Sunburst

Hopefully she had a point.

“I’m glad I’m not staying here,” she admitted and I didn’t know whether to laugh or stab her myself.

Instead the emotion I had been holding back broke free and the hot tears were falling from my eyes before I could get control again. Serena glanced down at me, seeming surprised by my show of emotion. A little awkwardly, she did put her arm back around my shoulder and held me close to her.

Laying her head on top of mine she said, “You were built for this world, Stella. You are equipped with the right emotions and defenses to deal with all of this. I wouldn’t have spared Seven’s life today. And I wouldn’t have spared Seth’s. You are for this world, for the people that live here. They couldn’t have chosen a better Star.”

“You say that, but if it were Nate-“

“If Nate were trying to kill me, if Nate were no longer in possession of his soul, I would not hesitate. It might kill me, but I would not hesitate.”

And there was such solid conviction in her voice that I was stu

“It’s nice to feel safe now, isn’t it?” she changed the subject before all of my thoughts and feelings had completely settled. “It’s nice what the people down here can do with a blessing. Now that is something I wish I could take with me. I would just bless the whole planet and then retire.”

I snorted a surprised laugh. “Retire?”

“Sure,” she laughed too. “Take Nate, tour the galaxy, all that good stuff.”

I shook my head and laughed some more. “You’re crazy.”

She was quiet for a moment and then said, “You know, you are too, a little bit.” She kissed the top of my head, squeezed me a little tighter and then said, “I’m proud to know you, to fight alongside you. You have a strength I didn’t know existed. And when the time is right, this planet will be thankful for the force you will become. The Darkness will cower at your name, Stella. And the Stars above will celebrate in the fortress of power you will be. I know this.”

She stood up, leaving me gaping at her words. She patted my head like a small child and then disappeared back into the house. I stayed on the porch, not able to face Jupiter inside on the table, not able to look at my parents who had come so close to death tonight but somehow survived, not able to deal with the rest of my life.

Instead I stayed still, staring at a world in the heavens I would never be a part of. I thought about Serena’s words of encouragement and wondered if they would be true. If they could be true. If I could live up to all that.

She was right when she said my battle was complex. Seth was my enemy but my future too. How was I supposed to fight him and protect him at the same time? Not for a moment did I believe he or Aliah would stop. They would keep coming after me and keep coming after me, until either I turned eighteen or they killed me. And even after eighteen? Then what? Would Seth be able to come back to me? Would there be anything left of the soul I fought to save?

When dawn finally broke in our part of the world, Jupiter was still alive and successfully bandaged up. He wouldn’t be the same for a long time, his wounds were deep and damaging, but he would live. Nate and Serena had taken off, back to their hidden house. And my parents were alive.

They said goodnight and suggested I do the same. Jupiter was now in our guest bedroom where he would stay until he was fully recovered. There was nothing left to do but go to bed.

I crawled up the stairs and dragged myself to my bedroom. I stripped down and fell into bed. I was filthy, covered in dirt, sand, sweat and blood, but a shower would wait. Snuggling into my pillow and wrapping my blankets around me, I stared out my window at the lightening sky.

Just moments before sleep took me away to the wonderful world of peaceful oblivion, I felt a presence and the shadow of something pass over my window. Too exhausted to move and emotionally worn out to care, I let my eyes drift shut and gave up thoughts of the honey-eyed boy that would haunt my every waking thought and watch over me while I slept- even while he vowed to kill me.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“Seniors!” Piper hollered at the top of her lungs. Her head was tipped back and her arms swung out wide to her sides. All at once she dropped her head and swung her arm violently so that her hand hit her open locker door and slammed it shut. “Finally!”

“Finally,” I said quietly in support. But while the rest of the school celebrated the last day of school, I secretly mourned it. Part of me couldn’t wait to reach eighteen and set Seth free. And another part, currently the most emotional part, felt depressed because this was it. One more year and I would give up whatever humanity I pretended was mine. I would walk away from all these beautiful people, my friends, the people I cared about most outside of my family and Seth, and embrace a destiny I was quickly learning to despise. This was my last year in civilized society before my days and nights became stuff of super-hero legends only without the comic books to immortalize me.

It was like a countdown clock hovered above me, following me around with every step.

Besides the loss of humanity I felt strongly, there was the real possibility I wouldn’t live past my eighteenth birthday anyway. Because while the fight on the Sri Lankan beach was something I personally would put down in a history book, my eighteenth birthday was basically an invitation to every bad and dangerous thing out there that I was fair game.

My identity was no longer secret and my incentive to come out of hiding- Seth- would be especially advertised.

So this was it. In a month and a half I would turn seventeen and then it was just a matter of time.

“Is your locker cleaned out?” Piper asked, eyeing me skeptically.

“Yep.” I kicked at my overstuffed backpack that was pushed against my closed locker door. “You?”

“Yep,” she echoed. She kicked at her own backpack that was not even zipped closed thanks to the books, papers and random locker items that overflowed the top. “Stella, seriously, you need to be a little more excited about the end of the school year. We are going to have an epic summer! We’re seniors and you finally realized what a tool Tristan is. I mean, come on! All good things, baby! All good things!”

Her excitement was catching and I did feel a smile break free. But I still said seriously, “Tristan is not a tool, Pi. Give the guy a break!”

“I know,” she nodded while looking down the hall where Tristan stood with Rigley and Lincoln. “It’s not very nice to pick on him while he’s so pathetic. Not that I’m sad you bulldozed his heart, but he’s not very much fun while he’s like this. I do prefer my victims to have a little bit of fight left in them. You sucked the soul right out of his future-frat boy body. He depresses me now.”

“It’s not like that,” I argued. But Ok, it was kind of like that. “Think he’ll ever recover?”

“Hopefully not,” she groaned.

“Piper!” I gasped. “He’ll be fine.” But it was more to myself than to her. I had to believe that. I had to believe he would get over me. Our friendship had been nothing but strained and awkward since prom. And while the first part of prom been one of the most perfect if not saddest in my life, we both realized we had to move on from each other.

Sometimes I wondered if Tristan only agreed because it was what I wanted to hear. But other times I knew he believed it. There wasn’t a future for us. We had always known that. It was why we had fought the attraction between us for so long. But it was excruciating to watch him recover. I hated that I caused him so much pain.

I hated that I seemed to cause every boy in my life so much pain.

“Is he why you’re so mopey now?” Piper asked as she leaned back against the bank of lockers. We were still an hour from getting out of school for the summer, but nobody was taking classes seriously by now. Finals were over, lockers were cleaned out. We were just biding our time and saying goodbye to our friends that we would no doubt see in two days at the a