Sunburst (Starbright Series) (21 page)

             
But other than the aggressive vines, there was nothing here. No Shadows, no Fallen, no anything evil that was waiting in the Darkness to meet us.

             
Serena took a confused step forward and that’s when it happened.

             
The floor gave way and we were all falling.

             
It was a strange feeling to be standing on solid ground one second and lose all sense in the next. I could have easily started floating or flying, but my mind was so discombobulated that I found myself lost in the heady, overwhelming sensation of losing my footing.

             
I wasn’t the only one, since we all landed with the thud on a hard dirt floor.

             
My butt hurt. But I scrambled to my feet and managed to grapple hold of my flailing swords. When I finally managed to stand and regain my composure, I stepped back into a defensive formation, with my back to Serena, Nate and Jupiter’s backs. Our swords pointed out and our Lights lit up brightly as much as we could without melting Jupiter.

             
Oddly, there was no debris or dust around us. The floor didn’t collapse; the floor disappeared.

             
Vision. Hallucination. Or whatever. It was the Shadows and we fell for it.

             
Ok, we fell for it a bit willingly, but still.

             
And now I stood trapped in a basement with my enemies.
This was my worst nightmare.

             
Aliah stepped forward from out of the dark corner; I was less surprised with this than any other moment in my life. It was like we were following a scary movie script, only if we kept following the one he wrote, this was not going to end well for us.

             
I did have the whole virgin thing working out for me. Wasn’t that part of some Hollywood formula?

             
I was almost positive it would work for me to.

             
Well, Ok, not exactly positive.

             
“Thank you for joining us,” Aliah greeted us warmly. “Stella, lovely to see you, as always. I’m surprised to see you twice in one day however. I didn’t realize you were incapable of listening to simple directions.” His accent was thick with impatience and I had to hold back a smug smirk.

             
“Oh, is Seth here?” I asked innocently. “I guess I didn’t realize who was throwing this party.”

             
Aliah motioned with his hand, and Seth and Seven walked into the glow of our light. They looked more related than ever before tonight- hauntingly beautiful, terrifyingly dangerous. And then out of the shadows stepped more Fallen than I had ever seen in one place. They lined the walls around us, armed, dangerous, menacing.             

             
We were seriously out-numbered.

             
Which meant one thing. We were set up tonight. This was carefully planned. And by the Elders themselves. Or at least one of the Elders.

             
That was good news. A traitor was officially confirmed. I couldn’t stop the grin this time. Although my current circumstances were nothing to smile at.

             
“You’ve complicated my plans, Stella,” Aliah explained carefully.

He walked forward to within the reach of my sword, but Serena stepped in front of me and raised her own blade to his carefully groomed throat, “Ah, ah, ah, Aliah, my dear.”

Aliah sighed impatiently, “Serena, you are wearing out my patience. I am under contract. I cannot hurt the child, but I can hurt you.”

“I would love for you to try.” Serena was such a
beast
. She was feral in her threat, almost drooling for this confrontation.

“Nathaniel gives you too much freedom.” Aliah stepped forward into the tip of her blade. “You’re wild without any restraint.”

“Well, I don’t like to keep her caged up, teetering on the verge of utter insanity, if that’s what you mean,” Nate bit out.

That comment was met with absolute quiet. Not even the forest around us dared to make a sound. Aliah’s cold, calculating gaze shifted to each of us as if he were deciding his next move very carefully. Serena taunted him by pressing the tip of her blade into his jugular until drops of his blood painted her blade.

Finally, Aliah looked down at his watch and made an impatient noise in the back of his throat. He seemed to take another minute deep in thought as he stared down Serena and Nate.

“I would really enjoy killing you myself,” he admitted
with a sadistic grin. “I would make you suffer…. for a while. Until I got bored and your blood ran dry. But I just cannot spare the time tonight. Ah, well, at least I have the satisfaction that you will be dead. That pleases me immensely.”

Serena didn’t respond or even acknowledge his words in any way
but became extremely still- I recognized this as her focusing. She easily morphed into granite muscles and steely resolve. She was now a force to be reckoned with; she was now the Sun she was meant to be.

Aliah ignored her building wrath, “Stella you’ll have to go with Seth, I suppose.”

              Feeling a tad bit intimidated by the larger players in the room, my voice wasn’t as strong or as taunting as it normally was when I said, “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

             
“I disagree,” he smiled pleasantly at me. “I’m under a contract that I have no intention of breaking, Stella. So come with Seth now.”

             
“Go to hell,” I ground out, feeling my old confidence return to me.

             
“Gladly,” he grinned.

             
And then three things happened at once. Serena, in a move so silent, the sheer lack of sound frightened me, reared back her swords. Her right hand drove high above her head to bring down the killing blow; her left swung back in an effort to give her graceful momentum. She swung at the same time Aliah pulled out his sword with the speed of a Warrior in full capacity. Their blades clashed together with a resounding clash. But that was only a distraction- on Serena’s part.

While Aliah was distracted by Serena’s fierce blow, Nate lunged forward with sword arm raised and muscles bulging. I held my breath, watching the scene take place before me. He was going to kill him; Nate was going to get to Aliah’s head.

F
rom nowhere, Seven let out a god-awful screeching sound and lunged forward. She had been watching him the entire time. Ready with her sword, she leaped over Serena, plunging her sword through Nate’s chest, all the way to the hilt. The force of her body, which was in itself shocking because of her size, took Nate back, away from Aliah and Serena. They fell together into a wall of Fallen standing around like an audience to a boxing match.

             
I watched in stunned horror as Seven just kept plunging the hilt of her sword deeper into his chest until her hands were covered in blood, until it spackled her face and pretty pink cocktail dress. She looked savage and insane.

             
Nate’s face was frozen in horror as he looked down at the wound and the blood gushing out of his chest and flowing down his body like a river of carnage.

             
I felt sick. I was so sure I was going to throw up; I couldn’t hold back my emotion. Then Serena broke her contact with Aliah and spun around to gape at the man she loved, her Counterpart, her reason for living and fighting.

             
She let no sound escape, no tear fall. She just stared on with abject horror and glowed brighter and brighter with each moment that passed. Time seemed to stand still, and even though only seconds passed, everything seemed to slow down until it was just barely moving.

             
Seven turned around and sucked the blood and gore from one of her fingers before moving onto the next. This time I knew I was going to be sick… I just needed…. I just….

             
I didn’t even know.

             
“Well,” Aliah broke the heavy silence. “It’s been lovely catching up. Seth, your girl.” His directions seemed pointed at me but my brain was struggling to catch up, to work properly again.

             
Suddenly Jupiter attacked and everything snapped back into place. I remembered the swords at my side and brought them up to use them. Seven was weaponless now, her blade almost permanently jammed into Nate’s heaving chest, as he tried to breathe around the wound and pain.

             
Serena spun around again, to extract vengeance, I assumed, but this time five Fallen blocked Aliah from her, and were more than happy to engage her in a complicated sword battle. And just like that, the entire space was filled with Stars fighting Fallen, Shadows joining the assault with vile creatures from an underworld I did not even know exist.

             
I pushed my way into the fray, desperate to get away from Aliah and Seth, and more than frantic to reach Seven and end her.

             
She was insane- so damn insane. She couldn’t function in real life; she wasn’t meant to be alone. She probably wasn’t even meant to be good because of this sickness existing in her even before her parents died. I had to kill her. I had to put her out of her misery.

             
I had to end whatever sick evil she was spreading on this planet.

             
She walked calmly through the fighting crowd. It wasn’t hard for her to do. We were outnumbered forty to four and Nate was currently bleeding out on the floor. The other Fallen moved out of her way as she happily licked her fingers clean of blood.

             
She was just out of my reach, but I pulled my sword back anyway, determined to slice through her delicate little neck. And then my feet weren’t touching the ground anymore and the cabin was shrinking beneath my rapid rise. A strong, familiar arm wrapped around my waist and held me against his solid body.

             
“Let me down, Seth!” I screamed even as the rushing air fought with my oxygen intake. He wasn’t glowing, there was no Light coming out of his skin, instead it was something so much darker, more sinister, something that pulled out any hope I had for him from my body and replaced it with cold despair.

             
“You’re going to get killed down there,” he growled in my ear. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

             
“Let me go!” I was hysterical. My swords had slipped from my hands when he first grabbed me and I had nothing but fingernails to claw with and pull at his skin. “They’re going to die! Let me go!”

             
“They don’t matter,” Seth was firm, unyielding. “It’s you that I want safe. It’s you that I’m doing this for.”

             
“Jupiter’s down there,” I panted. Tears were streaming down my face now, panicky sobs pushing at my chest. “I have to get back there.”

             
“No!” Seth shouted into my ear. “Understand why I did what I did! It was for you! And you continue to slap it in my face. I did this for you. Respect my actions!”

             
I could feel how dark and empty he was- how the Light had been sucked out of his skin and left nothing behind. His grip around my waist was tight to the point of pain and his fingers were digging into my side until I was sure there would be bone-deep bruises.

             
But if he would have lightened his grip just a fraction, I would have been able to escape.

             
Aliah was up in the air next to us then, “Bring her,” he ordered Seth. “If she stays here, she’ll die.”

             
Seven joined us next, cackling and shaking her finger at me. “Such a naughty girl. But she makes it so fun!”

             
“Seven,” Aliah bit out, and she instantly sobered. She went to him immediately in the air and he held her at arm’s length with his hand firmly gripping her chin. “Too close, my pet. You cannot kill. You know this darling.”

             
“But I want to kill,” she whined, her eyes tearing immediately. She seemed so childlike again, completely at Aliah’s beck and call. “I need to kill,” she whispered and the sound sent chills skittering across my skin.

             
“The Fallen will always be out of your reach; that is how it has to be. Do you understand?”

             
She whimpered but nodded. Aliah leaned forward and kissed her sweetly on the nose. “Now be off, my sweet. We don’t want to be late.”

             
She immediately obeyed and I felt the impossible tightening of Seth’s arms. At least he was affected, although I didn’t know if it was for good or for bad.

             
Aliah turned to me in the sky, with that same sadistic but gentle expression. “Do you see how she teeters, Stella? What a fine line she walks. So close to evil, not quite one of the monsters that surrounds her. Can you imagine her inner turmoil? She’s filled with all that glorious Light but we both know how far from redemption she is. She lives in the worst kind of limbo, wouldn’t you agree?”