Wednesday shook her head firmly. "On any other occasion, I would say yes, but—"

"Oh, come on! Why not?" I complained, waiting for her to give me a real reason. "What happened to living in the moment?"

She raised an eyebrow, "But, I'm wearing my ugliest bra so it's just not possible."

When I managed to regain my breath from laughing, I questioned, "Can I just flash him then?" —causing us to collapse from laughter again.

Even though I'd been feeling horrid since Theo ditched me, laughing with Wednesday seemed to make everything okay again; the joy my friendship with her brought me was utterly irreplaceable.

"No!" Wednesday said between laughs, "You... can't... tease... him... like... that!"

"Watch me." I dared and walked up to the I.T. window after checking it was actually his class. I waved at Al and then blew a kiss at Theo — sending his cheeks a shade of dark crimson.

I saw Wednesday mouth to Al through the window, "She's lost it!"

Al laughed, and mouthed back, "So, she's finally joined you then?"

Wednesday looked furious but was laughing as well.

I was still struggling to work out what was actually going on between those two; they already acted like a couple without the physical side of the relationship. Whatever went on between them, I'd be happy for them.

Theo burst out of the door, yelling, "What was that?"

"Oh, nothing," I replied. "Just like yesterday in the woods, that was also nothing."

"Seriously, you're upset about that?" He sighed. "There was a thunderstorm."

"No, no, it's fine. It's not like I was about to invite you into my house and then maybe my bedroom before you legged it."

His mouth dropped, "You— You were?"

"Nope, of course not. As I said, nothing happened." I shrugged. "And therefore, nothing else was going to happen."

"We should go now, Ember," Wednesday said, tugging gently at my arm.

"You're right. Nothing is going on here, so let's not waste our time doing nothing." I added, "Oh, and Theo? Your mood swings are giving me whiplash so let me know when your period's over, okay?" I smiled before pushing past him.

And we left; Theo was speechless — just like I'd intended to leave him.

"Damn, girl!" Wednesday said when we were nearly at History, "You just keep getting feistier!"

Shrugging, I flicked my hair sassily over my shoulder — before remembering another piece of news that I'd neglected. "Do you remember Kaden?"

"Kaden Bowers? Yeah, he was the cute one that did that stupid dare and died, right?" Wednesday smiled sadly; at that point, both of us had a huge crush on him. His 'death' hit us pretty hard.

"Right." I nodded. "Except he's not dead."

I then explained everything that had happened from him arriving, to Theo telling me that he was a werewolf and not fully human up until I left them.

"Damn." She blew out a breath of air. "You had one hell of a day yesterday."

"Tell me about it." I sighed as we walked into the History block.

"And where have you two been for the past 25 minutes?" Our teacher, Ms Asher, interrogated us.

Wednesday winked at me, before handing a blue slip of paper to Ms Asher — it was a slip excusing us to be late. Sarah gave them to us for CAP, and we were supposed to use them if we have an emergency. Catching up with your best friend is an emergency, right?

"Take your seats, girls. And wipe those smug looks off your faces," Ms Asher directed, though she didn't say anything else and handed Wednesday her slip back.

"Hey," I said softly, as I slid into my seat next to Jack — who would be a player if he wasn't sweet half the time. I had a few lessons with him; he was nice to me.

"Hey," he whispered back. "Asher was gonna have your and Wednesday's asses if you didn't have that slip."

Glancing up, I replied, "Still looks like she wants them."

Ms Asher's sallow face clouded over as she told me harshly, "Ember, you can't strut in here late and then start distracting other students."

Before I began protesting, Jack cut in, "Actually, Miss, it was me. I was telling her what she'd missed this lesson."

The teacher's face morphed back to neutrality, "Well— I... That's very nice of you, Jack. Sorry for jumping to the wrong conclusions."

Nodding, I said, "It's fine." Before I turned to Jack and mouthed a "Thank you!"

"Now, as I was saying, Hippocrates believed in the Four Humours. Can anyone name one of them? Yes, Mel?"

Facing Jack when Asher was teaching again, I told him, "You just saved my ass, thank you so much."

Jack shrugged, "Forget about it."

A brilliant idea popped into my head: the perfect way to get Theo out of my mind.

"So," I leaned slightly closer to Jack, "I don't quite understand all this Humour shit..." I lied and asked, "Would you mind coming over to mine tonight and tutoring me on it?"

"Sure." He grinned.

Don't get me wrong, Jack was good-looking, attractive and borderline fit. He had sandy-blonde hair, sea-blue eyes, and tanned skin — he looked like he belonged at the beach. I think he surfed as well. He was kind, funny, and sweet, but he'd hurt a few girls in his time, so I wouldn't feel too bad about using him to get over Theo.

Though Wednesday had other ideas and grabbed me at the end of class.

"You can't just use him like that!" She exclaimed.

"Who said anything about using him?" I questioned, admiring Jack as he walked past me, leaving behind the smell of expensive aftershave. "He's tutoring me. And besides, it's not like he's never used anyone before."

"That's not the point." She sighed. "And I know how you feel right now, I do, but this is not the right thing to do." She hissed at me; I shrugged an 'it'll be fine' at her.

We started walking to the canteen. Yet when we were nearly there, dread hit my stomach like a weight, causing me to stop walking.

"How am I going to deal with him now?" I whispered, scared once again. "Wednesday—" I took a hold of her hand, "What should I do?"

"Hey, now," She said, speaking softly as if she were speaking to a child, "Where did Feisty Ember go? What happened to not wasting any time on him?"

I shrugged, kicking at the ground. So much for no boys this year, I thought grumpily.

She continued, but this time in a firmer tone, "You can't let him get in the way of your life. Look," She said, "You two are either friends with benefits or not friends at all and hate each other. Make up your mind and don't waste time on him."

"Okay." I could feel my strength flowing back into me, all the feistiness returning as I declared, "I'm going to make him want me."

"There she is!" Wednesday exclaimed, giving me a quick hug. "There's my girl. Thought I'd lost you for a second there."

I grinned at her, "Mood dip, I guess. I just have to get through the day, then Jack is going to tutor me on the Four Humours and completely take my mind off Theo Aquila."

"Come on, Ember." She smiled, "We both know, and I'm guessing Jack does as well, that you two will not be studying History."

I simply winked at her, linked our arms together and strode into the canteen.

Lunch wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. He wasn't there, and the next two periods were Maths and Business Studies; meaning no him.

Jack was in my Business Studies class, so we walked out together. I thought a caught a flash of Theo when we were walking out, so I kept my head down while Jack and I headed to the bus stop.

The bus ride from Challis High to my house's street was about 20 minutes. Jack and I joked light-heartedly, and I could tell he was trying to flirt with me. For a start, his eyes were all over me.

The thought of me and Theo in the woods the night before surfaced; the way he looked at me was a thousand times more endearing and caring than the way Jack did.

Stop thinking about him.

I cleared my throat, "This is our stop."

"Nice house," he noted as we stepped up to the front door.

"Please." I rolled my eyes. "It looks like every other house on this street." I pushed my key into the door and unlocked it.

"So," Jack coughed. "Are your parents home?"

"Why d'you ask?" I accused lightly, dropping my keys on the side and kicking my shoes off.

He shifted, "Just so I know if I need to be on my best behaviour."

"Aww, cute!" I grinned, causing him to scowl. "Chill — we're home alone, I promise. They're both at work still." I smiled, but he still looked uncomfortable. "Seriously, Jack, relax."

"Fine, I'm relaxed." He smiled back, and I could see his shoulders untense slightly.

I led Jack up the narrow staircase and to the right of the landing — where there was a neat, little study that my family hardly ever used. There was the desk that my dad and I had built together years ago and a useless ancient computer sat on it, gathering dust.

"Cosy," Jack observed as he moved towards a chair, brushing past me as he did so.

"Yup." I nodded, clenching and unclenching my fists as a swell of nausea surfaced within me.

"So, the Humours," Jack began. "They're four liquids in your body — blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm — which Hippocrates claimed needed to be in balance for you to be healthy. He believed that each liquid gave off vapours, which entered the brain and altered the person."

"Okay..." I said, pretending I didn't get it.

"The Humours themselves are based around the four elements, water, fire, air and earth — did you know that?" He was getting excited and kind of dorky. It was cute, but I didn't tell him that.

"Yeah, I think so," I said, "But what does it mean?" I knew what was coming next.

"Well, each of the elements links to different qualities." He explained patiently, "Water links to cold, earth links to dry, fire links to hot, and air links to moist."

"Hmm," I said, putting down my pen. "It's kind of hot in here, isn't it?"

"Yeah, kind of. You wanna open the window?" He gestured towards the window, before pushing off his blazer.

I shrugged, "My mum keeps that one locked, sorry." That wasn't a lie. I got up and stood facing Jack, "But there are other ways of cooling yourself down..." I trailed off, undoing his tie.

He smirked at me, "Surely it will make us hotter?"

"Yeah, maybe. But at least we won't be doing History." I dropped his tie on the desk and started unbuttoning his shirt.

What are you doing? A voice in my head screamed; this was nonsensical. I'd never randomly hooked up with someone before — and yet, once I started, I couldn't seem to stop.

"I knew you understood the Humours just fine." He murmured, eyes scanning me slowly as I sat on his lap.

"Then why d'you agree to tutor me?" I questioned; his shirt was now undone — revealing his perfectly toned beach body.

"Because when a sexy and mysterious girl invites you to her house, you don't say no," he replied, moving his hands to my tie and then my shirt.

"What if it was just for tutoring?" I teased; my upper body now revealed as well. I was showing Jack more than I'd shown Theo, even though I didn't trust Jack one bit.

What am I doing? What am I thinking?

"Well, tutoring can easily turn into something else, can't it?" He asked, dragging his eyes lazily over my skin and raising his hands to clasp my waist.

"Hmm, it can." I agreed and leaned in to kiss him.

Unfortunately, he tasted awful — like he'd had fish for lunch or something. But I squeezed my eyes tightly shut and imagined I was kissing someone else.

Part of me revelled in the pure desire between me and Jack. It seemed that same part of me wanted to let loose the fire and see if I could truly harm someone.

I snapped out of my head and focused on Jack. His lips kissed up my throat and reached my lips, kissing me heatedly as his hands ran along my body. His hands were just finding the clasp on the back of my bra, when, all of a sudden, my palms started to tingle.

I stopped kissing him and slid out of his lap, back away from him as fast as I could.

"What's wrong?" Confused, he turned to face me.

"You should go," I insisted, hiding my hands behind my back as they continued to heat up.

"But I only just got here—" Jack's eyebrows knitted into a stubborn frown,

"Please, I—" I swallowed, "I don't want to hurt you."

"Oh, Ember..." He stood up and strode over to me. "I've kissed more girls than I can remember. I won't end up getting hurt."

Clenching my jaw and shaking my head stubbornly, "It's not like that. You need to leave. Right now."

I twisted my hands together and felt a couple of my fingers twitch as the flames ignited. If Jack didn't leave right then, I knew it would've been too late — he was a mere human; and my flames could kill him if I lost control.

"Jack. Get out." I snapped at him, wishing I could push him away from me.

"But we only just got started..." Jack's blue eyes turned cold as they locked onto my lips and he drove me closer to the wall — I was running out of both time and space; the closer he got, the more he was in danger. He raised his hand to glide his fingers along my cheek. "You won't hurt me, Ember."

Oh yes, I will.

"Get out, Jack." I hissed at him — giving him one last chance to save his sorry ass.

"I could make you feel so good, Ember, baby..." He insisted.

I saw his next actions before they even happened. One hand would reach for my waist to push me against the wall; his other hand would grab my neck; his lips would land on mine.

"I said, get out!" It was meant to be a plead but turned into a screech as I brought my arms forwards and shoved his chest with all my might.

As he stumbled backwards, it took a moment for both me and Jack to register the vivid red flames dancing across his bare chest. Then realisation kicked in — Jack started screaming something indecipherable and trying to calm the flames by flapping at them.

Guilt flooded me, extinguishing my hands as I searched the study for anything useful. We didn't have any fire extinguishers in the house, and it would be at least two minutes before the smoke detector went off—

The repeated beeping sound filled the house; a sound I'd heard many times when burning toast in the morning.

Focus, Ember.

"Hang on, Jack!" I shouted at him, running to the bathroom and grabbing a discarded glass. I filled it with cold water and rushed back to the study.

Jack was still freaking out, and I could tell from the smell of his burning flesh that it was eating into his skin; stripping away fibres of his being and leaving him raw and scarred—

I chucked the glass of water at him, but it did nothing. If anything, the water evaporated before it even touched his skin.

"Ember! What's going on?" My mum's voice shouted upstairs — I didn't know when she'd gotten home but I don't think I'd ever been so happy to hear her voice.

"Mum! Upstairs, quick!" I yelled back, "I've... Just come quick!"

Jack had stopped screaming — which had to have been a bad sign. Maybe it was too late to tell him to stop, drop and roll.

My mum sprinted upstairs with a face like thunder. Immediately assessing the situation before she even walked into the study, she yanked aside the bookcase and pulled out a fire extinguisher from inside the wall.

"What the—?" I had no time to question her as she turned the nozzle onto Jack and covered him with the thick white foam.

Even though the flames had been quashed, Jack Murphy collapsed to the floor with a thump.

"Oh my God. I think I've killed him."