Sunburst

I felt myself gasp at his change and then I was gone, into the sky and far away from the grief and disaster littering the beach below. I paid enough attention so that I could count the Lights that were following me- one, two, three……. Four. Jupiter could have been with them or just as easily still be bleeding out on the beach. He didn’t have a Light so it was impossible for me to tell. And I couldn’t dwell on that now, anyway.

A swarm of black smoke followed after them and I knew it was the Fallen following. I still held Seven clutched against my chest. Her nails were still digging into my skin, but if she was making noise I couldn’t hear her. I was too lost in the confusion of the moment.

Letting my sword slice across her throat, a severe wound, but not a fatal one, I released my hold and watched her fall, flailing and frantic, to the Indian Ocean below. This time I could hear her thickening, bloody scream as she struggled to take flight and hold her gaping wound at the same time.

I turned around, not caring what happened to that evil wench and took off at a slower pace. I saw one by one Nate, Serena, my mom and then my dad who was carrying an injured and barely alive Jupiter. We didn’t say anything to each other, each of us too weary to form words. But we flew with a renewed pace, anxious to leave this disaster behind us. There was an urgency to get home, to make sure Jupiter would survive the night, but there was also relief.

The Fallen had abandoned their pursuit of us. Aliah was no doubt tending to Seven and the battle that waged so hot and deadly before would be put off to another day. I was thankful for Aliah’s foolish, but sole focus on Seven, even on Seth. If it meant we could escape this time, then it was momentarily to our benefit. I breathed deeply for the first time, feeling the weight of the battle lift from my shoulders.

Until Seth came flying up behind me; he grabbed my arm and whirled me around midair. His swords were gone, still deep inside Jupiter’s limp body and as far as I could tell he was alone.

His haunted amber eyes met mine and he said, “You almost killed my sister.”

“I didn’t,” I defended. “I just wanted to leave.” We had to shout over the force of the wind this far up, but I still heard the depth of emotion in his words and hoped he heard mine. It was weird to see him this vulnerable and emotional just minutes after he tried to kill me. But I also knew that the monster that held a sword to my throat was not who he really was. This lost, broken man resembled Seth more than anything.

“Well, now you’re leaving!” he shouted. “Again. And back to Tristan like always.”

“I’m not going home to Tristan!” I was livid at his accusation. I had given this man my heart- this one, monster and all. And I loved him. I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t go back to Tristan even if I wanted to. “I said goodbye to Tristan. It’s you. Even like this, it’s you!”

Something hot and needy flashed in his eyes and he lurched forward so that we were only inches apart. “I saw you kiss him.”

“You saw me say goodbye to him,” I shouted.

He grabbed my biceps in his two huge hands and held me painfully. His fingers bit into my biceps and he pulled me harshly against his chest. My mom and Serena immediately flanked me, a threatening, ever-constant presence. He glanced at them briefly before returning his savage gaze to mine.

“You’re mine,” he rumbled, low and threatening. “He’d better not touch you again.”

“He won’t,” I promised, but felt sick about it. It seemed so wrong to give him what he wanted after everything we just went through, but I couldn’t do anything but tell him the truth. Tristan and I were over. It was only Seth. It was probably only ever Seth.

“I’m going to try to kill you again,” he confessed in a ragged voice. “I swear to you, I will try to kill you.”

“I know.” And a tear slipped from the corner of my eye.

“Don’t let me.” And then he was gone.

My breath caught as I slipped in the air but I quickly righted myself. More tears poured from my eyes. I felt like collapsing to the ground, letting the impact take me, getting swallowed up by the vast ocean and giving up. But I couldn’t. And not just for me.

For Seth too.

I moved with my loved ones and we made our way back to America, then Nebraska and finally home. We were as slow as we could be on the way home- without burning Jupiter, without drawing attention to ourselves. Still, there was an earnestness to get Jupiter home and hopefully save him.

We landed on the gravel drive silently. It was just past midnight by now and the Stars above were bright and vast as they stretched out from one end of the horizon to the next. I paused and looked at them, silently hating them for the cold battle they fought from such a distance; for the help they could never offer me; for their far-removed existence that didn’t even touch the chaos I lived in.

We fought the same battle, but it felt infinitely different. We shared a common enemy, but I was not like them and they were not like me.

I couldn’t even grasp the concept of the bigger picture in my damaged state. Nothing, no conflict, no battle, no torment existed except Seth and his heavy presence in my world.

Even Aliah paled in comparison to the man I loved and the destruction of what should have been a perfect love. I hated that he was so far away from me, but at the same time I needed him to stay away.

I hated that I loved him while he was like this; at the same time I knew that my love was the only thing that would save him.

Clattering inside the house drew my attention and I followed the noise through the front door that was left ajar to watch my dad lay Jupiter down on our dining room table. Whatever had been on there had been swept to the floor and Serena was ru

Nate and my dad immediately went to work pulling the swords from Jupiter’s body. He had long since passed out, so I prayed he didn’t feel the jerking and tugging as the men worked to remove the weapons. Crimson blood tinged with a bright, almost neon orange flowed from his body and my mom worked to mop it up with towels that Serena brought in.

I watched in horrified fascination as they worked on Jupiter’s body. His skin was sickly pale, but the blood was so bright, so hot. Where it dripped on the table it sizzled into beads. My mom’s hands weren’t bothered by the heat, but the towels were steaming.

If he were a Warrior, this wouldn’t be a fatal wound; he would already be healing. But he wasn’t a Warrior. He wasn’t even human. I realized he outlived most humans by hundreds and hundreds of years but I had no idea how resilient he was to this kind of blood loss.

Eventually Serena ran out of a job and walked over to me. Putting her arm around my shoulders she led me out to the front porch. Wordlessly she sat down on the porch steps and I followed simply for something to do.

For a long while we just stared up at the sky and watched the stars twinkle above us. Eventually she let out a long sigh and said, “I miss it up there.”

A humorless laugh escaped my lips and I heard myself say, “Oh, yeah?” Although I felt a serious detachment from my emotions right now. I probably should have been worried about how my body seemed to shut down and block the torrent of pain and heartache I should be going through. On the other hand, it actually felt kind of nice to be separated from what I knew to be an intense, soul-shattering heartache.

It felt like survival.

“It’s simpler up there,” she sighed. “Not as….. complex. Bad guys are bad guys, good guys are bright, fiery balls of Light. There’s no confusion in who to kill, who to save. Evil is always evil and goodness always, always looks exactly like it should.”

I stared at my ruined shoes and waited for her to get to the point.