Sunburst

These thoughts were completely foreign to me and I had no idea what to make of them, but the truth was Seth came before all of these things.

Even my friends.

I had to do something to help him. I had to get him away from Aliah and his deranged sister.

I parked my dad’s truck in the middle of the student lot and grabbed my backpack. I was determined to focus on school today, but as soon as it was over I was blowing off practice and heading out with Nate and Serena. They were constantly fighting these days. I knew they’d be able to help me find Seth, and at least occupy his time to keep him from doing anything with lifelong consequences. My new plan included fighting him or bothering him as often as possible so that he didn’t do something that would haunt him the rest of his life, long after his soul was returned to him.

I slammed my truck door, not bothering taking the keys out of the ignition or locking the door. This was the country, every car in this parking lot had the keys still in the ignition.

“Morning, Stella,” Aliah’s smooth, silky voice caught me completely off guard.

He was leaning against the back of my truck, his arm resting casually on the truck bed. He was especially casual this morning in designer jeans and a light blue oxford with the sleeves rolled up. His dark hair was expertly styled and his shoes were shiny loafers even though he was wearing jeans.

I didn’t respond. I just opened my truck door again and reached under the seat for one of my emergency katanas. I pulled it out, and rested it, tip down, against my leg. I left the door open so nobody between the hood of my truck and the school could see I was wielding a deadly weapon. Then I mimicked his casual pose.

“What do you want, Aliah?” I used my iciest voice and waited for him to a

He tilted his head back and let out a short stream of genuine laughter. “What do I want? What a question.”

I stopped myself from rolling my eyes and waited. He would tell me why he was here soon enough or he would attack me.

I was kind of hoping for him to attack me. Then at least Seth was allowed to kill him.

If I didn’t kill him first.

After he was adequately amused, he tilted his head back down and narrowed his eyes on me. “I want you to stay away from Seth.”

“Sure, no problem,” I quickly agreed. “Are we done?”

“Don’t patronize me, Stella,” he snapped. His patience was gone and even though he stood perfectly unmoving, he seemed like a swirling tornado of Dark energy. He was terrifying in his composed stillness. “I want you nowhere near him.”

“If only we always got what we wanted,” I taunted.

He took three steps toward me and seemed to catch himself. He stopped and clenched his fists at his side, visibly trying to calm down.

“You’re disrespectful, Child, and it will only hurt you in the end.” His accent was thicker with his emotion and his malicious green eyes were alight with fury.

I was going to go with some kind of spanking joke, but thought better of it. I was trying to be a smartass, not take us into super weirdville. So instead I said, “Doesn’t Seth live with you now? Isn’t the entire point of his life now to officially stay away from me? Why are you here, Aliah?”

He glared at me but remained silent.

“Why are you here, Aliah?” I repeated.

“I want you to stay away from Seth,” he bit out.

“You are the one that owns his soul. Maybe you should be having this conversation with him.”

“I do own his soul, which means I want him nowhere near you. There are very specific requirements in the contract. You had better be very careful lest you get your soulless Counterpart killed.”

“A contract that I did not read, agree to, or sign. Nothing I do can be held against the contract. I’m not a party to it. And I’m not worried about Seth’s life in your hands.”

A malicious smirk tilted the corner of his full lips. “You’re saying you trust me with Seth?”

“I’m saying you have been searching for the better part of ten years for him and one mistake isn’t going to send you over the edge. Obviously you have ridiculous patience. And on top of that I don’t need to trust you, because I trust Seth to be able to take care of himself.”

“But do you trust him to take care of you?” He was mocking me. And what I couldn’t tell him was that I did. Even if it was stupid and pathetically naïve, I trusted him.

The sword handle itched in my palm and I gripped it tighter, desperate to plunge it into the empty cavity of his chest where I would find no heart. “Leave,” I growled. “It’s time for you to go.”

“Hey boss,” Jude drawled while coming to stand next to the dusty Honda Civic, next to my huge truck. “Finally going after that GED I keep bugging you about?”

I would have laughed at Jude had I not been so completely pissed off. He sounded like he was reciting lines from a sitcom, and his acting skills were atrocious. He leaned back on the Civic and crossed his ankles and arms, and then just waited casually to be included in our altercation.

“Jude,” Aliah sighed. “Obviously, if I’m here you haven’t been holding up your end of the contract.”

“I’m missing something,” Jude pointed out. He looked back and forth between Aliah and me and finally ended on Aliah.

“She’s not allowed near him, Jude. That was the deal. You keep her away from him or you will be replaced.” Aliah was back to his cool confident coldness.

I was surprised that Jude seemed able to appear just as unaffected, though. If Aliah was threatening my life so directly, I would have had to say something. I wouldn’t be able to let it roll off my back.

I would have opened my mouth and said something that got me into trouble.

“I’m doing my job,” Jude shrugged. “The contract would tell you if I weren’t.”

That gave me pause. Living contracts were an extreme rarity. That also meant this one was bound by the signers blood. It was one thing to say Seth had sold his soul, even to see the evidence of it. But knowing they used a living contract meant the soul was actually trapped inside the contract. This was both good news and bad news. The good news meant that because the soul hadn’t been imprisoned in hell during the duration of the contract, Seth would actually have a chance of getting his back. The bad news was that just because Seth got his soul back didn’t mean he wouldn’t already have changed into the Fallen he was pretending to be. It also didn’t mean that his soul was going to be held apart from the evil that surrounded it. But the worst piece of news this brought was that the contract was extremely all-seeing. Where a simple paper contract was left to the signer’s honor system, this particular contract would know if there was deceit or malpractice.

It also meant I wasn’t told the entire story. If anything, living contracts were extremely wordy to ensure that all of the parties got exactly what they wanted, since they bonded the contract by blood both sides of the deal were carried out without any of the signer’s wishes. They just… happened.

Some people believed there was an entirely secret sect that was devoted only to living contracts. A mixture of Fallen and Warriors that carried out the contracts until they were satisfied.

“The contract will tell me when you fail,” Aliah reminded Jude, turning around so that they were face to face. “The contract will not tell me if you are on your way to failing.”

Jude’s face became a mask of unemotional placidness. His gray eyes were shuttered and his body remained relaxed against the car. He was too easy-going for me to fully believe him, and I suddenly felt nervous for him. Aliah would see through his façade easily and then Jude would die.

It was going to be simple and quick.

I just hated that; I actually felt bad for Jude. I should know better. I should be glad to get rid of him.