I did not kill Jack Murphy.

My mum had to whip up a special remedy that Wednesday devised last year. It consisted of forget-me-nots, or scorpion grasses as they're sometimes called, and was surprisingly effective in inducing short-term memory loss. She'd also cured Jack's chest with some clear liquid that she had stored in a little vial — though she refused to tell me what it was.

By the time my mum drove him home, all Jack remembered of his afternoon with me was that he tutored me on History. And thanks to my mum's miracle healing vial, there wasn't a trace of a burn scar on his chest. He would not be able to recall the fact I almost burnt him to a crisp. Human barbecue, anyone?

When she got home, my mum proceeded to lecture me on how irresponsible I was.

"I didn't know it would happen!" I exclaimed, before grumbling, "It's not like I can talk to you about the Phoenix."

Instead of wincing as she usually did when I mentioned her lost prized possession, Mum shook her head and narrowed her eyes at me. "You will come to learn this as you get older, but the Phoenix struggles with staying faithful to one lover. You just have to be careful with whom you demonstrate your passion."

"So, like if I was with another supernatural...?" I raised my eyebrows at her.

"It'd probably be safer than being with a non-supernatural person, yes." She nodded, relaxing her face a little to wipe the sides of her weary eyes — where phantom tears had left her skin damp.

Then she left me to my thoughts and went to make dinner, something which she rarely did for me. She was still reluctant to talk to me, but I was deeply grateful that she'd arrived just in time before I murdered Jack.

Wednesday and Al were both late to school the next morning, and they ditched P.E. so I couldn't tell them about my little incident with Jack. It also meant I had to hang out with Maia Silva; one of my backup friends.

Calling her a backup friend was a little harsh, seeing as I did actually get on with her pretty well. She was kind and smart, the kind of girl you want to be friends with during high school.

As we got changed into our P.E. kit, we caught up on some mindless gossip — none of which was overly exciting or scandalous. I refrained from mentioning hooking up with Jack, as I doubted that I'd be able to talk to her about him without spilling the beans. And me being a mythical and supernatural mix of a Phoenix was a tin of beans that I did not want to be spilt.

Interrupting our gossip session, the P.E. teacher walked in, "Because we've not got enough teachers to cover both the girls' and the boys' respective classes, we're going to be playing Man Hunt with the boys."

The response was split: one half were groans of "why–y?", and the other half were celebratory "we're gonna kick their asses."

Yeah, we so weren't.

Playing P.E. with the guys was always interesting, especially as it didn't happen often. It was interesting because there was heightened competition — the highest competition of them all: the competition of the sexes.

Maia turned and grinned at me as we walked towards the playing fields, her excitement evident as she exclaimed, "We get to play Man Hunt with the boys! This'll be so awesome!"

"You know we're gonna get our asses kicked, right?" I warned her.

"Yeah, right. But I'd rather get my ass kicked by a fit guy than one of the bitches in our P.E. class."

She wasn't wrong, I had to agree with her on that one.

It turned out there were only two teachers there, as there was a hockey game on — meaning that all the bitchy girls were off playing that. There was also a Maths competition on — meaning that Eric and all those other nerdy guys wouldn't be there.

Maia grinned at me again and mouthed, "There's Theo!"

Using mock anger to hide my true annoyance at him, I snapped back, "Yeah, I know, thanks, Maia!"

His arms were folded across his broad, strong chest, his gaze fixed on the teachers, waiting to hear what they were about to say, a muscle twitching in his cheek.

I do not care, I tried to tell myself and instead looked down at the floor.

The sexist male P.E. teacher split us into girls vs guys, then made us girls wear pink bibs and the boys wear blue bibs.

Oh my God, this teacher! Could he be any more stereotypical? I exclaimed silently to myself.

"Girls: we're going to give you a few minutes' head start. Because, naturally, you're slower." Apparently, he could be more stereotypical. "Okay, girls! Go in 3, 2, 1!" He blew a whistle, and most of the girls jogged off into the tree line.

Maia and I walked purposely slowly past the teacher, "Naturally slower, right?" I grinned sweetly before I nudged Maia and we sprinted off, faster than any of the other girls.

Neither of us was particularly sporty, so once we reached the safety of the tree line, we almost collapsed — panting and laughing.

"Damn..." Maia panted once we were safely in the tree line, "That... was... awesome! I don't think I've ever run so fast in my life!"

"Neither." I gasped for air, breathing in a deep lungful before standing.

Maia and I then managed to hide in the thick woods for about half an hour, which felt like a major achievement. But Maia insisted that she wanted to be caught by some 'proper fit guy', so I was reluctant to give up my ace hiding skills.

Amongst the nettle and bramble bushes, I saw Jack and one of his mates crash around haphazardly.

"You go that way," he told his friend, pointing left.

I tapped Maia on the shoulder and signalled for her to go that way as well. She smiled at me and I shot her quick smile back — hiding how nervous I truly was so close to Jack; what if he tries to make a move on me and the flames start up again?

Starting to sneak away from him, I willed myself to be silent. Until a branch snapped under my foot, sending me reeling backwards into a prickly bramble bush and I swore loudly.

Having appeared above me, Jack smirked down at me, "Hey, Ember."

He held out a hand to me, which I knocked to the side as I clambered to my feet. I would rather have slept three nights in that bramble bush than have him touch me again.

"Need any more History tutoring?" He offered as we started out of the woods and back to where the P.E. teachers were.

"Nope," I retorted, causing him to scoff.

"I know you wanted me last night, Ember." He took hold of my wrist and pulled me close up against him.

"I don't want you. You're wrong," I told him, shaking my head in furious denial.

It was baffling how oblivious he was to the previous night's goings-on — to how badly I could've hurt him if my mum didn't get home just in time.

The cold forest was becoming hot as his breath landed on my face. All I wanted to do was run away. Tears threatened to form in my ears; I didn't want to burn anything... Or anyone, for that matter.

Noticing my sudden dejection, Jack frowned at me, "What's the matter, Ember?"

A tear spilt and I admitted truthfully, "I don't feel well."

"What's up?" He asked, letting go of me and taking a step back.

I thanked him, keeping my face turned away before I ran off into the forest.

"Ember, wait!" He yelled after me, but I'd had a head start so I easily sped ahead of him.

A whistle blew, signalling everyone to return to where we'd started — there were 10 minutes until the end of the lesson. Yet I kept running, away from Jack, away from the teachers, away, away, away...

"Oof!" I spluttered as I ran into a guy's chest. "Sorry," I muttered and tried to run past him.

But he grabbed hold of my shoulders, forcing me to look up at him.

"Theo," I breathed when I saw his face; those hazel-blue eyes looking caringly down at me. I collapsed against his chest, holding my arms to my chest. His arms enveloped my body, and he held me as I sank to the ground.

My hands were shaking and I could see a red tinge running through them.

Please no, please no, please no! I cried out in my head.

I couldn't even register how glad I'd been that Theo had found me — somehow, I just knew that he would stay with me until I was okay again.

"Ember," he whispered. "What happened?"

In answer, I let him see my trembling, now-burning hands. He took my hands in his, holding on tightly to me as my hands shook and the flames engulfed both of our hands. His eyes didn't leave mine for one second, focusing in on me intently — and it was almost like his steady breathing was helping to calm me down.

The flames slowly died away. As soon as they did, Theo dropped my hands, swore, stood up and rubbed his own hands together.

I stood as well, not realising that we'd sunk onto our knees together — bracing ourselves through the pain and hurt, steadying ourselves to solid ground.

"I'm sorry," I told him, and tears leaked out of my eyes as I looked at his burnt hands.

"They're not healing as fast as they should," he said gruffly, avoiding looking at me.

By chance, one of my tears dropped onto his left palm, and washed away some of the scorch marks that were rapidly blistering.

Theo's head snapped up to me, his gaze hard and cold; "What was that?"

Honestly, I admitted, "I— I don't know."

Another teardrop fell and the same thing happened.

"Are your tears...?" He began.

"Healing you?" I finished. "It looks like it."

I was no longer upset, but still, the tears fell, one by one healing his injured hands.

He glanced up at me, "How is this possible?"

"I have no idea. This has never happened before." I confessed openly to him — before a fragment of a memory returned to me. "Wait – Phoenixes, as in the mythical birds, have healing powers, don't they? And don't their tears have these healing properties?"

"It looks like it," Theo spoke incredulously, examining his hands — now completely healed. "How—?" He began, but the bell shrilled, cutting him off.

"Crap... That's the lunch bell." I grabbed his hand and pulled him along, exclaiming as the realisation hit me; "We'll end up getting detentions!"

As I'd expected, the teachers gave us detentions for being late. They gave us the whole spiel about wasting their precious time and safeguarding issues of us getting lost in the forest, then they said, "Both of you have detention until 5:30 tonight."

And there was nothing we could say in our defence. Though I didn't particularly care — it was certainly not the first detention I'd had, and I was glad that Theo had held me while I lost control.

My hands were still trembling even after I'd got changed back into my uniform. It wasn't just the fact that my palms had set on fire, or the fact that it almost happened in front of Jack again, it was also that my tears seemingly had healing properties.

It was insane; nearly too much to handle all at once.

As I knew she would, Wednesday shook her head disapprovingly as I told her and Al about the previous night's disaster with Jack, and how my mum had to get involved.

"That myosotis cordial is definitely one of your better concoctions though, Wednesday," Al told her pointedly, referring to forget-me-nots' scientific name. "Thank the nature deities that you came up with it."

"Okay, but here's something even weirder." I leaned closer over the lunch table and told them about my mum's healing vial that completely cured Jack's injuries. "Oh shit!" I exclaimed, dropping my fork into my lunchbox.

"What now?" Wednesday was startled and looked at me directly.

"I think that my mum's vial—" I started before getting distracted by Al's odd behaviour. She'd started taking nuts out of her pocket and shovelling them into her mouth. "How many nuts have you got in there?"

"What?" Al frowned. "I got them from the woods here."

Wednesday glanced across at me before she said, "Yeah, I would not eat those if I were you."

"They're healthy," she insisted, before proceeding to shove so many nuts in her mouth she looked like a chipmunk.

"I swear to God, Al," I warned her, "You better not spit those out all over me or I'll—"

"Burn your hands and then cry all over you to heal you." A voice cut me off.

Furious, I turned around, and there he was — standing with his arms crossed and a scowl on that beautiful yet angry face.

"What do you want, Theo?" I continued picking at the salad leaves in my box.

"An explanation," he stated and sat down next to me.

"Join the club." I smiled sarcastically. "Because I don't have an explanation. And since you've just shown up, I've not even had the chance to tell Wednesday and Al what happened. So, if you don't mind, shove off." I bluntly voiced.

"No, I think I'll wait, and then see what they have to say." He eyed me — gone was that tenderness that he'd shown me while I had a breakdown in the woods. Maybe burning his hands had left a few emotional scars.

"No, I think we'll eat our lunch first," I snapped back.

He narrowed his eyes at us. "Do you always eat such healthy food?"

Wednesday and Al shrugged, wisely not wanting to get involved.

Crossing my legs, I replied, "How else do you expect us to keep looking as stunning as we do?"

Theo couldn't help but look me up and down — before he leaned closer to me and hissed between his teeth, "What are you trying to do?"

Taking no notice of him, I continued eating my lunch. The salad was extremely boring; I only had it a couple of times a week — the rest of the time I ate food that actually filled me up.

When I'd finished, I pushed the box to the side and confessed to Wednesday and Al what had happened in the woods. I left out the bit with Jack — it would've been beyond awkward if I mentioned him in front of Theo, because he'd only demand an explanation for that as well.

Wednesday narrowed her eyes at me, knowing that I had omitted something. But I tilted my head at her and thought I'll tell you later. She nodded quickly, obviously having got my silent message.

"So, your tears healed him?" Al questioned, "I think I've read something about that — hold on." She turned to fish something out of her bag.

Theo nodded. "Yep, her tears washed away the burns on my hands. For some reason," he informed them, "I was taking much longer to heal — so it's a good thing Ember was crying because otherwise, I'd have awful scars on my hands."

I raised an eyebrow. "Couldn't have you marring your beauty with that now, could we?"

He rushed in, "I meant it's not good that you were crying. But it was useful that you were."

Thoughtful, I replied, "Hmm. You know it almost sounds like you're trying to apologise to me."

Hanging his head, he mumbled, before lifting his voice, "Yeah, I guess I am... I'm sorry, Ember."

At least he didn't shrug this time.

"Aha!" Al exclaimed exuberantly as she yanked a thick, black book out of her bag. It was a thick leather-bound volume, with gold writing in a foreign language on the spine and front, and a tatty front cover. "Never judge a book by its cover," she warned as she opened the dusty book.

"What does the spine say?" Wednesday asked curiously — voicing what the rest of us were thinking,

"It says," Al translated, "Liber de Fabulosa et Supernaturalis Creaturis — meaning Book of Mythical and Supernatural Creatures."

"So?" Theo shrugged.

"So," Al told him, "We can look at the classification of Phoenixes and see what powers they have."

He butted in, "Could you look at Omega werewolves as well?"

"Sure, I'm pretty certain there's a section on that." Al frowned, whilst flipping through dusty pages. "But I thought you had a pack or something?"

"Or something," Theo muttered and looked away.

"Hey," I said softly to him, placing my hand lightly on his arm.

He almost flinched away, but not quite. He probably didn't trust me not to burn him again.

"Did... Did something happen in the woods with the thunderstorm, the other day?" I asked hesitantly; something was off about it all.

"I just—" He began but stopped to rub his face in his hands and take a couple of deep breaths before speaking again. "I haven't been so close to someone for a long while." He looked at me. "I just don't want to hurt you."

A deep blush flooded through me. "You know I can take care of myself, right?"

He nodded. "Sure, but still..."

"Yeah, I get it." I smiled at him and squeezed his arm gently, before turning back to Wednesday and Al.

"It says that in ancient Greek folklore, a Phoenix is a long-lived bird that cyclically regenerates or is born again. The Phoenix represents transformation, death, and rebirth in its fire — it's a powerful spiritual totem and is the ultimate symbol of strength and renewal."

"What does it say about properties?" I questioned hastily.

"There's actually quite a lot here," Al passed it over to me.

"Okay, yep," I said reading the text, "Tears can heal wounds, can control, transform and make fire, can generate fire, can transform into fire, immune to fire — kind of knew all of that." I skimmed further on, "They are among the strongest and most durable of supernatural creatures... Ability to regenerate itself — they can heal/regenerate from any non-fatal injuries... And it says here that they can shapeshift, taking human form to conceal its true form, which is that of a giant bird." My jaw dropped. "Does... Does that mean I'm not human?"

Wednesday rushed in, "It's a book about mythical and supernatural creatures. There's no mention of a Phoenix being inside someone's body, so it might not be accurate."

I fumbled for words and ended up pushing the book away from me.

Theo picked it up as he asked, "Can I read it?"

Glancing across at the indecipherable look on his face, I nodded in reply.

And then he read more of it, "In human form, a Phoenix can incinerate anyone or anything with a single touch. Their ability is so strong that they can reduce a whole man to ashes in seconds — this is called the Incineration Touch. A Phoenix is immortal, meaning that it does not age at all. They are immune to death by natural causes and ageing. Phoenixes are nearly completely invulnerable; they can take repeated shots in the chest and not even react. Although significant force can knock them out for a while."

He took a breath, before continuing, "They are incredibly strong; capable of effortlessly lifting a great weight with their tails, such as being able to fly up a long distance with a handful of people holding on to its tail. Even in human form, they are strong enough to break out of coffins, even after it has been nailed down and buried." He read, "And here's the last thing, they can teleport — disappearing and reappearing at will in bursts of flames and can take whoever is holding them along with them."

I swore under my breath, "So, are all of these abilities... developing now?"

Level-headedly, Wednesday replied, "We'll wait until another one of these abilities reveals itself, and then we'll look into it some more."

"Is it dangerous — the abilities developing, I mean?" Theo asked, reading my thoughts.

Al fidgeted. "Maybe for other people, but not for her."

"Anyone wanna take bets on what ability I'll develop next?" I asked jokingly, only to receive a wall of blank, serious faces. "I was joking, relax!"

Theo looked back at the book, turning to the section on werewolves, in particularly, Omegas.

"Is there anything useful there?" I asked gently, aware of how badly he needed to figure out what was going on.

"Nothing that I don't already know." He huffed and let the book fall shut — a cloud of dust billowing in my face.

I coughed, as the dust surrounded me, "Thanks for that, Theo." I narrowed my eyes at him as soon as I could see him again.

"No problem," he grunted, not picking up on the sarcasm. "I gotta go now." He walked off without a backward glance.

"Ugh!" I groaned resting my head against the table; Theo Aquila was officially back to being closed off again.

"He'll come around," Al reassured, reaching across the table and patting my shoulder.

"Doubt it," I mumbled to the table.

"Besides," Wednesday stated, "You've got bigger things to worry about than your love life."

I raised my head off the table and glared at her, "You worry about your love life, and I'll worry about mine — how about that?" I put my head back onto the table.

Admittedly, my love life was low down on my list of priorities. The only reason it was getting in the way was because Theo kept having mood swings.

"I need to get some air," I told my friends and grabbed my bag.

"See you later, Ember!" Al called.

"Maybe," I grumbled back, not in the mood for Al's optimism.

The air outside was fresh, the autumnal leaves had all nearly fallen. It was nearly November, which meant my 16th birthday. It was just another year older, and at the rate, I was going, just another year of complication.

Great.

The first few weeks back at school had flown by — nothing major had happened school-wise (other than slogging through heaps of schoolwork) and yet everything with Theo was sending my head into a never-ending whirlpool of doubts.

I don't know how September had merged into mid-October, but suddenly Halloween was just a week and a half away. I was dreading that almost as much as I was dreading my birthday. Halloween is purely a commercial event, during which kids dress up in stupid costumes and beg you for sweets. Not my favourite holiday.

Not to mention the fact that there's this huge house party that the 'populars' in our year held every single year. Needless to say, I've never been invited and never wanted to go. Every year, I've just locked myself up in my house and watched a few scary movies — pausing it and turning the lights off whenever someone knocked on the door.

But that year, things felt different. For one, it could've been an opportunity to get closer to Theo. And as much as he was driving me insane, I did want to be closer to him.

The brief moments of tenderness that we'd shared together seemed to promise so much. Our mutual attraction — even though it sometimes felt fatal — could not be ignored.

And so I set my mind to going to that stupid house party to celebrate a stupid commercial holiday.

All to hang out with a stupid American werewolf.