Sunburst

I gasped, but said nothing. How could I?

“And your Seth is next. It’s only a matter of time. And then what will you do? How will you save the world then?”

I didn’t respond, I couldn’t. I had to prioritize my attack and compartmentalize my feelings. If I went with what I truly wanted, I would fly across the space between us and claw Aliah’s eyes out with my bare hands. But, I had to get back to Jupiter and Serena and especially Nate.

My fingers brushed my belt, but Seth’s grip was so tight that this was not an easy feat. Using the flexibility of a ninja, I slipped out my butterfly knife and flipped it open. Seeing I had a weapon, Seth lifted one arm to grab for it. I took that moment to jab it into his forearm right at his elbow. I drug it across his flesh, filleting it open so that blood and muscle spilled out. His useless arm dropped from my side. I let the momentum take me. I dropped down, desperate to get away from Seth and Aliah.

I heard them pursuing me, but Seth had not even let out a cry of pain. Aliah was shouting something obscene and threatening at me, but I was diving for the cabin. The whole sky was filled with Shadows now, in what looked like a black force field from above. They were solid in their awning over the cabin. And they were relentless. I could make out just one burning Light and it had to be Serena’s. There weren’t any other options.

“Come here,” Seth shouted as he grabbed a hold of my torso again.

I flipped around and used my knife on him, jabbing it into his side and puncturing some major organ. He immediately went limp and I shoved him off me.

Now at this moment I couldn’t take time to deliberate. I had one choice and that was to trust that Aliah wanted Seth alive. Seth was struggling to remain in air, but he was losing a lot of blood and I didn’t stick around to watch.

It was the hardest thing I had ever done, but I took off again, without looking back. Aliah let out a string of aggressive obscenities in my direction, but I ignored them all and shot through the wall of Shadows, feeling every burn and pain straight to my bones. My friends were in trouble and not even Seth could keep me from them.

Chapter Eighteen

I landed on my feet and was swept into battle before I felt the ground underneath me. I only had my switchblade with me but my swords were somewhere on the ground. I just had to find them.

I was disoriented and emotionally destroyed, but I had to fight. I had to find a way out of this for us.

I didn’t know if it was possible… there was just so much Darkness.

Serena was completely surrounded. I couldn’t even see her body or form, just her Light. Then came the sound of her swords slashing away at her enemies.

Jupiter was somewhere with her, too, but I couldn’t make out either him or Nate. I assumed one of them was protecting Nate, but it was impossible to tell. Serena’s Light was too dangerous and hot for Jupiter to function near, but too many sounds of death and gore made it difficult to really be able to pinpoint anything.

My dagger flew around me, but it wasn’t enough. I burned bright, as bright as I could before Jupiter wouldn’t stand a chance anymore. He had to get out of here. And he needed to take Nate with him. We had more of a chance if we could remove our weakest links.

And if I could find my swords.

Shadows were cutting at my arms whenever I swiped at them, and my bag of tricks with the small blade only went so deep. They were everywhere. Swarming, cutting, slicing, destroying.

This was Hell. This was it.

And I saw no way out.

I tried to cry out to Serena or Jupiter, but it was almost impossible to make coherent sound come out of my mouth. I was fatigued and on the verge of losing control of my Light. Usually this was a containable force inside of me that I occasionally lost control of in small amounts when I wasn’t paying attention. Currently, it was a living, fire-breathing dragon inside of me, desperate to protect myself. But if I let my Light out it would destroy Jupiter and the surrounding forest.

Not that I cared a ton about the trees over my own life, but something as unexplainable as heat that just disintegrates everything around it, is not easily explained to the human world. And my job wasn’t to confuse them and raise questions, my job was to protect them.

“Jupiter!” Serena’s voice cut above all the other sounds of battle. Then words came from her mouth in a different language that I didn’t understand. Her instructions were rapid and commanding. I didn’t speak the old language, but I was almost positive her commands were the same as my thoughts.

I continued to fight, but I was losing. My Light burned bright but soon enough the Shadows were braving exposure to slash at my arms and neck. I needed my swords.

Jupiter shouted back something in the same language and then I heard the intensity of the battle increase. Jupiter was fighting to get to Nate and pick him up. I moved toward the sound as quickly as the Shadows would let me, which wasn’t very fast since I had to take the time to kill everything in my path.

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.