Sunburst

Or that was my excuse anyway.

They had a purpose. And we had a purpose. Everything seemed to be falling into place. There was only one thing left to do.

And that was explore the cabin.

“Is everyone else thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked lightly.

“And what is that?” Nate asked carefully.

“That the cabin is secretly a church, blessed by a priest and a perfect place for refuge?”

Jupiter choked on what sounded like laughter.

I made Jupiter laugh- I could officially die tonight and be happy.

“No more stalling,” Serena a

In other words, her weapons were bad ass.

One day I would get my very own Heaven-commissioned swords and then I would also be bad ass. Until then, I would use my hand-me-down katanas that Jupiter pulled out of his bag of tricks and kick ass the old-fashioned way.

The cabin appeared exactly like a haunted cabin in the woods should look like. Actually, this one could easily be where the whole Hansel and Gretel myth came from.

The pure log building’s old wood wasn’t golden blonde anymore; these logs had become dark and wet with heavy moss growing on every beam. A short staircase led to the main door and the stairs looked completely rotted and sagging. Evenly-spaced windows surrounded the cabin on every wall, but most of the glass was broken. Frayed sheer curtains were snagged in the jagged edges as they tried to float with the whipping wind, that was sucking them into the outside.

The mossy roof was completely overgrown with ivy that I suspected had pushed its way into the house, by the look of the dilapidated shingles. And beyond the cabin lay more forest. I half wondered why we didn’t simply fly to this spot when we first stumbled upon it, but now I could see that would have been impossible. The forest created a second roof over the structure and boxed the cabin in from every side. We stood in the only small clearing right now.

This cabin never saw light and never saw day.

Darkness every single moment of its existence, drowned and suffocated it.

No wonder it looked like a Rob Zombie set piece.

This is what I would look like, too, if I had to deal with that kind of repression.

I immediately thought of Seth and I felt punched in the chest.

Nate and Serena were first up the stairs, carefully stepping around the weaker looking spots. I held my breath and bravely followed forward. Jupiter flanked me, but I knew this was not out of fear. As the least visible out of all of us, it made sense for him to remain as undetected as possible.

At the door, Serena kicked it in, but she really didn’t need to. Rotten wood that was already off its hinges, exploded at the slightest touch of her booted foot. She didn’t wait around to comment but burst through the doorframe with Nate hot on her heels.

I sucked in another steadying breath and was right behind them with Jupiter only a half a second behind me.

We took in the even darker space. The cabin was just one giant room with a dead leaf and ivy covered floor. The vines had come out of the ceiling and wrapped around every available space, effectively obstructing whatever life could have been left here. This was not a friendly or pretty plant; this was destruction and domination at its most obvious.

But other than the aggressive vines, there was nothing here. No Shadows, no Fallen, no anything evil that was waiting in the Darkness to meet us.

Serena took a confused step forward and that’s when it happened.

The floor gave way and we were all falling.

It was a strange feeling to be standing on solid ground one second and lose all sense in the next. I could have easily started floating or flying, but my mind was so discombobulated that I found myself lost in the heady, overwhelming sensation of losing my footing.

I wasn’t the only one, since we all landed with the thud on a hard dirt floor.

My butt hurt. But I scrambled to my feet and managed to grapple hold of my flailing swords. When I finally managed to stand and regain my composure, I stepped back into a defensive formation, with my back to Serena, Nate and Jupiter’s backs. Our swords pointed out and our Lights lit up brightly as much as we could without melting Jupiter.

Oddly, there was no debris or dust around us. The floor didn’t collapse; the floor disappeared.

Vision. Hallucination. Or whatever. It was the Shadows and we fell for it.

Ok, we fell for it a bit willingly, but still.

And now I stood trapped in a basement with my enemies. This was my worst nightmare.

Aliah stepped forward from out of the dark corner; I was less surprised with this than any other moment in my life. It was like we were following a scary movie script, only if we kept following the one he wrote, this was not going to end well for us.

I did have the whole virgin thing working out for me. Wasn’t that part of some Hollywood formula?

I was almost positive it would work for me to.

Well, Ok, not exactly positive.

“Thank you for joining us,” Aliah greeted us warmly. “Stella, lovely to see you, as always. I’m surprised to see you twice in one day however. I didn’t realize you were incapable of listening to simple directions.” His accent was thick with impatience and I had to hold back a smug smirk.

“Oh, is Seth here?” I asked i

Aliah motioned with his hand, and Seth and Seven walked into the glow of our light. They looked more related than ever before tonight- hauntingly beautiful, terrifyingly dangerous. And then out of the shadows stepped more Fallen than I had ever seen in one place. They lined the walls around us, armed, dangerous, menacing.

We were seriously out-numbered.

Which meant one thing. We were set up tonight. This was carefully pla

That was good news. A traitor was officially confirmed. I couldn’t stop the grin this time. Although my current circumstances were nothing to smile at.

“You’ve complicated my plans, Stella,” Aliah explained carefully.

He walked forward to within the reach of my sword, but Serena stepped in front of me and raised her own blade to his carefully groomed throat, “Ah, ah, ah, Aliah, my dear.”

Aliah sighed impatiently, “Serena, you are wearing out my patience. I am under contract. I ca

“I would love for you to try.” Serena was such a beast. She was feral in her threat, almost drooling for this confrontation.

“Nathaniel gives you too much freedom.” Aliah stepped forward into the tip of her blade. “You’re wild without any restraint.”

“Well, I don’t like to keep her caged up, teetering on the verge of utter insanity, if that’s what you mean,” Nate bit out.

That comment was met with absolute quiet. Not even the forest around us dared to make a sound. Aliah’s cold, calculating gaze shifted to each of us as if he were deciding his next move very carefully. Serena taunted him by pressing the tip of her blade into his jugular until drops of his blood painted her blade.

Finally, Aliah looked down at his watch and made an impatient noise in the back of his throat. He seemed to take another minute deep in thought as he stared down Serena and Nate.