Starbright (The Starbright Series) (12 page)

             
Tristan held
my
gaze for a moment longer before exhaling a sigh that told
me I was forgiven
. He slid in through the half window and then waited for
me
to join him. When
I
was halfway through the window, he reached up and held
me
by the waist so that he could slowly lift
me
to the floor. The gesture was familiar and practiced and even if he realized
I
didn’t need his help,
it was still comforting that he wanted to give it to me
.

             
I
beamed at him when
my
feet touched the floor, turning to face him again and plant a kiss on his cheek. “I’m sorry this is weird,”
I
whispered quickly, before Seth joined
us
. “I was so excited for you guys to meet, I didn’t think that it might be…. awkward for you
both
.”

             
“Stel, it’s fine. I promise,” Tristan smiled back at
me
,
and his eyes told me he was sincere. Whew.
“Now tell me what happened, and why he’s here to begin with.”

             
“Ok, so last night, on my way home, I was kind of…. attacked,”
I
explained as Seth made the jump from window ledge to concrete floor. The
boy’s
locker room of Mead
High S
chool sat below ground and smelled like dirty feet. The old lockers, two
half-lockers
stacked on top of each other, made tunnels in the dim light leading through
a maze
of discarded jockstraps and
assorted
athletic cleats. An even dingier community shower took up one side of the room, encased by a tile wall, with two entrances. A bathroom connected to the showers, but
I
had yet t
o find the courage to explore the inside of those stalls
.

             
“Attacked?” Tristan stepped forward, instinctively wrapping
his arms around me
. “Why didn’t you call me?”

             
“I’m sorry, I thought about it….
b
ut there was nothing you could do, really….”
I
cringed, knowing he would hate the truth to
the
answer.
I
quickly continued to explain
, hoping he would forget that he wasn’t a part of
my
war, well not in the army sense of things. “Anyway, there were hundreds of Shadows and they came out of nowhere. They destroyed my car and then, well, I don’t know what they planned to do with me, because it would have taken a lot more of them to kill me than that,”
I
rambled, a character trait Tristan
was
accustomed to. He waited patiently for
me
to gather
my
thoughts and
finish
. “Anyway, I scared them away with my whole
S
tar-power thing and then Seth and Jupiter, my weapon’s trainer, showed up and kind of saved the day. They did the actual killing of
S
hadows, while I had just been content to scatter them.”

             
I noticed Seth try to hide his smug smirk when I talked about him saving the day, but it was obvious he was proud of his battlefield accomplishment last night
.
I glanced over at him and winked, which was something I had actually never done to a boy before and smiled. He should be proud.

“But you did do an excellent job of scattering them,” he praised
me
indulgently
.

             
“Why did they attack you in the first place? I thought no one knew who you were or that you were here? Do they usually attack people like that?
Or, uh…
S
tars like that?
” Tristan
asked seriously
,
clearly not taking comfort in the fact that Seth had taken so many Shadows out so quickly
.
Tristan
had known the truth about
me
since
we
were ten years old.
I
had come right out and told him everything about
my
orig
ins, my
destiny on this planet and
my
future role in saving
E
arth from the legions of Darkness
one day when we were climbing hay bales on his family’s farm
. It had been hard
for him
to listen to as a ten year old
boy
, tasked with keeping the secrets of
H
eaven con
fidential. But he had believed immediately.
Not
just because the topic was raised when he asked her why
I
glowed every time he teased
me
and not
because he had seen the proof I wasn’t human
but because
our friendship
was everything to him
,
and to
me. E
ven
at ten
he knew
I
couldn’t lie to him
.

             
“No, they don’t.
”
I
replied sullenly, “
T
hey knew who I was. We’re not sure how they figured it out, or if someone betrayed us, but they knew. We are hoping my parents will know more when they get back tonight.”

             
“So how did you know she was in trouble?” Tr
istan turned to Seth. I could see the mixture of gratitude for saving me warring with his need to mark his territory. Not that I was his territory, just more like the general area of our small town.

             
Seth looked
at me
warily.
I knew my honesty with Tristan was unsettling to him. I was really
upfront
in general, but especially to Tristan. I knew Seth would never be able to trust Tristan the way I did.
Tristan
was just a human
, and
Seth owed him no explanations
, but I hoped Seth at least trusted
me
.

             
“It’s Ok, Seth. I tell Tristan everything,
”
I
reassured him, recognizing his doubts.
“B
ut he’s the only one that knows, he’s been sworn to
complete
secrecy
and he won’t tell anyone,
”
I
promised and then exchanged a smirk with Tristan.

             
Our
shared look only caused Seth to
look
less inclined to share information with him
.
“Jupiter and I received a distress call from Sidra and Nisroc, requesting immediate aid. By the time we got
to them, though,
they were already dead,” Seeing the confused look on Tristan’s face, Seth clarified, “Sidra was the
P
rotector of
E
arth up until yesterday and Nisroc was her Counterpart. When we found them murdered, we knew
our leadership had been breached and so we came straight here to find Stella and make sure she was Ok. We found her easily enough; the sky surrounding her was completely filled with Shadows. “

             
“But you had already banished them or whatever? They just weren’t dead yet?” Tristan asked
me
, wanting to restore some of
my
credit.

             
“Yes, I scattered them, but I had no idea what I was doing! Seth is really the hero, and he is so much more prepared than me. My training really has been lacking, I’m sure the
E
lders cannot be happy with me or with my parents,”
I
lamented, worrying for the first time about the consequences
my
parents would have to fac
e
.

             
“Stella, if the Elders were unhappy with your training, they would have sent someone a long time ago,” Seth reasoned.
I
looked up at him, thankful for his reassuring words
and deciding he was right
.
The Elders watch
ed
everything, or at least it
seemed as if they could
see everything.
They were such a
temperamental
, stringent group,
and
if they were worried about
my
training, they would have stepped in a long time ago and either replaced
my
biological parents with dutiful, drill sergeant ones or replaced
me
with a Star that cared more about brandishing a sword made from Heaven’s Fire than her unnamed prom date
.

             
Not that I was worried about a prom date. It was still months away, I had time.

             
“So what now?” Tristan asked, removing his arm from around
me
and clasping
my
hand instead.

             
“Now, we wait for my parents to get back and
hear
from the Elders. I don’t have any formal training, so Jupiter is here now to train me and continue training with Seth
,”
I
sighed, feeling as if the perfect world
I
ha
d
always known was crumbling to pieces around
me
.

             
“So Seth is staying?” Tristan
asked
.
I ignored the way his voice sighed over the question and chose to hope that once they got to know each other they really would have a strong friendship.

             
“Yes! You don’t really expect me to fight the Darkness
all
by myself, do you?”
I
laughed.

             
“Obviously not, I was just hoping you still had a little more time before you became all Stella Day, warrior princess on me,” Tristan joked.
“Like until after soccer season or prom or something….”

             
“I think I still get to finish high school,”
I
countered, giving
my
self and Tristan some hope. “At least nobody has said otherwise so far.”

             
“So you still have to go to high school
and
fight evil. You’re life kind of sucks,” Tristan joked
, his mood instantly perking up as soon as he realized
I
would not be plucked from his life
or my daily activities. I would just be adding
weapon’s training, the kind that actually involved fighting with
swords
, along with basketball practice, student council and homework
.

             
“
And
be in shape for
basketball practice on Thursday,”
I
whined, agreeing with Tristan’s point of view.

             
“Do you want me to call the Shadows and ask them to come back? I could tell them to
bring more with them this time. Maybe you want something a little more challenging?
” Tristan joked and
I laughed again
,
thankful for the
mood change from ominous to in-
denial.

             
“I don’t think you should do that just to get out of basketball practice,” Seth scolded both of
us
, his golden brown skin tinged with pink.

             
“It’s just a joke, Seth,”
I
patted him on the bicep and flashed him
another
charming smile. “Now come on, I want to see what you’
re made of
! I need to know if you c
an keep up with me!”

             
The two boys followed
me up the stairs and
into the gym and
I
let them work out their competitive edges where boys
should
be competitive,
in the gym
and
on the track.