Sunburst

“Just one?” I snipped.

Aliah ignored me. And continued, “I signed this little contract as a formality, an incentive to procure something I had been working on for a very long time. Because of the terms of the contract, I hadn’t anticipated it being quite the thorn in my side that it’s turning out to be. It’s time for me to tie up some loose ends.”

Until that moment I had refused to look at Seth, refused to meet his golden amber gaze and see the emptiness I was positive was there. I refused to see his beautiful body, his perfect face, and familiar mouth, bending and breaking at the will of someone so evil.

But I couldn’t stop myself; I couldn’t hold back my heart anymore. I flicked my gaze to Aliah’s right and met the startling, livid, loathing eyes of the one man I loved so fully. My soul shattered in that moment, broke apart into thousands, millions of destroyed pieces as I saw the utter hatred in Seth’s expression. There was such a strong, aching pain in the area where my heart used to reside that I couldn’t breathe through it, couldn’t see through the flood of tears in my eyes.

The thing I had been most afraid of had happened. Gone was whatever was left of Seth’s purity and i

Me the reason all had been taken from him.

“As it turns out, I’m not the only one anxious to move on from the stipulations of our agreement,” Aliah continued. He was addressing me, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Seth. And as Aliah spoke, Seth’s jaw clenched with a hard determination. He raised his swords as if he were anxious to get on with this. “We are bound by blood,” Aliah continued, “but not for long.”

And then all hell- almost literally- broke out.

Aliah issued one last command, “Leave the Starling for the boy!”

And then the quiet of the peaceful morning was ripped to violent, bloody shreds as sword after sword clashed together in a frenzy of bloodlust and mutual hatred.

Thinking quickly and impulsively, I dashed away from Seth and into the far side of the crowd. The Fallen couldn’t kill me, but I could kill them. In fact, the only person that could hurt me was Seth, and while I had no doubt he intended to not just hurt me, but kill me, I could at least delay his fun.

And in the process, I could hopefully help out my family and friends.

It was easy to distinguish true Angels from the Fallen, as every one of us lit up with the power of our Light, our skin turning to that pure brilliancy, the rays of our i

And while I fought, I noticed Jude slip away on the beach. He just walked away from this like it had nothing to do with him, like he wasn’t the one that brought us here. Somehow fighting off the female Fallen in front of me, I watched as Jude pulled a cigarette from his back pocket, light it and just continue to walk. His feet made indents in the wet sand near the shoreline as he went, only to be washed away by the next crash of waves. And he just went on like that, casual and uncaring, smoke puffing from his mouth and into the air next to his head as he went.

Nobody seemed to care and I wasn’t going to call him out, although I was dying to know why he wasn’t fighting with his evil brethren. I glanced over at Aliah who was standing back from the group as well, Seven at his side, watching with fascinated interest as the battle raged on.

There were only six of us, against more than twenty Fallen.

But we fought on.

The woman in front of me eventually weakened. I understood how there was this loyalty to Aliah, that there was this issue with killing me, but I would have fought harder for my life. I was fighting harder to live.

So when my swords crossed her throat and slid all the way through, I realized I was just as surprised as she was. My killing experience was limited. I wasn’t used to taking lives other than Shadows.

My stomach lurched at the gory sight as blood spurted from her neck and her headless body fell to the ground.

Oh, God.

I had always known that this was part of my life, that at some point I would have to kill and kill often; not just the demonic Shadows that seemed more animal than eternal being, but living, breathing, Angels. Someone like me. Someone who had the potential for good, for Light, but gave it away to chase a greedy, selfish future.

My hands shook, barely able to hold onto my two swords. My stomach clenched against the roiling nausea and my mind spun with the consequences of taking a life. I was forever a changed person. Forever a true Warrior now.

Forever I would have her blood on my hands.

And it wasn’t a bad thing. I knew that. Somewhere in my spi

But it felt different when it was me. It felt cataclysmic and elementally changing. It felt…. wrong.

While I stood over the dead body- dead by my hands- a strong hand shoved into my back and I flew forward, sprawling into the blood and lifeless limbs of my victim. I spit out sticky, bloody sand and rolled over onto my back with swords raised defensively.

Seth loomed over me, apparently finally catching up. His face was contorted with hate and frustration, his swords gripped tightly at his sides.

“Get up,” he growled.

I didn’t immediately respond to his command. My body was sunk into black sand as the blood continued to run from the dead body next to me. I stupidly tried to imagine what she looked like, but I couldn’t picture her face. I had been so intent on the kill that I hadn’t processed anything leading up to it.

It seemed silly now, to dwell on the appearance of my victim. But I couldn’t help it. I needed time to process this, and instead I was fighting for my own life, fighting to reign in my sanity so that I could face Seth and the unique danger he brought.

I couldn’t do that again- I couldn’t just lose myself to the fight again. Because while killing someone nameless, but evil, was traumatizing, taking Seth’s life would destroy me. But unlike the dead woman next to me I wasn’t going to give a half-hearted attempt at protecting myself either. I wasn’t afraid to hurt Seth. I just couldn’t deal the death blow across his neck.

Everything else was fair game.

“Get up, Stella,” Seth commanded and my name sounded like a curse word on his beautiful lips.

I scooted back before jumping to my feet. My t-shirt was saturated with blood and sand; my

shoes were filled with the same gritty wetness. I brushed at bloody sand that stuck to my face with the back of my hand and met Seth’s murderous glare with one of my own.

“Is now the time that I remind you that you made this deal?” I taunted. Bodies moved around us, metal flaring in the early sun before finding something to clash with. Smoke billowed around us, but I was sure it was Shadows either creating an illusion or dying. “You made this bed and all that.”

Seth took an aggressive step forward, one sword raised and pointed at my throat. “And for the life of me, I just ca

Mimicking him, I took a cautious step back. “I think it had something to do with love.”

“Foolishly,” he bit out. “Giving up my life, my freedom, my soul for a spoiled brat that didn’t even feel anything back. How stupid.”

“I never said I didn’t feel anything back,” I ground out defensively.

Bitter laughter fell from his mouth like insults, “Yeah, you felt a little something for me, and a little something for a human not even worthy to walk on the same ground as me. And who else? Huh? How many others got to feel your little something, too?”