Lily Morgan stepped out of Jack's car, gently shutting the door as she took in the sight of Tyrill's bonfire. The logs had been rolled back into place, the fire burning low to keep the spiralling smoke from hiding the stars beginning to shine. Fairy lights had been restrung amongst newly formed flowering vines.

They'd arrived later than intended. Before dropping Claire off to see her family, Jack and her cleared the air, Lily too, apologising for the fight that unintentionally landed her in rogue custody. It would take more than a few words to heal from what they'd shouted at each other, but time was something they had now the rogues had stopped hunting Lily, and anyone more powerful enough to overrule them, down.

Once Claire was home, they took Ollie back at the hospital with Jacob, and visited Karen - who would make a full recovery thanks to the fairies who healed her legs in time. Lily's next stop was more difficult, but made easier knowing it was the last before she could go to Tyrill to collect her things, and return to Trawalla; putting her family's gravestone safe in her house on the spare bed until it could be repaired.

Lily put the events of the last few hours aside as she gazed up at the chandelier of bright yellow sunflowers hanging from Jack's vine dome, twirls of colourful petals running down each stem looming over them. The house beneath was alight with activity like a boiling kettle under a cosy. People walked around with wide grins, holding their glasses of freshly poured champagne to the four who'd come home. They applauded and cheered seeing them all step out Jack's car.

"Niall!" Annie shrieked before the three Guthrie siblings tackled their brother to the ground. Haidan stepped over their squabbling and walked to the front of the car, looking between Lily and Jack.

"Is this what your life is like?" Haidan asked, waving to the large buffet table running out the house with steaming hot food plated and ready to eat.

"Definitely not," Jack said, eyes locked on the roast chicken sitting atop a bed of crispy potatoes. "But you'll hear no complaints from me if this is what it's like from now on."

Haidan laughed. Lily watched Nick haul Niall to his feet and drag him to his uncle. The two shared a tight hug. When Niall locked eyes with Lily, a pleading expression on his face as he was passed from one hug to another, Lily couldn't help but smile. She wouldn't be getting a moment with him at the celebration of his return.

Jack suddenly grabbed her arm. When Lily jumped, asking what was wrong, she followed the witch's wide eyes to the dark-haired woman walking out the bonfire house. Her long skirt swayed delicately as she carried a large sponge cake decorated with white and violet icing. Her familiar green eyes lit up seeing her daughter again.

"They're here, just on time!" Freida Slater cheered. "Let's dig in!"

The people immediately leaped for plates to fill their rumbling bellies but Lily waited as Freida slowly walked between them to greet her daughter and her friends. Niall walked back over, dragging his family with him when they didn't let go of his arm.

"I knew you'd be back now," Freida grinned when she faced the three powerful kids and the Supernova. "Everyone was hungry so I brought food."

"You...cooked?" Jack asked, stunned.

"Of course not, I ordered everything." Freida lunged forward and wrapped her daughter in a hug, Jack stumbling back in surprise. "I'm sorry for pushing you out the nest, you never would have flown otherwise. I will never do that to you again but I'm glad to see you've found your wings." She looked under her lashes at Haidan, who shifted on his feet. "Lovely to see you again, Haidan Tariq."

Haidan cleared his throat. "Thank you for hosting the buffet, Ms Slater."

"Oh, little flame, I'm not hosting." Freida suddenly pointed to Niall. "You! You're quite the little hurricane, aren't you? Everyone's always chasing you up in the clouds!"

"...Yes?" Niall blinked, looking between Jack and Freida. "Are you Jack's mother?"

"Yes! Has Jacinta said nice things about me for once?"

"How'd you get my number to call me?" Niall asked as Jack pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Oh, that would be from Nerida, of course- Jacinta why are you scowling?" Freida pointed at the frown lines on her daughter's forehead. "You'll have wrinkles."

"Mama, I go by Jack."

"I birthed you myself, Jacinta Sage," Freida shook her head playfully. "I'll call you whatever I like."

Lily slowly grinned. Jack frowned further at the devious expression on her face. "Freida, out of curiousity, why is Jack's middle name Sage?"

Freida's expression lightened while Jack's fell in horror. "Why because of the candle in the room, of course. It was all I could smell!"

"Which room, sorry?" Haidan said.

"The one where she was concei-"

"Okay!" Jack shrieked, suddenly dragging her mother away. "Let's go eat now, even though my stomach has literally shrunk in disgust!"

"Your stomach can't do that Jacinta-"

"Have a potato!" Jack shoved the spud in Freida's mouth before she could utter her full name or anything else. "Everyone, eat! Please."

"Sure, Jacinta Sage." Haidan joked. Niall slapped the phoenix's arm in laughter as they all made their way to the buffet.

Lily was about to when a gentle touch landed on her lightning-kissed arm. Turning, she blinked in surprise seeing Cody smiling before her. "Cody, hey," Lily said, taking in her beautiful green dress. "I guess I should be thanking you for hosting this."

Cody's smile was soft as she looked over her shoulder at the large crowd. "I'm not hosting but I am here to celebrate Niall's return, and yours and the others too. You saved a lot of people, Lily."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Everyone seems to love Niall here."

"Of course. He's the Mayor's son, after all."

"The what now?"

Cody laughed, beginning to walk to the other end of the bonfire's glow, Lily following at her side. "I'm also here to apologise. You've had quite an effect on everyone here too. You've changed...something, I'm not sure. You're carrying a different energy now and it's freeing in some ways."

"Thank you, I think." Lily cocked her head to the side. "How are you going since the ambush yesterday? Have you recovered?"

"I'm almost there, thanks Lily." Cody rested a hand on her arm as they came to the bonfire's furthermost edge, a lone path leading up to the cliff. "I feel like a weight's lifted somehow? Things are clearer and I don't know why exactly, but I think I should be thanking you for it. So, thank you. If you ever need anything just let me know."

"You're welcome, I guess." Lily took in her surroundings. "Why are we over here?"

"The host wants to chat to you," Cody's dark eyes hardened. "Nerida's been in quite a state since the tsunami almost killed you all, but she...she's ready to talk, if you're ready to listen."

Lily lifted her chin. "I am. Thank you Cody, make sure you grab some food before everyone eats it all."

Cody smiled and began walking away. "I've got to apologise to someone else first." She headed towards the Guthrie family, her eyes never leaving Cay.

Lily turned back to the path and slowly began walking up, leaving the loud party and seeking the solitude of the cliff's edge. The sun cast a deep glow over the land before her - the trees golden in the light and the ocean in the distance like honey, an ambrosia hue setting over the flickering houses of Marlin's Bay on the horizon. The gentle wind kept her grounded as she walked to the lone figure sitting dangerously close to the edge.

She knew her grandmother wouldn't be against the cliff in fear - Nerida would toe the line of death and dare to push further.

Lily sat next to Nerida and took in her withered appearance; she'd aged a decade in a day. Her hands shook in her lap, her arms as dry as her flaking hands, and dark eyes drained and resolute.

"Hi," Lily said, the quiet wind carrying her words over. "Are you alright?"

Nerida tried to scoff but it turned into a light cough. "The caves are flooded again. Did you know we have a new waterfall off Mount Tyrill now? It's very salty."

Lily fiddled with her fingers. "The tsunami seemed to cut off one path but create another." She stared at her grandmother when she turned towards her. "There's a new stream in the Marlin's Bay clearing now. It's quite salty as well."

Nerida raised an eyebrow. "Clever girl."

She shrugged, watching the sunset again. The tsunami had drowned out the cave's path just as the sun was closing on another. "Cody said you were ready to talk?"

"Cody..." Nerida shook her head with a sigh. "She won't ever listen to a word I have to say again."

Lily frowned. "I don't-"

"It's a side effect of who we are, what we are." Nerida swallowed the secrets threatening to spill from her throat. "Witches are drawn to us like a plant to water. They drink in our presence and seem almost bewitched by our power."

Nerida slowly raised a finger and pointed at Lily. "Since you arrived in Tyrill, we've been playing a little game, you and I. You were after answers for your lineage, and I was after keeping the freedom I'd had all my life.

"Can you blame me, for this?" Nerida waved a hand to the view in front of them. "For taking the opportunity to see the world? To live? I never wanted to be powerful but I always wanted to be free. I had that, Lily. I had it - I was outside anyone's grasp and not tied to a single thing the world wanted me to hold."

Lily swallowed her emotions. "Then my mother died."

Nerida shut her eyes but the flash of pain was there - Lily had the same in her own. "Co..." Nerida cleared her throat. "Cordelia. My Cordie. She was my home, my salvation in this world. She was the only reason I came back from my adventures. When she..."

Lily gently grasped her grandmother's hand. Nerida opened her eyes in shock, staring at the youthful fingers laced with lightning gently wrapping around her own.

"I lost her, and in turn, I lost everything I was." Nerida whispered, staring at Lily's hand. "I've been trying to find her again."

Lily knew she wasn't talking about her mother. "You found Tyrill instead."

"I found Cody. She helped, the witch had no one here too. Her family's been overseas since she came to the slopes," Nerida's mouth turned up in a smile. "And Rodger, I guess I found him too. He's alright - don't tell him I said that."

Lily squeezed her grandmother's hand as Nerida looked back over Marlin's Bay glimmering in the distance. She was silent as she took a few deep breaths to calm her racing heart, to ease the lock holding her secrets back.

"Did you know it was Rodger who started my nickname of Nerry?" Nerida suddenly said, a lone tear slipping down the wrinkles of her cheek. "The rest of the village caught on but I shut out everyone I could. Cody and Rodger wouldn't leave me alone, who knows why they stayed around because I've been a shell of myself for the past six years, ever since Cordie died. Niall made a comment about me being wild."

"You are wild."

"I'm naturally rebellious." Nerida corrected. "I never obey rules. I break through fences and climb gates. I move river banks and dive into forbidden waters. I've never wanted to be caged."

Lily frowned. "What does this have to do with nicknames?"

"Everything." Nerida turned to her granddaughter and looked deep into her wild soul. "Names are power. You have many names already; Lily, little river, granddaughter, child, and friend. Haidan calls you Ariel, Jack will eventually call you sister, and I don't want to know the sickly sweet names Niall has given you.

"To everyone else? Supernova." Nerida never looked away, pleading with her to listen. "A name is a title and a title is power, Lily. So is blood. Ours...ours is very old. Are you sure you want to know what we are? To add another name, another cage, only gives more power to those who don't know how to wield it."

Lily clutched her grandmother's hand tightly. "Yes. Yes I want to know. I want to know what my family is, I want to know what we are. I've waited and waited and I've tried to learn on my own but it's like we don't exist."

"Or we're not meant to be found." Nerida didn't swallow back the secrets beginning to pour out her throat. She'd hidden herself away for too long. Under the setting sun she finally began to answer every question Lily ever had.

"We are the power that drives the rest of the supernaturals. The First Supernova was like us and we have no equal until death finally takes us under." Nerida's eyes grew distant. Lily's heart beat rapidly.

"The first supernova was wiped from history until only myth remained, but her family secretly passed down her secrets. It's for no one's ears but our own." Nerida pointedly glared at Lily. "This stays on the edge."

"I promise."

Nerida lifted her head, satisfied with the truth in Lily's voice. She wouldn't tell another soul unless she decided to bear children, then it was their truth to keep locked away like a chest of buried treasure beneath depths of wild oceans and restless pirates.

"Her name was Freja." Nerida whispered, the wind unable to carry her voice beyond Lily's ears. "We are her descendants and the keepers of her legend. We are from her line and water-blessed until we die and if we come back from death, we come back with a vengeance.

"She was water-blessed until she was killed.

"She was in love with a witch, a man named Merlin." Nerida shook her head. "Trapped within her own heart she blindly followed that man on his adventures, but was betrayed by the enemies of Merlin's lover, a knight named Arthur. Arthur was a prince, a descendant of flames from the mountain and had dragons beneath his feet, and while he knew where Freja's heart lie he respected the great healer she was. Freja was apparently a talented bard as well and sung with her lute the last night she was water-blessed.

"They were in a skirmish and an enemy threw his sword at Arthur. Freja knew Merlin would be broken at his lover's death so she leapt forth and took the steel into her chest. She fell into the lake and floated there. Merlin screamed, the forest immediately grew large and dense in the lands where they roamed as he ran into the lake to clutch his oldest friend."

Nerida rubbed her chest as though she could feel the wound. "Arthur pulled out the blade but Freja's body was stone cold. In the waters of Lake Nimue, Merlin poured all his earthly gift into her body to will it to beat. To return, like a tree blooming in spring.

"Her body grew hot as her heart beat with sparks instead of rhythm. Her soul, once a soothe pool, became a thundering ocean. Freja was cast out of death's touch." Nerida gently brushed the lightning scar over Lily's trembling arm. "The witch healed Freja and Freja became something more. She birthed a storm of power that shapes our very bones to this day, and shaped our supernatural line to become mighty and strong.

"They walked away from the skirmish and Arthur gifted her with a title and land in gratitude. He gave her the land she'd died on, the lake as her home to remind her she lived. Lake Nimue was hers and the dense forest around it belonged to Lady Freja of the Moors."

Nerida looked up at Lily. "The people called her the Lady of the Lake."

Lily whispered the title under her breath, the claw wrapped around her heart from grief finally letting go.

"Freja, like us, is water. We take many forms and many names. We are the descendants of the First Supernova." Nerida poured out the last of her knowledge. "As water-blessed, we can manipulate water to a degree and are drawn to its properties; Douglas was drawn to the sea, Rio to the current, Delta to its cycle and Cordelia loved its treasures.

"You? You were destined to be like me and Freja as soon as you were born." Nerida looked to the last of the sunset, the pale stars glimmering, the colour so similar to when Lily's eyes shifted. A supernova far out of reach but above them all, shining with a light none could replicate. "You followed your family around constantly, you were still finding your affinity when the accident happened and your soul was taken, but then you returned numb. Ice. You were floating in a lake with no shore, like Freja was."

Her grandmother smiled softly. "Then you met Jacinta, your Merlin. Haidan, your Arthur. Then Niall; for a while I thought he was the sword that would kill you, but I realise now he is the wind that kept Freja afloat, the strength that keeps you from sinking."

Lily couldn't breathe, her chest tight as everything her grandmother had done since she'd been at Tyrill made sense. Her puzzles were finally revealing their final missing piece.

"My strength was my dear Cordie." Nerida admitted, her head hanging low as she watched the ocean darken in the sunset, the last flare of light dancing on the crest of the waves like bright jewels. "She's gone and I am weaker without her. I'm weaker than you, especially after the tsunami."

Lily embraced her silence for a moment before speaking the words she'd been waiting for her whole life. "I am a Lady of the Lake." She whispered, letting the realisation warm the darkest parts of doubt in her mind.

Nerida nodded slowly. "We are both a Lady of the Lake, a water-blessed reborn with the world's biggest power coursing through our veins, but you're the Supernova and no one will surpass you until you die for good."

Her grandmother grasped her tightly with both hands, trembling under the weight of what she'd told Lily. "These titles you bare are a heavy power and you must remember the most important of them all; you are Lily Morgan and your only calling is to yourself."

Lily stilled at the desperate carnal plea in Nerida's eyes and she realised what Nerida was really saying. The stiffening of her jaw and the tight grip told her more than the shadows in her expression. "You chose to be free of it all."

"I chose myself above others, yes." Nerida's gaze flickered between her own. "Freedom is a key to all those caging responsibilities and I refuse to be bound in someone else's steel."

"You're asking me to choose that too?" Lily whispered.

"Power is a burden. You're only eighteen and you shouldn't have Supernova added to your name. Jacob was an idiot to tell you before you'd seen the world, let alone grown up."

Lily slowly took her hands back and lifted her chin, the last of the sun fading so the stars and moon lit the defiance in her eyes. "They may fear me, Granny, they may hate me, but I am the Supernova and there's no going back now. You made sure of that with the tsunami." Lily's throat bobbed. "Did you know I'd survive?"

"You? Yes."

"And everyone else?" Lily furrowed her brows, the gentle wind rustling her red hair out from behind her ears. "Haidan, Jack, and Niall? Claire? Ollie? The werewolves and rogues? The humans in Marlin's Bay and beyond in Trawalla and Widderin?"

Nerida hesitated. "Earth, fire and air cannot survive against water. It will always win."