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.

From 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?”

I gasped, but said nothing. How could I?

“And your Seth is next. It’s only a matter of time. And then what will you do? How will you save the world then?”

I didn’t respond, I couldn’t. I had to prioritize my attack and compartmentalize my feelings. If I went with what I truly wanted, I would fly across the space between us and claw Aliah’s eyes out with my bare hands. But, I had to get back to Jupiter and Serena and especially Nate.

My fingers brushed my belt, but Seth’s grip was so tight that this was not an easy feat. Using the flexibility of a ninja, I slipped out my butterfly knife and flipped it open. Seeing I had a weapon, Seth lifted one arm to grab for it. I took that moment to jab it into his forearm right at his elbow. I drug it across his flesh, filleting it open so that blood and muscle spilled out. His useless arm dropped from my side. I let the momentum take me. I dropped down, desperate to get away from Seth and Aliah.

I heard them pursuing me, but Seth had not even let out a cry of pain. Aliah was shouting something obscene and threatening at me, but I was diving for the cabin. The whole sky was filled with Shadows now, in what looked like a black force field from above. They were solid in their awning over the cabin. And they were relentless. I could make out just one burning Light and it had to be Serena’s. There weren’t any other options.

“Come here,” Seth shouted as he grabbed a hold of my torso again.

I flipped around and used my knife on him, jabbing it into his side and puncturing some major organ. He immediately went limp and I shoved him off me.

Now at this moment I couldn’t take time to deliberate. I had one choice and that was to trust that Aliah wanted Seth alive. Seth was struggling to remain in air, but he was losing a lot of blood and I didn’t stick around to watch.

It was the hardest thing I had ever done, but I took off again, without looking back. Aliah let out a string of aggressive obscenities in my direction, but I ignored them all and shot through the wall of Shadows, feeling every burn and pain straight to my bones. My friends were in trouble and not even Seth could keep me from them.

Chapter Eighteen

I landed on my feet and was swept into battle before I felt the ground underneath me. I only had my switchblade with me but my swords were somewhere on the ground. I just had to find them.