Bodies lay scattered and lifeless and I couldn’t tell if they were all my enemies or if my friends had fallen too. My dad raised his thick broadswords and brought them swiftly down on Seth.
I had no doubt he intended to kill Seth. There was no hesitation in his swing or his stance.
Seth just barely threw his own cutlasses up to protect himself. The metal clanged together louder than anything yet. Flipping up to his feet, he met my dad hit for hit. They were both fierce, incredible Warriors, their skill unmatched by anyone else I had ever seen.
My dad would get a blow in, finding soft flesh or firm muscle, just in time for Seth to return the hit. They circled and lunged and attacked with a savage grace that flooded me with fear.
Slowly my body started to mend, pull itself back together and heal. Slowly I regained feeling in my fingers and toes. My wound wasn’t as deep as it could have been, nor my pain so significant. But still I felt paralyzed by the scene in front of me. One of those men was going to die- either my dad or my soul mate.
There were no words to describe the emotions that rushed through me, no accurate way to identify the pain, terror and heartache that pressed down against me.
A shadow fell across my face and I looked up into Seven’s amused expression. She was grinning, completely happy to be part of this mayhem.
“Would you like to make a bet?” she laughed lightly. “Seth against your father?”
“No,” I grated, my voice as rough as gravel.
Her eyes twinkled when she crouched down next to me. “Pity I can’t help my brother and end you for him.” Her dagger twirled in her hands. She had all of my attention now. “It would be so easy.” She pressed the blade to my still healing wound. “It would make my brother so happy.”
“Do it,” I challenged. “Kill me.” And then Seth would kill Aliah- his soul would be returned to him, his sanity replaced.
“Do you really hate my brother so much,” she hissed. Her expression flashed from disturbingly childlike to feral in less than a second. “You would take me away from him? You would take Aliah away from him. Selfish cow.”
“You forgot me. I would take me away from him and isn’t that what would really hurt him?” I gloated, even while every word seared in my raw throat.
Disgust morphed her delicate face into something truly disturbing. “You are but an afterthought. He left you.”
“To save me,” I whispered. “How hard did he fight to save you?”
She spit in my face before I saw it coming. “I don’t need to be saved.” She stood up and glanced at the battle raging beyond us. “Unlike you.” With one last dismissing glance at me she mumbled, “Unlike your father.”
I grasped the swords in my finally working palms and struggled to standing. I swayed on my feet from the loss of blood, but managed to stay upright. We healed extremely fast, but it wasn’t instantaneous- our bodies still went through a process. And while the skin at my throat was closed and I was no longer bleeding, I was by no means one hundred percent.
“Maybe I was wrong,” I ground out, gasping for breath. Seven didn’t even turn around, she just kept trudging through the bloody sand. “Maybe you do need saving.”
And then I swung my sword at Seven, slicing a straight, bloody path down her back. She shrieked at the contact and writhed with back bowed as I cut the length of her from shoulder to opposite waist. Her blood-curdling scream resounded louder than any of the current fighting and for a moment it seemed that everything and everyone stopped.
I lunged forward and with my left hand I dropped my sword and grabbed her full head of golden brown hair. I ripped her back to me and had my sword at her exposed throat in a second.
“Stop fighting!” I shouted. “Or I will end her.”
She laughed a light, nervous sound and because I had my face pressed against hers I felt it vibrate against my skin. “Look who finally found a backbone,” she taunted.
I pushed the sharp blade of my sword through her soft skin and dared her to keep talking. My dad and Seth were locked two swords against two swords and were the closest to us. Seth broke apart first, giving up easily and stepping away from my dad. Aliah was there next, five feet away from us and dangerously angry.
“Let her go,” Aliah commanded in a deceptively controlled voice. And then he lost it a little bit, “Or I swear to you I will make Seth kill himself!”
“At this point, it’s either Seth or me, Aliah, so be my guest. You’d be solving a problem for me.” I feigned a lot of bravado, but inside I was shaking with nerves.
I looked around and counted my friends and family. My mom was bloody and heaving for breath, but alive and standing. A pile of bodies lay at her feet. Serena and Nate were back to back and much the same. Blood and gore covered them, either from their victims or their own wounds, which were many. My dad and Seth stood several feet apart, still gripping their swords defensively. And Jupiter stood not far off from them. He walked a few feet toward me, and consequently too close to where Seth and my dad were fighting. He was limping severely and his sword arm dangled at an odd angle from his shoulder.
“Stella,” Seth called from a few feet away. “I will never forgive you if you hurt my sister.”
Manipulative much? Yeesh.
“That’s alright,” I promised back. “I’m not sure I’m going to forgive you for trying to kill me!”
A huge grin broke out across his dirty face and a low chuckle rumbled in his chest. “We’re
playing a game, Stella. I try to kill you, you try to kill me. It’s how we show our love.” The word love sounded like the dirtiest word in the English language, but he didn’t give me time to dwell on that. “But my sister is going too far. You don’t touch my family.”
“Like you don’t touch mine? You were just fighting my dad, you idiot!” I shouted. This was taking too much time. The truth was, I wasn’t emotionally equipped to kill Seven right now. I had enough issues to deal with. And while I wanted this bitch dead and buried, I wanted those I loved safe first.
“My sister can’t protect herself!” Seth yelled back, his anger breaking free again.
“Stella, let go of Seven, before I come after you myself,” Aliah growled. He took a step forward and I made a point of meeting his cool green gaze and pushing my sword further against Seven’s throat. She cried out in a whimper of pain and dug her fingernails into my forearm. She wasn’t exactly gentle about it and soon blood dripped from her viscous nails. Still I held my position, ignoring the pain she was inflicting and the tremor in my soul.
“We’re leaving,” I declared.
“And how are you going to do that?” Aliah smiled confidently.
I narrowed my eyes on him, hating him all over again for what he was doing to Seth. “Do you remember the first time we met?” It was a rhetorical question and I didn’t wait for his answer. “I hope she can fly.”
I heard Aliah growl out a shout, but I was already taking off for the sky. I hovered for only a moment, a gruesome, horrifying moment. And it was a moment too long.
In a rage Seth whirled around and took his two swords, plunging them into Jupiter who had moved too close. One through his heart, the other into his side at a horizontal angle. Jupiter’s face crumpled in agony while Seth loomed over him, pushing his weapons in deeper. Seven’s delighted laugh was the only sound I heard before I lost hearing all together. My head swam, my ears rushed with panic and uncertainty. Seth turned around, as if sensing my indecision to stay or to go and met my eyes. He was not even a shadow of himself, but completely consumed by the Darkness.
I felt myself gasp at his change and then I was gone, into the sky and far away from the grief and disaster littering the beach below. I paid enough attention so that I could count the Lights that were following me- one, two, three……. Four. Jupiter could have been with them or just as easily still be bleeding out on the beach. He didn’t have a Light so it was impossible for me to tell. And I couldn’t dwell on that now, anyway.
A
swarm of black smoke followed after them and I knew it was the Fallen following. I still held Seven clutched against my chest. Her nails were still digging into my skin, but if she was making noise I couldn’t hear her. I was too lost in the confusion of the moment.
Letting my sword slice across her throat, a severe wound, but not a fatal one, I released my hold and watched her fall, flailing and frantic, to the Indian Ocean below. This time I could hear her thickening, bloody scream as she struggled to take flight and hold her gaping wound at the same time.
I turned around, not caring what happened to that evil wench and took off at a slower pace. I saw one by one Nate, Serena, my mom and then my dad who was carrying an injured and barely alive Jupiter. We didn’t say anything to each other, each of us too weary to form words. But we flew with a renewed pace, anxious to leave this disaster behind us. There was an urgency to get home, to make sure Jupiter would survive the night, but there was also relief.
The Fallen had abandoned their pursuit of us. Aliah was no doubt tending to Seven and the battle that waged so hot and deadly before would be put off to another day. I was thankful for Aliah’s foolish, but sole focus on Seven, even on Seth. If it meant we could escape this time, then it was momentarily to our benefit. I breathed deeply for the first time, feeling the weight of the battle lift from my shoulders.
Until Seth came flying up behind me; he grabbed my arm and whirled me around midair. His swords were gone, still deep inside Jupiter’s limp body and as far as I could tell he was alone.
His haunted amber eyes met mine and he said, “You almost killed my sister.”
“I didn’t,” I defended. “I just wanted to leave.” We had to shout over the force of the wind this far up, but I still heard the depth of emotion in his words and hoped he heard mine. It was weird to see him this vulnerable and emotional just minutes after he tried to kill me. But I also knew that the monster that held a sword to my throat was not who he really was. This lost, broken man resembled Seth more than anything.
“Well, now you’re leaving!” he shouted. “Again. And back to Tristan like always.”
“I’m not going home to Tristan!” I was livid at his accusation. I had given this man my heart- this one, monster and all. And I loved him. I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t go back to Tristan even if I wanted to. “I said goodbye to Tristan. It’s you. Even like this, it’s you!”
Something hot and needy flashed in his eyes and he lurched forward so that we were only inches apart. “I saw you kiss him.”
“You saw me say goodbye to him,” I shouted.
He grabbed my biceps in his two huge hands and held me painfully. His fingers bit into my biceps and he pulled me harshly against his chest. My mom and Serena immediately flanked me, a threatening, ever-constant presence. He glanced at them briefly before returning his savage gaze to mine.
“You’re mine,” he rumbled, low and threatening. “He’d better not touch you again.”
“He won’t,” I promised, but felt sick about it. It seemed so wrong to give him what he wanted after everything we just went through, but I couldn’t do anything but tell him the truth. Tristan and I were over. It was only Seth. It was probably only ever Seth.
“I’m going to try to kill you again,” he confessed in a ragged voice. “I swear to you, I will try to kill you.”
“I know.” And a tear slipped from the corner of my eye.
“Don’t let me.” And then he was gone.
My breath caught as I slipped in the air but I quickly righted myself. More tears poured from my eyes. I felt like collapsing to the ground, letting the impact take me, getting swallowed up by the vast ocean and giving up. But I couldn’t. And not just for me.
For Seth too.
I moved with my loved ones and we made our way back to America, then Nebraska and finally home. We were as slow as we could be on the way home- without burning Jupiter, without drawing attention to ourselves. Still, there was an earnestness to get Jupiter home and hopefully save him.
We landed on the gravel drive silently. It was just past midnight by now and the Stars above were bright and vast as they stretched out from one end of the horizon to the next. I paused and looked at them, silently hating them for the cold battle they fought from such a distance; for the help they could never offer me; for their far-removed existence that didn’t even touch the chaos I lived in.
We fought the same battle, but it felt infinitely different. We shared a common enemy, but I was not like them and they were not like me.
I couldn’t even grasp the concept of the bigger picture in my damaged state. Nothing, no conflict, no battle, no torment existed except Seth and his heavy presence in my world.
Even Aliah paled in comparison to the man I loved and the destruction of what should have been a perfect love. I hated that he was so far away from me, but at the same time I needed him to stay away.
I hated that I loved him while he was like this; at the same time I knew that my love was the only thing that would save him.
Clattering inside the house drew my attention and I followed the noise through the front door that was left ajar to watch my dad lay Jupiter down on our dining room table. Whatever had been on there had been swept to the floor and Serena was running into the other room, gathering items as my mom shouted instructions.
Nate and my dad immediately went to work pulling the swords from Jupiter’s body. He had long since passed out, so I prayed he didn’t feel the jerking and tugging as the men worked to remove the weapons. Crimson blood tinged with a bright, almost neon orange flowed from his body and my mom worked to mop it up with towels that Serena brought in.
I watched in horrified fascination as they worked on Jupiter’s body. His skin was sickly pale, but the blood was so bright, so hot. Where it dripped on the table it sizzled into beads. My mom’s hands weren’t bothered by the heat, but the towels were steaming.
If he were a Warrior, this wouldn’t be a fatal wound; he would already be healing. But he wasn’t a Warrior. He wasn’t even human. I realized he outlived most humans by hundreds and hundreds of years but I had no idea how resilient he was to this kind of blood loss.
Eventually Serena ran out of a job and walked over to me. Putting her arm around my shoulders she led me out to the front porch. Wordlessly she sat down on the porch steps and I followed simply for something to do.
For a long while we just stared up at the sky and watched the stars twinkle above us. Eventually she let out a long sigh and said, “I miss it up there.”
A humorless laugh escaped my lips and I heard myself say, “Oh, yeah?” Although I felt a serious detachment from my emotions right now. I probably should have been worried about how my body seemed to shut down and block the torrent of pain and heartache I should be going through. On the other hand, it actually felt kind of nice to be separated from what I knew to be an intense, soul-shattering heartache.
It felt like survival.
“It’s simpler up there,” she sighed. “Not as….. complex. Bad guys are bad guys, good guys are bright, fiery balls of Light. There’s no confusion in who to kill, who to save. Evil is always evil and goodness always, always looks exactly like it should.”
I stared at my ruined shoes and waited for her to get to the point.
Hopefully she had a point.
“I’m glad I’m not staying here,” she admitted and I didn’t know whether to laugh or stab her myself.
Instead the emotion I had been holding back broke free and the hot tears were falling from my eyes before I could get control again. Serena glanced down at me, seeming surprised by my show of emotion. A little awkwardly, she did put her arm back around my shoulder and held me close to her.
Laying her head on top of mine she said, “You were built for this world, Stella. You are equipped with the right emotions and defenses to deal with all of this. I wouldn’t have spared Seven’s life today. And I wouldn’t have spared Seth’s. You are for this world, for the people that live here. They cou
ldn’t have chosen a better Star.”
“You say that, but if it were Nate-“
“If Nate were trying to kill me, if Nate were no longer in possession of his soul, I would not hesitate. It might kill me, but I would not hesitate.”
And there was such solid conviction in her voice that I was stunned to find I believed her.
“It’s nice to feel safe now, isn’t it?” she changed the subject before all of my thoughts and feelings had completely settled. “It’s nice what the people down here can do with a blessing. Now that is something I wish I could take with me. I would just bless the whole planet and then retire.”
I snorted a surprised laugh. “Retire?”
“Sure,” she laughed too. “Take Nate, tour the galaxy, all that good stuff.”
I shook my head and laughed some more. “You’re crazy.”
She was quiet for a moment and then said, “You know, you are too, a little bit.” She kissed the top of my head, squeezed me a little tighter and then said, “I’m proud to know you, to fight alongside you. You have a strength I didn’t know existed. And when the time is right, this planet will be thankful for the force you will become. The Darkness will cower at your name, Stella. And the Stars above will celebrate in the fortress of power you will be. I know this.”
She stood up, leaving me gaping at her words. She patted my head like a small child and then disappeared back into the house. I stayed on the porch, not able to face Jupiter inside on the table, not able to look at my parents who had come so close to death tonight but somehow survived, not able to deal with the rest of my life.
Instead I stayed still, staring at a world in the heavens I would never be a part of. I thought about Serena’s words of encouragement and wondered if they would be true. If they could be true. If I could live up to all that.
She was right when she said my battle was complex. Seth was my enemy but my future too. How was I supposed to fight him and protect him at the same time? Not for a moment did I believe he or Aliah would stop. They would keep coming after me and keep coming after me, until either I turned eighteen or they killed me. And even after eighteen? Then what? Would Seth be able to come back to me? Would there be anything left of the soul I fought to save?
Sunburst (Starbright Series) Page 29
