Starbright (The Starbright Series) (50 page)

             
Seth and I worked together in perfect unison, fighting off Fallen and Shadows alike. Evil seemed to be everywhere, attacking from every
direction
. I moved so fast and struck out my sword so quickly that it felt like I was fighting blind.
I struck before I could see what I was striking at and I blocked before I could see what was coming.
I was engaged with the one remaining evil Star, matching her sword swings exactly with mine, while also fighting off the relentless flow of Shadows that
thickened the air into a black
choking blanket around me. 

             
I had one goal and one goal only and that was to get to my parents and Tristan.

             
It was impossible to see who was winning or who was fighting who. We were a jumbled mess on the football field.

             
A Shadow sliced against my lower back and my knee fell to the soggy floor. I swung my sword up over my head to meet my opponent and made it just in time. She had swung down straight with all of her power and the
viciousness
of her blow jostled and unnerved me. I dug my toe into the ground and sprung forward, knowing she would be off balance because of the power she put into her swing.
Without thinking things through too closely, I swung my sword out to the side and across my chest. I hit her weapon at just the perfect place near the hilt and knocked it out of her hands. I let the momentum of my swing turn me in a full circle and then while she still watched her blade fall to the ground with wide eyes, my sword connected with her neck and sliced all the way across.

             
Her head lolled forward and then fell hollowly to the ground before her body crumpled and followed.

             
I suppressed a sob and kept moving
without looking back at my victim
. Shadows had been the extent of my killing up until now, save for the kindergarten hamster that met an untimely
and accidental
death at my hands
years ago
. Even if she was evil, even if she had turned her soul over to the Darkness…. she was still a Star, an unnamed and dead Star.

             
And I was responsible for her death.

             
I didn’t have much time to think about it though as I was met with another of the Fallen, this one a huge Warrior that had helped drag my parents
here
. My saber met his and we fought each other just a few feet from where my parents and Tristan still
knelt,
living at least. They were only guarded by two Fallen now, and I assumed the rest had needed to join the battle
….
which was a good thing.

             
A very good thing.

             
The bad thing was that my parents were definitely still unarmed and Tristan was in serious danger.

             
So was I.

             
This Warrior was unbelievably strong. My muscles ached and trembled from the effort to continue to fight and hold him off. My feet started to slow and the Shadows had worked their icy cold death into my veins making me feel sluggish. I kept Tristan in my peripheral vision at all times to motivate me to get to him, but this Warrior was determined to end this battle quickly.

             
Iced bits of snow whipped against my face as the blizzard consumed the air around us. My hair was slicked across my
throat and forehead
and my clothes
were
soggy and dripping water. The ground wasn’t softening even with the light of our presence h
eating it while we fought;
the cold temperature of evil seemed to win out even against the ground.

             
And it seemed it would win out against me too, as I failed to meet the Fallen’s swing in a fatal error and stumbled awkwardly to the ground. I stared up into his black eyes, with his gray haze surrounding him and my mind found complete clarity. He raised his sword high above his head and stepped on my sword so I was helpless to defend myself.

             
I closed my eyes not giving myself t
ime to think about the end, but it turned out my moment of zen wasn’t necessary. Seth let out a battle cry of fierce determination and when I opened my eyes again he had flipped through the air and decapitated the Fallen Warrior before the bad guy could turn around and realize he was in trouble.

             
Seth reached for my hand and sprung me to my feet. I shot him a grateful smile before picking up the long broadsword of the headless Warrior and tossing it with extreme accuracy to my dad who stood only five feet away.

             
I foolishly continued to watch him as he caught the sword in his strong fingers and then turned it on the two Fallen guarding him. His arms came up expertly and he crossed the sword in front of him once, taking out the first one and then turned around gracefully to take out the second. They had barely registered he had a sword yet before they were dead, their souls now imprisoned in
the seventh circle of
Hell where they belonged.

             
My father kept the sword and moved into the battle, while my mother stayed near Tristan to protect him. I fought my way back to my first kill and then picked up that sword and tossed it at my mother’s feet.

             
The clanging sound of metal meshed with the whipping wind, but as I turned to help Seth destroy the Fallen he was fighting, I decided it was less. The Fallen looked around a little skittishly with several of
their
’
s
dead and my parents and Tristan free.

             
And then suddenly Aliah let out a cackle of laughter that resounded louder than even the clash of metal on metal. My eyes flew to his as he flashed me a sinister grin and got the upper hand of Seren
a
. His sword plunged into her side, cutting through her like it was nothing. He abandoned his sword, still in her as she fell to her knees on the football field. There was a signal, something said or
gestured
and then the remaining Fallen had taken to the sky and were fleeing. Even the last few of the Shadows retreated back to wherever they came from and left us alone.

I looked up to see Jupiter descending rapidly, his hair disheveled, his sword bloodied in the thick black goo of the Shadows. He had been defending us from the sky, keeping the numbers of Shadows we met to a minimum.
Thank goodness for Jupiter and whatever extra aid we could get.

I didn’t wait a second more, I couldn’t. I flew to Tristan with my supernatural speed and flung myself into his arms. I enveloped him in my light, warming him and letting him feel the intensity of my inner heat. He pressed his body against mine, his strong arms wrapping themselves around me with a ferocity of feeling.
I felt his heart pound against my own as it tried to beat its way out of my chest.
I choked back a sob and promised a jumble of things to him over and over through streaming tears.

             
I hated that they got him, that they brought him into this mess.

             
He dipped his head against my neck, nuzzling me with his nose
and the scruff of his jawline
and I forced our bodies even closer together.

             
“How did they even get you?” I cried, promising myself it would never happen again. My voice was thick with emotion, raspy and hoarse from the effort of battle. My whole body was shaking with exhaustion, but I couldn’t let Tristan go, I couldn’t take my arms off of him.
And he seemed just as eager to hold me to him. In a strange way his arms felt like the safest place I had ever been.

             
“It’s my own fault,” he answered sounding so much more calm than me. “I wouldn’t leave. Your parents wanted me to, everyone else had gone, but I had to know you were Ok. I
had
to see you. They came after your parents and I was like this extra bonus,” he explained. His voice wasn’t even shaking, he was completely calm and comforting me. Tristan had almost died and he was comforting me!

             
“I will never let the
m
take you again,” I promised
, my voice hitching with emotion.

             
“I know Stel,” Tristan agreed gently and then even softer he whispered in my ear, “You are amazing Stella…. seriously incredible.”

             
I lifted my head to tell him thank you, but our eyes locked and I couldn’t remember the words I wanted to say. Tristan was looking at me with the kind of devotion I only saw between people like my parents and his expression had softened to something I should be afraid of. Instead I found myself mimicking the adoration and something deeper
…. something still nameless….
and I knew that we were more than friends. Tristan Shields was
not
my best friend…. he was something so much more.

             
“Stella, I need to take Tristan home, away from all of this,” my father’s voice broke through our bubble and reminded me that we were still standing in the middle of carnage, blood and bodies scattered all over our football field.

             
I reluctantly let Tristan go, although only because I was planning on following my
parents straight
home. My mom and dad kissed and hugged me and we told each other how much we loved one another over and over before they took Tristan away to the parking lot.
He held my hand all during our goodbyes and when we finally parted I felt empty without him…. painfully alone.

Now that the battle had stopped,
the rest of us
were left in eerie silence, even with the blizzard waging its own war against the Earth around us.
Nate
and Jupiter had moved to Seren
a
and were carefully tending to her wound and trying to remove the sword from her belly before her skin tried to heal around it.

I watched silently for a moment until I was positive she would recover and then I had to turn my eyes away. There was definitely a limit to what I could take of blood and gore for the day and I had more than reached my quota.

And then Seth was next to me, silent and stil
l
.

I fell
more than anything right
into
hi
s arms
. He had been standing next to me the entire battle and I needed his comforting arms around me. He crushed me to him, pressing his lips against my temple and rubbing my back in
soothing
circles.

“Thank you for saving my life,” I mumbled against him, burying
my
face in his neck.

“That’s what I’m here for,” he replied lightly in my ear, but pulled me tighter against him at the same time. “I can’t lose you Stella. I
won’t
lose you. You’re my Star.”

And then the world started spinning around me as the reality of his words sunk in. I wouldn’t lose him either. I couldn’t lose him. He was everything to me.

He was my Warrior.

And my heart stopped beating when I realized that I didn’t just think of him that way on the battlefield.

Somehow through all of this, he had become more to me too. He was so strong, and brave and valiant yet fragile and vulnerable too.

It didn’t matter what unnamed feelings I had for Tristan. I could never be with him. Seth was my future. And I was mostly Ok with that.

Except at the same time I was mostly not Ok with that too.
             

I stopped thinking and breathed Seth in. All of that stuff didn’t matter right now because both of them were safe. And that’s all I could think about.

For now, that’s all I wanted to think about.

“All I wa
nt to do is go home, take a bath and go to bed for next ten days,” I groaned.
Every
one of my muscles hurt and my shoulders felt like they were trying to actually remove my arms from their sockets.
Jupiter and Nate were helping Seren
a
get to the parking lot and Seth and I had turned to follow them, still leaning heavily on each other.

“I’m Ok with the home and bath part, but you can’t go to sleep for the next ten days,” Seth admonished me. “We have the Valentine’s Dance tomorrow night and I have a super hot date for it,” he pulled me closer to him, his arm wrapping firmly around my waist and I could hear the smile in his voice.

I replied with another unintelligible groan which only made him laugh. We were both covered in black goo and blood splatter, but I cuddled closer to him, thankful for his warm light and just him.

“We have to kill him,” I announced somberly, my thoughts drifting back to the battle.

“We will,” Seth promised. “And her.”