Starbright (The Starbright Series)

by Higginson, Rachel

  “But she’s still out there?” I asked, swallowing the lump rising in my throat. “I mean…. somewhere, on this planet, his sister is out there?”

  “Yes,” my mother replied solemnly.

  “And this…. Aliah guy…. what do you know about him?” I sucked in my bottom lip, chewing distractedly until I tasted blood.

  “He was a good Warrior,” my mother continued. “I fought with him before I met your father, years ago. There were no signs of Darkness, nothing in his behavior or conduct that would have given the High Council any reason to suspect him. He fought with the best. He and Ethan were very good together in the field, and when Ethan was stationed on planet, Aliah requested a closer position so that they could still work together. When or how Aliah defected is unclear, as are his intentions with Sitara and Ethan. We don’t know if he always planned to kill them or because there was a struggle he saw no other option.”

  “Do you think Aliah thought Seth’s parents would turn too? Or do you think he was after Seth the entire time?” I pressed, needing answers that I knew they couldn’t give me.

  “Your guess is as good as ours, honey,” my mother pulled me closer, into her so that my head rested on her shoulder.

  “I just can’t imagine what he went through….” I sighed, relishing in the closeness of both of my parents.

  “Thank God for that,” my father muttered, a hard line appearing in his forehead.

  I stood up slowly, suddenly feeling utterly exhausted. I said goodnight to my parents and made my way up to bed. But even with heavy eyelids and a tired soul, sleep didn’t find me for a long time.

  When it finally did come, I was back at Lincoln’s farm, fighting my first battle with the Shadows. They surrounded me in the dream world, thicker than smoke and more deadly than ever. I fought hard, wielding my two katanas and keeping my enemies expertly at bay.

  Seth wasn’t there though, he wasn’t fighting with me or lighting up the field with his inner sun. I looked for him desperately, needing help, but more worried about him than anything.

  A gurgled moan drew my attention to the tree line where a dim light lay awkwardly across the frozen field. I fought to get to it, to find out what it was and when I finally drew close I saw the broken form of Seth laying lifelessly in a pool of his own blood, his light extinguishing with every passing second.

  She cackled then, her evil, taunting laugh ringing clearly in the night sky. My head snapped up to find a beautiful young woman, with flowing, golden brown hair that curled in soft waves all around her. Her clear, luminous skin lit up the dark sky around her as if she had never turned her back on the light and almond-shaped, honey colored eyes stared at me with a mixture of pure, unadulterated hate and sinister evil.

  She moved lithely across the snow, her face still a haunting image of dark amusement until she stood over her brother, her pointed heel at his throat. She looked down at him with pity for only a second before sweeping down to him, pressing her mouth close to his ear. She whispered something I couldn’t understand, even in the realm of my own dream world and then lifted a dagger the size of her palm, its silver blade glinting in the moonlight.

  I stood paralyzed watching, frozen by the horror of the moment. Before a scream could even rise in my throat she had sliced the dagger across Seth’s perfect neck, the crimson blood pouring savagely from his body.

  I fell to my knees in agony, knowing our greatest Warrior had fallen at the hands of his sister, his own flesh and blood. And when I reached out to touch his body he turned to black, sulfuric smoke, rising up from the blood-stained snow and drifting back to the army of Shadows waiting for me.

  I looked up at Seven, her amber colored eyes mirror images of her brother. A menacing smile twisted her lips and she raised her dagger slowly. I reached for the katana I had dropped next to me, but in its place was a Shadow instead. It sliced at my hand, ripping open my palm and sending dangerously cold shooting pain through every one of my veins.

  Suddenly the Shadows were descending on me from every direction, obscuring my vision and tearing open my flesh. In the seconds it took for me to register the loss of my weapon, she had already walked through the wall of evil with the cool, calm, collectedness of a woman completely at ease with her surroundings. She was older than me by several years, but something in her mannerisms, in her giddy excitement with the depravity surrounding us made her seem young…. made her seem deranged. She cocked her head to one side, looking me over with a waning boredom before lifting the same dagger that killed Seth high above her head and plunging it straight into my heart. Before I felt the pain of her knife blade, I registered the sheer joy she took from destroying something. And then the agonizing pain of death swept over me, pulling me into a blackness so deep I knew there was no recovery.

  I awoke, panting and shaking, gripping at the covers around me. My long hair was plastered to my face in a sheen of sweat and I swallowed against the images that felt like awful, traumatizing reality.

  It was a dream.

  Only a dream.

  But two things were clear to me. Seven was after her brother’s life. And without Seth, I would fall.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Are you ready for this?” Seth shouted over the rush of air pounding past my ears.

  I looked down at the obscure Earth flashing miles beneath my feet and then looked back at him. I nodded once, confidently; then I reached for the two katana swords strapped to my back and whipped them out as we slowed down midair, still hidden by cloud cover.

  I could hear the sounds of battle and the movement of Serena and Nate illuminated by the soft glow of their inner lights even through the hazy fog of clouds. The strong smell of sulfur, like death and rotten eggs, drifted upward and filled my nostrils even this far above the carnage below.

  Serena called us into help tonight and so Seth and I had showed up to offer backup. And she actually called us, with a cell phone. Phone communications had been previously deemed as unnecessary risks, but with the shortage in our natural communication skill we broke protocol to ensure we could communicate with each other. I called it the “Bat Phone” but nobody else seemed to get the joke. Nate and Serena were new to Earth and Seth had been raised in apparent neglect and without Nick at Night. Regardless, Jupiter kept the high-tech phone with him at all times, in case Serena and Nate needed our help or vice versa.

  Seth gave me a wicked smile and then swooped toward the barren ground beneath us, his favorite cutlass, pirate swords flailing. We were meeting the temporary Protector and her Warrior somewhere over the remote villages of East Africa, currently in the process of taking on a horde of Shadows. We hadn’t even made it to solid ground before the angry demons swept up to meet us, their dark figures concealing Serena and Nate and the light the Angels fought with while we engaged in battle.

  My swords glided gracefully around my body as I let my instincts take over, even hovering midair, and my skin heated with the healthy glow that would burn my attackers. I was so much more prepared this time around, my movements felt natural, strong and confident. A few Shadows snuck up on me, especially the back of my thighs and calves, which seemed to be areas of my body that were harder to protect, but I was fighting back, becoming a force to be reckoned with.

  I fought through the Shadows that had come against me in the air until my feet were firmly planted on the dry African soil. Being on the ground gave me a clearer view of how Seth, Serena and Nate were doing, which was well except for the sheer number of Shadows, the foot soldiers of the Darkness.

  Serena had the power to light up as bright as any Star in the sky and banish them all away, but there were after-effects to becoming a miniature version of the sun in the middle of a planet and it was safest for humanity if we fought and killed them the old fashioned way. Besides, it was always better to kill something outright than let it hide away in the darkest places of space, festering in evil, until it found another opportunity to attack. Not that our light couldn’t kill them either but it was
like our version of a nuclear attack, both sides understood we were capable of it, but because our side respected and loved not only the planet but its inhabitants there was no way we would ever use our light on planet so drastically.

  I sunk my blade into the chest of another Shadow and turned my head for a millisecond to avoid the black, acidic spray of sticky blood that splashed crudely when I removed my sword to sink it into another Shadow. I glanced up at Seth, never once stopping the movement of my arms as Shadows surrounded me from every direction. He illuminated the darkness around him, lighting up the night sky as his body worked and fought against evil. His strong biceps flexed with each sword thrust and met his mark expertly every time. His brow furrowed in concentration and his lips pressed together both as a sign of focus and because nobody wanted to accidentally get Shadow blood in their mouth. It was awful…. and tasted worse.

  Feeling my eyes on him, he looked up at me, arms still swinging, swords still finding their marks and smiled his wide grin. His eyes twinkled with success and his skin heated even more, brightening the glow around him and sending Shadows shrieking from exposure.

  “Looking good over there, Stel,” He called, turning his head just a fraction to avoid the blood spray from his latest victim.

  “Thanks,” I called back, plunging my katana into the center of a Shadow, its long wispy body a mere manipulation from the crack of bones and sickening gush of blood I heard when I removed my weapon. “You too!” I offered, thinking sinful thoughts that had more to do with exactly how good he looked than how many Shadows littered the ground around his feet.

  “So this…. uh,” Seth started and then paused to turn swiftly in a kicking full circle, taking several Shadows with him, their painful shrieks sounding loudly in the otherwise silent African plain. “Uh, this Valentine’s dance, is it a big deal?”

  I smiled, despite the last spray of icky, black goo that somehow managed to land in my hair. I resisted the urge to run my hand over it and sunk my sword deeper into the culprit with extra-splashy blood. “Why? Are you thinking about taking someone special?”

  “Well, I was thinking about it, but if it’s…. uh…. lame, then you know, it’s not a big deal,” Seth answered nonchalantly.

  “No, it’s not lame. I mean, I don’t think it’s lame. It’s a dance, so it’s going to be fun,” I shrugged my shoulder not wanting to put pressure on him to go. So much of his time at school had been spent with me and my friends that I wanted to give Seth as much space as he needed to make his own life there, choose his own friends…. even date if he felt so inclined or gave into the throng of girls who seemed to worship at his feet.

  “So you’re going?” Seth pressed, crossing his blades in front of him and across the heads…. or head-like places of two Shadows.

  “That’s the plan,” I agreed. Finally there seemed to be a dwindling of Shadows as the wall of blackness attacking me lessened. I could see Serena and Nate clearly through the last of the lurking evil, finishing their individual piles as the dead and slaughtered disappeared into the night as if they really were smoke, back to hell, back to where they came from.

  “Are you going alone….? Or do you and Tristan already have plans?” Seth asked and then cleared his throat quickly. I looked up at him, feeling slight traces of anxiety and watched as he threw himself into the last dregs of battle, flipping into the air and finishing what was left of the Shadows in graceful, expert moves. His body burned with light and his movements left residual traces in the air around him.

  “What? Tristan?” I asked and then laughed. “Tristan and I never go to dances together. People already have a hard enough time believing we’re just friends! Showing up at a dance together would be like…. it would be like…. well, we would never live it down!” I laughed again. I plunged my katana into the last of the Shadows, taking my time and twisting the blade to ensure death. The Shadow fell away and poofed into black, insubstantial nothingness before its blood had even stopped splattering.

  I lowered my swords and looked around at the nearly empty battlefield. The desolate African plain was mostly obscured by night, but I relished in the dry, hot air. I loved feeling the heat on my bare arms and wished more than anything I had traded in my yoga pants for shorts. The cracked, dry earth spread out like a sea of sandpaper around me. The different, foreign grasses of Africa waved in a gentle night breeze, sending scents of freshness and earthiness to invade my senses.

  I needed to start traveling.

  On a regular basis.

  Without all the blood and carnage and saving the world stuff….

  Serena and Nate joined us in a tight circle as the last of the Shadows disappeared back to the inner most circle of hell. Good riddance.

  “Do you know what their plan was tonight?” Seth asked Nate as he wiped blood off his hands with a bandana he pulled from his back pocket.

  “Not the particulars, it’s hard to get definite information from them in between all the shrieking,” Nate smiled easily, lightening the tension from fighting.

  “It really is the worst,” I agreed, looking up at a sky full of Stars. Even the wide open Nebraska sky couldn’t compare to the vast array of constellations and twinkling of Heaven’s army in their battle formations on display from this empty African valley.

  “No, the smell,” Serena groaned dramatically, “the smell is definitely the worst! Off planet we didn’t have to deal with these small demons and there was never the intensity of this smell.” She shuddered again, her orange hair shaking with her movement like living fire.

  “I could live without the smell,” I agreed, realizing I would never get the chance.

  Silence fell over us as Serena and Nate pulled out a couple of water bottles and offered them to Seth and me. I took it gratefully, wiping my mouth of sweat, dirt and speckles of blood on the inside of my t-shirt before taking a long drink.

  It was in the silence that I felt the chill of another evil creep over my skin slowly and softly, as if it were a whisper of something sinister floating down from a high place, or echoing off the distant mountains. The hairs on my arms rose in alarm, and I looked around quickly trying to find the source.

  Nobody else seemed to notice the drop in temperature or the feeling like we were being watched; watched by somebody calculating our moves…. our conversations…. our abilities. There were not a lot of places for somebody to hide out here, this far from any kind of civilization. A few clusters of cluttered brush dotted the horizon, but nothing that could hide the depth of evil I felt present.

  “Do you guys feel that?” I whispered, interrupting the conversation the other three had fallen into.

  “Feel what?” Nate asked, his instincts on high alert with the mere idea of me feeling unease.

  “I don’t know what,” I half-grunted in frustration. “It’s like…. it’s like I can feel an evil presence out there, but I can’t at the same time. It’s almost like an echo of evil instead of the real thing….”

  “Stella you’re going to have to explain better than that,” Seth pressed gently, putting a strong hand on my lower back to encourage me to be clearer. He looked around at the plain, the same way I had done, his narrowed eyes scrutinizing through the darkness, struggling to find some remnant of remaining evil.

  “I don’t’ know how to explain better,” I sighed, feeling the threat disappear with each word spoken out loud. Maybe I had imagined it. “You felt them before, right?” I asked Seth, hoping I hadn’t imagined that too. “When we fought at Lincoln’s farm?”

  “Yes,” Seth replied confidently and then shifted uncomfortably before adding, “Well, I thought I saw them more than felt anything, but I can’t be all that sure. But you saw them and felt them so I know they were real.”

  I sighed, wishing more than anything I didn’t feel like a crazy person right now. “And you guys don’t feel anything now?” I held each of their gazes for a moment, pleading with them to feel what I did, but only concern and sympathy met me.

  “No, I
don’t,” Serena said softly. “That doesn’t mean anything though, I didn’t feel anything the night you fought so close to your home. We didn’t even know you were in trouble.” She gestured between herself and Nate and he kind of shook his head as if her were ashamed. “So maybe there is something blocking our senses.”

  “Is that even possible?” I gasped. How could I do my job correctly if I couldn’t rely on my senses, they were supposed to be my guide on Earth, they were what I counted on to lead me to evil.

  “I don’t know,” Nate answered thoughtfully. He was thinking over Serena’s thought, I could see his mind working, his brain trying to come up with a conclusion to this mystery. I wondered if one of his solutions included me being crazy.

  As if he could sense what I was thinking, Seth slipped his strong, albeit grimy hand around mine and squeezed it gently. The feeling that we were being watched, or joined by evil…. or whatever that feeling was had completely evaporated by now and I felt foolish making a big deal out of nothing. If what I was feeling were more Shadows they would have attacked us, they are almost incapable of not attacking us when they meet us. And if it were Fallen sent to spy on us, the others would have felt them too. That was one advantage to being a Star, we had all these exterior senses that gave us insight into the supernatural world that existed alongside the physical world on Earth.

  I shook my head, and tried to smile confidently, “Maybe these feelings are just my reaction to battle the first couple of times. I haven’t exactly been raised around this kind of stuff.”

  “Maybe….” Serena agreed thoughtfully. “But I think it would be a good idea to talk to Jupiter about it when you get home. He might have more insight into what you are feeling, or if the rest of us are broken he should know about it, maybe even know what to do.”