Starbright (The Starbright Series) (10 page)

             
“That won’t be a problem with her training,” Seth spouted back word for word. The
huge smile probably lighting up his face completely evident in his voice. I was sure Jupiter would be convinced that whatever he was talking about would definitely be a problem with my training. I got nervous just thinking about it.

----

             
After spending the majority of
my
day
locked in
my
room, pretending that getting mad about pancakes was completely normal,
and skipping lunch,
I
decided it was time to face the music
…. o
r Seth, in this case. And
I
decided
I
should probably acknowledge that he actually did fight a battle last night.
Jupiter and h
e
had been gone most of the day getting what they could fly back with and packing the rest of it to have shipped here, but I could hear them down in the kitchen now and knew I needed to face them.

             
I
texted Tristan on the way down the stairs, explaining tha
t
I
would be a few minutes late
, something he was used to and probably expecting
.
I
hoped
my J
eep would make it into town, knowing
I
couldn’t risk having Tristan come to
my
house and meet Jupiter.
He
texted
more questions, but I
ignored them. Just like
I
ignored the feeling in
my
gut warning
me
not to do what
I
was about to.

             
Seth sat at the kitchen table with Jupiter, going over something out of an extremely old looking, leather bound book. They peered over it with a kind of quiet reverence, and
I
could see a haze of dust floating around the cracked pages. Or w
ere the pages glowing….

             
Seth looked up at
me
when
I
entered the kitchen and smiled. His smile was easy going and happy, but the look in his eyes seemed to be always calculating, always waiting for something to happen. He was a trained
W
arrior, a lesser
A
ngel;
I
couldn’t expect anything else from him.

             
“Hey, what are you guys doing?”
I
peered over the table and recognized the pages of the book written in the old language.
I
couldn’t read it yet, but Seth seemed to have no trouble. “What is that?”
             
Jupiter barely spared
me
a glance, staring intently at the pages in front of him. His finger moved under the symbols and foreign language with seemingly exact comprehension.
I
wondered how Jupiter had come to learn the old language, he wasn’t a Warrior, not even a lesser
A
ngel, and
I
highly doubted
my
kind went around to other planets teaching the sacred dialect to every species.

             
“It is the Alpha Hieros,” Jupiter answered blandly.

             
“The Sacred Beginning….”
I whispered, realizing I
stood
in a room with one of the oldest
, most sacred
documents in the history of the universe.
I
stilled, hovering over the table and came to the realization that the pages
actually were
glowing. They shined with a golden hue, as if they themselves were made of light. “You can both read it?”
I
whispered, afraid
my
very breath would distort the pages.

             
“Seth has been…. taught to read in this language, so that after I am gone, he may interpret the text,” Jupiter explained.

             
“And you?”
I
pressed, knowing without a shadow of a doubt that this book, the history of
my
people, the account of the war waged between light and dark was shared only between Stars and
Angels. Jupiter, no matter what his charge
,
shouldn’t be
in
possession of this book. And if it was given to him, for whatever divine purpose, then that was highly out of the ordinary.

             
“I was given….” Jupiter paused, looking up at
me
with eyes that flashed the deepest burgundy, like the color of old wine, before settling back into a muddled burnt maroon, “I was gifted with the ability to read your language, so that it would not become forgotten on this planet.”

             
I
thought for a moment about his response, and decided that he must be telling the truth because there was no other
way to learn the language
than miraculous intervention. At one time, the
E
arth’s language
mimicked that of the Angel’s that walked amongst humanity, as did every other planet created. But over time, and with the destruction of all other life throughout the entirety of space, save for
E
arth, the language had been forgotten by mankind, removed for the protection of its consecrated words.

             
The different races of Earth now held their own dialects and the
written text passed down from God Himself, retreated to the heavens. Except for this book. This book was all that remained in the possession of the army that fought against the Darkness.

             
I
stared for a moment longer as the two men leaned over the text, but when Seth’s eyes drifted back to
me
,
I
decided
I
needed
to be polite. He was part of
my
world now, and it felt wrong to leave him at home while
I
went off to workout.

             
“Seth, I’m going running with one of my good
friends, do you want to come?” I
asked casually, leaving out the fact that
my
good friend was actually
my
best friend and he was a boy.
I
had no reason to, and the logical part of
my
brain told
me
Seth wouldn’t care either way, not to mention he would find out soon enough anyway. Still, a warning flared in
my
belly telling
me
this was a bad idea. “I know you are probably sore or whatever from last night, but I thought you might like to get out of the house and…. stretch your legs.”

             
“Are you running outside?” Seth asked, leaning forward in his chair. At least he had thrown a t-shirt on.

             
“No, we, uh…. we go run at the high school. There is a track above the
basketball court
,”
I
explained, smiling casually.
I
felt another surge of guilt, knowing
I
was leaving out the part where
we
ha
d
to break into the gym first.
I
hoped Seth wouldn’t have too much of a moral dilemma with the whole breaking and entering thing.
I
was positive it went against his angelic nature, but
I reasoned that
there was much worse trouble
we
could get into.

             
“That does sound nice,” Seth thought it over for a second. “You won’t mind if I tag along?”

             
“No, not at all!”
I
assured him. “It will give you a chance to meet someone else that goes
to
school with us.”

             
“And your friend can keep up with us?” Seth looked doubtful.
We
were supernatural beings after all, and as his eyes dropped to
my
long, athletic legs,
I blushed thinking about our stupid supernatural future together
.

             
“Well, yes, as long as I don’t turn all Star or anything.”

             
“Ok, when are we leaving?” Seth asked, standing from the table and walking backward to the basement door.

             
“Ten minutes, does that give you enough time?”
I
smiled at him again. He definitely had some Fallen in him. Maybe a distant cousin or great grandfather. His eyes danced devilishly and
I
was convinced no regular Warrior looked as dangerous. Warriors were less
er
A
ngels, paired with Stars to protect the universe.
They weren’t the beings that served God
directly
, or carried out His
immediate
will; Warriors were the army that protected
those
A
ngels, and the last remaining planet housing life in the universe. They were the army of heaven, waging war against the forces of evil
. But despite th
e fact that they were trained killing machines
, t
hey were usually all goodness and light, like
my
dad. But Seth was more
than that
.
Or less
?
No, definitely…. more.
I
just couldn’t put
my
finger on it yet.

             
Seth nodded and then disappeared down the basement steps.
I
walked into the mud room, digging around for
my
running shoes, before joining Jupiter at the table.

             
“It’s not a problem if we leave, is it?”
I
asked Jupiter, realizing maybe
I
should have asked for permission first.

             
“Why would it be?” Jupiter mumbled from his study of the text.

             
“I just didn’t
know if I’m supposed to ask for….
p
ermission from you,”
I
mumbled, embarrassed by how awkward this conversation was becoming.
“
I guess
I don’t get your r
ole
in
my life, yet.”

             
“
I’m just a trainer,” Jupiter responded curtly, “not a babysitter. Fly to the moon for all I care, just do not, I repeat, do not engage in anymore battles until you’ve at least been trained with a sword.”

             
A little taken aback,
I
wasn’t sure if he was joking or serious, so
I
replied with a simple, “Will do.”

             
Seth
joined
us
upstairs a few awkward
, silent
minutes later in just shorts and a t-shirt. The rough Nebraska winter held temperatures in the low teens today, but
I
knew without a doubt Seth would not even be chilly. He might have to glow a little bit to stay warm, but somehow
I
doubted he would care and Tristan already knew part of the truth about who
I
was
anyway
.

             
What
Tristan
didn’t know, was that he was about to get a crash course in
all
the rest of it.

             
“Do you think my car can make it into town?”
I
asked on
ou
r way out the kitchen door.

             
“That depends….” Seth studied the crumpled passenger’s side and cringed. “How far is town?”

             
“If I speed, like fifteen minutes….”
I
answered, and then wondered if speeding would help
my
J
eep or hurt it.

             
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Seth decided, sticking his bottom lip out
to concentrate completely on the
door that seemed welded shut after last night’s impact. “If not, I can always bend it back together, right?” He tugged securely on the door handle, which
abruptly
ripped off the metal frame it was attached too. “Oops….” He mumbled, while
tossing the damaged debris over his shoulder and
prying the now loose door open. He crawled into the
front seat and then had to lift
the door and pull
equally
hard to jam the thing back into place. Not entirely sure it would hold, he gripped the arm rest tightly and decided to just hold it in place with his Warrior strength.