Starbright (The Starbright Series) (51 page)

I breathed in deeply and let the frozen night air cleanse my lungs. Th
is
war had changed. The Darkness had changed tactics right along with us and we fought a different kind of battle that would take just as much sacrifice and skill as the endless years before us. The only difference this time was that Seth and I were the ones fighting the battle.

If we didn’t go after Aliah, he would be back for us, although since we killed seven of his entourage I was hoping he would reconsider his effort at least outside of my small little farm town. If there was one thing I had learned
through all of this
it was how much I truly loved humanity and most of all the community I grew up in. I was definitely not ready to give up high school, or my friends or any of my relationships. But I also wasn’t going to stop myself from becoming the greatest Protector in the history of the Universe. Because this was a planet worth saving, humanity was
worth
saving.

I knew this meant I would have to give it up to a certain degree. I would have to walk away partially in order to save it. I couldn’t have people I loved showing up at every battle because I knew what it would mean, it would mean that I would gladly let them live and die for them.

             
I was willing to die for humanity.

             
But I wasn’t convinced yet I was willing to walk away.

             
I was called to serve the Ea
rth with Seth. He was my future;
together we would protect the last planet. I needed to walk away from my life and into my fate with Seth in order to save the Earth.

             
Too bad it was
humanity itself that was keeping me from doing that.

             
Even with this looming, ominous destiny ahead of me, I knew I would never leave Tristan. He was what made me fall so in love with this life to begin with and he would be what kept me tied to it for the rest of my life.

Acknowledgements

             
There are so many people to thank through this whole endeavor, so many people that have loved and encouraged me as I juggled the craziness of life trying to get words on the page. I so appreciate the support, listening ears and excitement for a book I was worried would never find an end.

             
First I want to thank those who helped put the book together.
Jenn
Nunez, my brilliant, hilarious, understanding but very honest editor! Thank you for reading my ten page, nonsense emails, for letting me talk through the plot and the boys and the names and every other little thing I obsess over. Thank you especially for putting up with my scatter brain as the release date kept getting pushed and pushed and pushed! But most of all thank you for understanding my addiction to capitalizing practically everything and making up words. And thank you to Sarah Hansen who created the beautiful cover! Thank you for decoding my crazy emails and finding my vision! I am so blessed by your talent!!

             
Thank you to Kylee for letting me talk your ear off about a story I have been dreaming about writing for years. You are the best listening ear and I look forward to every future pedicure and the hundreds of books to come out of them!

             
Thank you to Brooke for being the best cheerleader a girl can have! Thank you for being the first to read
Starbright
before it was edited, or even in the same tense or even made sense at all…. And especially for loving it when it didn’t make sense.

             
A great big thank you plus a huge hug to the authors that have encouraged me, answered my millions of questions and just been so darn awesome. Shelly Crane, Amy
Bartol
, Michelle Leighton, Angeline
Kace
, Samantha Young, Quinn
Loftis
, Georgia Cates, Nancy Straight and
Jenn
Sterling, you women are the sweetest, best things about this business. Your advice is so appreciated and your friendship means the world! I wish you all the best of success and can’t wait to see what’s in store for you all!!

             
Thank you, thank you, thank you to my family! To Ron, Randy and Robbie, my brothers who have given me equally some of best and most horrifying experience to work with. To my extended family all over the country, your advertising and support means the world! I have the best Aunts, Uncles and Cousins ever!! To my mom, who is my biggest fan! Thank you for your support, your hours and hours of babysitting and for pushing my books on every single person you meet!! I love you. And thank you to my husband Zach who got this whole journey started. You are the best man I know and every great love story I write is inspired by you. I couldn’t do this without your encouragement and support or your gifts of chocolate to keep me going. I love you.

             
And finally a gigantic thank you to my readers!!! Thank you so much for taking a chance on me! I can’t tell you how much your emails and messages and notes and tweets mean to me! Or how great it feels that there are other people out there that cherish my characters as much as I do!!

About the Author

Rachel Higginson was born and raised in Nebraska, but spent her college years traveling the world. She married her high school sweetheart and spends her days raising their growing family. She is obsessed with bad reality TV and any and all Young Adult Fiction.

Starbright
is the first book in her second series
.
Reckless Magic, the first book in t
he Star-Crossed series
is
her first
work
and all four books
of that series
are available for
most
eReaders
and soon in paperback copies through
Createspace
.

Sunburst, the second book in the
Starbright
Series will be out November 12
th
, 2012.

Follow Rachel on her blog at:

www
.rachelhigginson
.blogspot.com

Or on Twitter:

@
mywritesdntbite

Or on her Facebook pages:

Rachel Higginson

Or

Reckless Magic

Keep reading for a complimentary chapter from Shelly Crane’s Significance

Please enjoy an excerpt from Shelly Crane's series, Significance.

One

             
I waited for this day, for this one thing to complete me. To wrap up seventeen and three quarter years of my life and set a pretty bow on it in the form of a graduation cap. I waited for this one sheet of paper to tell me I had done something right.

             
I sat in my assigned seat, along with my classmates, in alphabetical order in front of the gym. The ones up front were in order by achievements, their faces lit with the relief of scholarships and graduation parties with gifts and family and friends...and getting out of this town.

             
I was numb. I had waited for this moment but now, I didn’t feel good inside. I didn’t feel complete, didn’t feel achieved. I felt like I’d slid by and barely made it, which was exactly what I’d done. I despised school. I was in the early release program for students who work after school, so we got out at 1:00 instead of 3:00 like everyone else. I was barely here and when I was I didn’t want to be.

             
I know I sound bitter. Believe me, I know. But I was seventeen, graduating a year early, and on the fast track to being valedictorian or whatever else, but things happened to me that I just couldn’t handle. And so, there I was, sullen, slightly unhappy and skidding by.

             
The ‘things’ I speak of, well, number one was that my mom left. She was an upstanding, stay at home mom, PTA loving, frugal grocery shopping, coupon clipping guru of the community. And she just left us, just like that. She decided out of nowhere that my dad had been holding her back all these years. She didn’t love him and she needed time to start a new life, without me there to pester her. So she did.

             
She moved to California along with every cent in my dad’s checking account and the one supposed to be for my college fund. I wanted to laugh at the Cali cliché, but I guess it didn’t suit her for long. She moved somewhere else, but I refused to speak to her anymore when she called. All she ever talked about was how sorry she was, that she just couldn’t do it anymore, that she was happy now, that I didn’t know what it was like to live with my dad. Yeah right. I’d counter that I was the only one still living with him and she’d hang up.

             
I was sure her newest boyfriend, who was ten years younger than her, could console her.   

             
So here we are, present day, graduation day. I was waiting patiently for the m’s to roll around so I could grab my diploma and hear the one person that’ll be in the stands clap for me, my dad.

             
I glanced up in front of me to see Kyle looking back. He smiled. “You look like you’re in your own little world back there. You ok?”

             
“Yeah, I’m just ready to be done with this.”

             
He turned more fully in his chair, putting his arms on the back of it. “Come on. It’s graduation day. Shouldn’t you be happy?” he reasoned. I just shrugged. “You
wanna
do something tonight? My parents are throwing this lousy party for me, but I’m looking for an excuse to leave early.”

             
“I don’t want to be your excuse, Kyle.”

             
He paled, his brow bunched together. “Ah,
Mags
, I didn’t mean it like that.” He sighed. “My party is from five to seven.  I’ll have plenty of time to do something with you, I just didn’t want it to seem so much like a date, you know,” he explained and looked at me bashfully. “In case you said no, again.”

             
“Oh.” I felt an inch and a half tall. “Kyle, I…” I was this close to telling him no, once more but I thought about it. I had always told him no. I hadn’t been on a date in a year,
every
since my life fell under my mom’s pointy heels. He was always sweet to me and he was probably leaving soon anyway for college. What could it hurt? “Ok. Yeah, we can do something.”

             
“Really?” he said shocked.

             
“Yeah.  What time do you want to go?”

             
“Is your dad throwing you a party or something?”

             
“No.” Ha. Yeah right.

             
“Oh. Uh, how about I text you? I’m sure it’s fine, but I
gotta
ask my dad for the car. Mine’s in the shop.”

             
“Ok, let me give you my number,” I said and started to pull up my gown to reach my pocket.

             
“I have it.” I looked at him curiously and he grinned. “I asked Rebecca for it a couple weeks ago. I was
gonna
call you but I never, uh, got up the nerve.”

             
He looked a little embarrassed and I couldn’t help but giggle a little at his obvious hand-in-the-cookie-jar expression. He was nice looking. No movie star stud, just a normal, light brown hair, brown eyed nice guy. We’d hung out a lot over the years in our group of friends, but never alone.

             
“Well, maybe you should have.”

             
“Would you have talked to me?”

             
I didn’t want to lie and I didn’t want to give him false hope so I just smiled and shrugged, hoping to pull off a little flirt. It must have worked; he grinned wider. “Ok, I’ll text you tonight.”

             
“Great,” my mouth said, but my head was already dreading it.

             
Then I saw the people ahead of him start to stand one by one as their names were called.

             
“Kyle Jacobson.” He looked back and grinned at me once more as he made his way on stage. There were still about eight people before me. I watched him make his way to the stage and saw his parents and a large group of others stand and applaud loudly for him, a couple whooping and hooting. He grabbed his diploma and then made a show of muscles. Everyone laughed as he bounded down the stairs. He was a crack up. Everyone liked him and voted him class clown in superlatives. He was popular, but never really dated anyone. He was always nice to me though. I used to hang out with that crowd, before everything happened.