Sunburst (Starbright Series)

by Rachel Higginson

  I finally found Jupiter, still fighting, still trying to cover Nate. There was no way he could fight off the Shadows and deal with a fading Nate. It was asking too much of his multitasking skills.

  “I’ll fend them off, but you have to get him out of here,” I grunted through a breathless, raspy voice I didn’t even recognize. Pain so deep and searing, felt to the marrow of my bones, cascaded over me; I felt like I was bleeding from every pore.

  “Where is your weapon?” Jupiter panted back.

  “Somewhere on the floor,” I admitted, waiting for his scolding.

  But it never came. Instead he said, “I’m going to give you my sword, but then I will have nothing. Cover me until I can get Nate out of here.”

  “Alright,” I heaved on a determined breath.

  “Stella,” his voice was grave and eerily calm. “Get out of this alive.”

  I smiled despite myself but didn’t answer; I couldn’t spare the strength. All at once the hilt of Jupiter’s long, heavy sword was pushed into my hand and I went to work. This weapon was so different than mine. Where my blades were light and thin, this one was extremely weighty and thick. The tip came to a V-point and the hilt required me to hold it with two hands.

  I adjusted it to a comfortable position while still swinging it around, but truthfully I felt out of control with this foreign thing. It was so much bigger than anything I had held and even though my muscles were well developed after hours and hours of practice, I was still swinging it around wildly and without any kind of obvious skill or precision.

  But it did its job.

  No matter how flailing my moves were, the blade still sliced through flesh and landed killing blows. And that was the most important thing.

  I felt Jupiter move behind me in an effort to pick up Nate. And I protected them as best as I could.

  There were so many factors working against us that my anxiety only sky rocketed, despite the weapon I now had.

  First, Jupiter could fly, but he wasn’t supernaturally strong. He was in shape, but not superman and Nate was heavy. Nate was a warrior, all muscle, tall, thick and currently dead weight. And on top of it all, I wondered how Jupiter would even hold him because his wound was in his stomach and I imagined Jupiter needed to hoist him over his shoulder

  Plus, the Shadows incessantly attacking didn’t do anything to make the situation easier.

  While Jupiter struggled behind me, I covered myself in the black, sticky ooze of the Shadows felled by my blade. I was relentless, if not a little clumsy and brutal while pushing past the exhaustion and pain. My arms were trembling by now, my legs numb. My vision was almost completely obscured by goo and blood and sweat.

  The hard truth was- we were losing.

  Serena’s Light was so bright I could feel her heat on my skin, and I desperately wanted to match her intensity. But there was no way I could without seriously injuring Jupiter or even Nate whose full abilities were not at his fingertips.

  I somehow heard Nate behind me over the gory sounds of battle. The sound was memorable in the macabre and traumatizing kind of way. He was struggling to breathe as blood curdled in his lungs. It was the ugliest sound I had ever heard, the ragged intake of breath and then hissing outtake. I heard the liquid in his windpipe and lungs with every breath.

  The sound twisted my heart and urged me to fight harder, be stronger, kill faster.

  But there was no dent to be made in this constant stream of Shadows. And the only reason we weren’t completely overtaken was the little damage our Light did. Also, because the Shadows were solid, organic beings, they couldn’t converge on us at once- in some messed up, stupid way, they had to wait their turn.

  “This isn’t working!” I finally screamed at Serena.

  She said nothing right away but her Light pressed against the limitations of this world as she pushed it further out. Jupiter screamed in agony behind me- a sound that would also carry over into my nightmares. I heard a thump and an “oof” of air being released. I glanced back for just a moment to find that Jupiter had blacked out, and through my special night vision I could see his skin blistering and red, his clothes melting away.

  My clothes were starting to melt now too and I was positive even Serena’s leathers had to be close, if not completely disintegrated.

  “Jupiter passed out, Serena!” I yelled desperately. “Your Light is too bright!”

  She screamed out a battle cry of frustration but pulled her brightness back barely and continued fighting. And still the Shadows kept coming. And now that both Nate and Jupiter were incapacitated behind me, I couldn’t hold off the Darkness for much longer. Nate might survive… but Jupiter would die.

  Unless I did something now, Jupiter would die.

  Our only option was retreat.

  But how would we get out of here?

  “Serena, you have to take them! Find a church, go back to the farm, find some place to hide!”

  “No!” she screamed back. “I cannot leave you!”

  “You have to! They will die if you don’t!” Each word came with the price of a deeper exhaustion and impossible breathlessness. But I had to explain. “I can’t lift them. I’m not strong enough to carry them both back. And you’re faster than me. If you don’t take them we all die. Serena…. you…. have…. to go!”

  Each of my words was punctuated with a swing of the sword. Shadows were relatively simple to kill; stab them in the chest/heart region and they died. But there were so many of them that it was never ending. And I was feeling the effects of their bone-chilling evil in every blood vessel and atom in my body.

  “Just so you know,” Serena bellowed. “I’ll follow you’re plan, but I do not like it!”

  I smiled, despite myself. “Then go! Get out of here!”

  She fought her way over to me. We both had to dim our Lights even further when she got close enough to where the true meat of it- that which was closest to our bodies- touched. We were even stronger together, which was normally a good thing, but not with Jupiter hanging out behind us face down in the dirt.

  “I don’t even know if I can get out of here,” she panted.

  “Just get them and go. I’ll cover you the best that I can. You have to get Jupiter out of here, though or I’ll start him on fire.”

  “It’s annoying that he’s not one of us,” She grunted.

  And then before I could say anything else or give some kind of heartfelt goodbye speech, she dropped one of her swords at my feet, tucked the other one into the sheath at her side and scooped Nate over her shoulder and then Jupiter.

  Out of the corner of my eye I watched her totter to the left. Her Light would make her stronger but she couldn’t use it while she was holding Jupiter. I lunged in front of her, determined to block as many of the Shadows as I could and she struggled to take off.

  She was carrying the weight of two full grown men with maybe twenty percent of her ability aiding her.

  “Just use it,” I screamed over the sound of gore and shrieking around us. “We’re all dead if you stay. He has a better chance if you get him out of here. Just dim-out as soon as you can.”

  “You’re right, Starling,” Serena shouted back. “When did you get so smart?”

  I grinned at her, but then I got Shadow blood in my mouth so I wiped my lips against my shoulder, which was actually covered with more goo. Bleh.

  She didn’t say goodbye this time either, just lit up, stood up straighter and then burst through the cover of Shadows like the biggest, brightest firework. She exploded upwards. I allowed myself to watch until she reached the brightest atmosphere that Jupiter could stand and then dimmed to a tolerable level for Jupiter.

  I didn’t know where they were going but I truly hoped there was a sacred building around. The movies had gotten that part right about all things evil. If a place was sacred or blessed than they could not enter. That was trickier than it seemed.

  Not every church or religious building had been blessed, so you had to pick them out carefu
lly. And not every blessed building was an obviously religious place. Like my home.

  That Seth had stayed at just the other night.

  Which meant he wasn’t entirely evil.

  At least not yet.

  Focus.

  When I felt Serena was a safe enough distance away I paused with my sword at my side and let my Light burn. My clothes wouldn’t completely burn away, but they would melt to my body. It was painful, but necessary, just like the Light.

  And I chose not to worry about those small details right now. I just enjoyed the Light. Every part of me became swallowed up in the brilliance and purity of my golden essence shooting from every part of me. My body tingled with the heat, my hair lifted off my shoulders, moving in some supernatural way that kept it out of my face and I was nothing but a bright, burning ball of pure, raw Light.

  I wasn’t even close to burning as bright as I could, especially if I was off planet but the shrieking around me increased to a deafening roar and the structure- all those pieces and parts that weren’t part of the hallucination caught fire.

  Now it wasn’t just my Light, but the flames licking at anything they could reach, spreading out beyond the cabin and to the surrounding forest.

  My sword burned brightly in my hand, the silver blade heating to a fiery red, but the quality remained. Yep, Jupiter’s sword was definitely not from this planet.

  I held my Light, feeling more alive than I ever had in my entire life, until I was positive I would at least have some breathing room before the remaining Shadows attacked. The house crackled and snapped around me, as beams caught fire and slowly fell apart. The walls collapsed in heaps of ash and brokenness with some debris falling at my feet, some scattering into the fires beyond the dig-out of the basement. I stayed like that for as long as I could, until I felt evil retreat and the shrieking stop.

  When I was certain I was alone, I reigned the brightness back; it was like I was a candle and someone simply blew me out. One minute there was a Light bright enough to see from space, the next, just an empty forest clearing that was on fire. But other than that… no Shadows or other hellish creatures.

  The night was still black and the forest still creepy, but whatever was left of that evil receded into whatever portal of Hell they escaped from. I looked up at the fire blazing around the edges of where the house once stood. I was in the basement still, my feet on charred, dusty dirt. My swords lay in the center of the room, seeming randomly placed. The walls were completely blackened and charred, if not completely burned to dust, and the cabin had been completely decimated around me.

  There was no love lost for the death of this particular cabin though. As a general rule, cabins like this belonged solely in scary movies.

  I needed to do something about the fire. Or at least call someone who could do something about it.

  I had powers, but they weren’t all-inclusive. I couldn’t switch from Lava Girl to Aquaman or anything.

  I picked my way through the debris and gathered my swords along with Serena’s discarded one. I had Jupiter’s as well. And despite my better than average coordination, it was awkward carrying that many sharp weapons.

  I swiped the hair that had escaped my ponytail back- it was filthy and covered in ash. Then I let out a long sigh. That wasn’t the end of this. That was more like…. half-time. And my friends…. Jupiter and Nate were both seriously injured. Hopefully Nate would be better soon, but…. Jupiter. There was no way to tell if he’d survive or not. I needed to find them.

  An overwhelming sadness settled over me and I took a few more breaths to find control of my emotions. Because at the root of my heartache and intense pain wasn’t just Nate and Jupiter, wasn’t even mostly Nate and Jupiter. While I was worried and anxious for them, the worst of my pain came from Seth.

  I had attacked him. I had cut him. I had left him free-falling in an effort to get away from him!

  What was wrong with me?

  What was wrong with him!

  I floated to the surface and surveyed the forest fire raging around me. It seemed to be dying out as it moved into the forest. It wasn’t dry here- in fact it was the opposite. Everything was wet and mossy; no sun warmed the ground or dried out the ground. The fire was losing steam. That was a good thing.

  But still it made a ring around me, almost a perfect circle, and the trees above had been cleared from my destruction so that this was now a proper clearing.

  I felt him before I saw him. Instinct and something deeply still connected to him sensed his presence.

  He stood on the border, a part of the fire, but untouched by it. I turned toward him and stilled.

  He had begged me not to give up on him. He had made me promise.

  But we were only a few weeks in and everything had already fallen apart. I tried to imagine the next fifteen months and what they would be like, but all I saw was Darkness, death and pain. And what about beyond that? That was if I lived past my eighteenth birthday.

  How would Seth heal from this?

  Tears slid from my eyes, unwelcomed and confusing. I loved this man. And he had set me and my friends up for death. Maybe not him specifically, but he was a part of it.

  And didn’t stop it.

  Could he have stopped it, even if he wanted to?

  More confusion.

  When I locked eyes with him, he stepped out of the fire and walked slowly over to me. His Light, or non-Light, or whatever the Fallen had in place of Light receded and he stood before me just a boy- just Seth.

  More tears fell, faster and quicker and completely unbidden. I didn’t want him to see me this broken, wretched, and fragmented without him.

  “I had to see.” His voice was stripped and desolate. His already vacant eyes were almost black with whatever emotions were running through his body. He looked savage standing in front of me, savage and achingly beautiful. “I had to see if you made it.”

  “I did,” I whispered. He was breaking me all over again, twisting me, clawing at all of my important parts and organs until there would be nothing left of me. I couldn’t go through this over and over again. I couldn’t let him destroy me like this every time he was with me and every time he wasn’t.

  His hand reached up to run a finger over my cheek. It trembled as he touched me so gently. And when the curve of his finger touched my skin he closed his eyes against the simple sensation.

  We were only standing an arm’s reach apart but it felt like miles between us- miles and miles and miles of miserable distance, where he stood on one plane of existence and I stood on another.

  He slowly opened his eyes and drank me in like a man deprived of every vital sustenance. His eyes caught fire then, just like the one raging all around us. Branches snapped with the heat of the fire, grass and dirt crackled as it went on and on. And that was exactly what felt like was happening to my body. He was burning me up slowly, methodically and when he was finished I would be nothing but ash and dust.

  I saw a trace of something other than emptiness in him and I knew it had to do with me. Like he said, I was his tether to whatever goodness was left inside him. I was his anchor.

  I dropped the four swords I was still holding at my feet. They hit the black, charred ground with a clank and bounced away.

  I jumped on this moment, hoping to bring out whatever of his former self I could. “Jupiter and Nate were pretty severely injured tonight.”

  “I don’t care,” he answered plainly. He took a step into me and towered over me. “I don’t care about them.”

  “You should-“

  “The only thing I care about is you.”

  “But they’re your friends,” I insisted.

  “Stella, let me be clear. There is one thing in my life I live for, one thing I survive for… and that is you. There is no one else. There will be no one else. It’s you. And I’m lost without you.”

  The tears fell harder and a sob hiccupped in my chest. “I stabbed you tonight.” I cried. My eyes flickered over his still open and raw
wounds, but he didn’t seem to notice them at all. I realized the fire might not have touched him, but he was covered in dried blood and dirt. He looked beat up and it was all my fault. “Seth, I stabbed you!”

  He yanked me against his chest and wrapped his arms around me so tightly I had to struggle for breath. It wasn’t a sweet or gentle move, he was brutal and rough and not at all himself.

  But at the same time he was. He was the same boy so devoted and loyal to me that he was almost blinded by it. He was still intense and commanding, still vulnerable and broken. He was Seth in the most important ways and that broke me even deeper.

  “And you’ll probably stab me again,” he chuckled darkly. “Keep me contained, Stella. You have to keep me contained.”

  I lost the battle with my emotions completely then. Whatever hold I had on them disappeared and I sank into his chest a heap of tears and sobs and loud, grieving cries. He tightened his grip and held me, just held me.

  My chest was so tight and pained that I thought for sure it would explode. My eyes burned and my throat was raw from an eruption of emotions.

  “I need you too!” I shouted at him. “What about me? What am I supposed to do without you?”

  His tone gentled and he shushed me and soothed me by rubbing a line up and down my spine with careful, tender fingers.

  “Tether me to you, Stella and I will do the same for you,” he whispered harshly in my ear. His lips brushed the shell of my ear, and I melted into him. Even while I wondered what it would do to my own soul if I let it be owned by someone like Seth- someone who wasn’t himself and who had no idea who he actually was? I nodded into his chest. What choice did I have? He already owned me- body, soul, spirit. I was his.

  I had always been his.

  “Alright,” I whispered. “Alright.”

  He pulled back and stared into my eyes intently. He was looking for something or maybe he was just looking. And once he found it, he couldn’t restrain himself anymore. His lips crashed against mine in a desperate plea to connect. And I reciprocated immediately- there was no other choice for me. I had to kiss him back, just like I had to breathe, just like I had to live.