I opened my mouth to tell him I loved him one more time, but blood ran out of my mouth instead and I was suddenly without the ability to move my mouth. This was it.

Something wet hit my cheek and rolled into my ear. Some distant thought wondered if it was a tear- his tear- but then he was gone and my world was thrust into confusion.

Chapter Twenty-Six

My head fell to the side, while my body frantically tried to heal the damage inflicted on my throat. I was losing a lot of blood and I couldn’t seem to move my arms or legs. My hands had stopped gripping my swords, so they lay idly in my open palms.

And all the while I watched people I cared about fight. My dad was the one that knocked Seth from me. He had flown in, using his strength and power to shove Seth into a skidding path that sent sand flying everywhere. Behind them everyone continued to fight, to kill, to survive.

Bodies lay scattered and lifeless and I couldn’t tell if they were all my enemies or if my friends had fallen too. My dad raised his thick broadswords and brought them swiftly down on Seth.

I had no doubt he intended to kill Seth. There was no hesitation in his swing or his stance.

Seth just barely threw his own cutlasses up to protect himself. The metal clanged together louder than anything yet. Flipping up to his feet, he met my dad hit for hit. They were both fierce, incredible Warriors, their skill unmatched by anyone else I had ever seen.

My dad would get a blow in, finding soft flesh or firm muscle, just in time for Seth to return the hit. They circled and lunged and attacked with a savage grace that flooded me with fear.

Slowly my body started to mend, pull itself back together and heal. Slowly I regained feeling in my fingers and toes. My wound wasn’t as deep as it could have been, nor my pain so significant. But still I felt paralyzed by the scene in front of me. One of those men was going to die- either my dad or my soul mate.

There were no words to describe the emotions that rushed through me, no accurate way to identify the pain, terror and heartache that pressed down against me.

A shadow fell across my face and I looked up into Seven’s amused expression. She was grinning, completely happy to be part of this mayhem.

“Would you like to make a bet?” she laughed lightly. “Seth against your father?”

“No,” I grated, my voice as rough as gravel.

Her eyes twinkled when she crouched down next to me. “Pity I can’t help my brother and end you for him.” Her dagger twirled in her hands. She had all of my attention now. “It would be so easy.” She pressed the blade to my still healing wound. “It would make my brother so happy.”

“Do it,” I challenged. “Kill me.” And then Seth would kill Aliah- his soul would be returned to him, his sanity replaced.

“Do you really hate my brother so much,” she hissed. Her expression flashed from disturbingly childlike to feral in less than a second. “You would take me away from him? You would take Aliah away from him. Selfish cow.”

“You forgot me. I would take me away from him and isn’t that what would really hurt him?” I gloated, even while every word seared in my raw throat.

Disgust morphed her delicate face into something truly disturbing. “You are but an afterthought. He left you.”

“To save me,” I whispered. “How hard did he fight to save you?”

She spit in my face before I saw it coming. “I don’t need to be saved.” She stood up and glanced at the battle raging beyond us. “Unlike you.” With one last dismissing glance at me she mumbled, “Unlike your father.”

I grasped the swords in my finally working palms and struggled to standing. I swayed on my feet from the loss of blood, but managed to stay upright. We healed extremely fast, but it wasn’t instantaneous- our bodies still went through a process. And while the skin at my throat was closed and I was no longer bleeding, I was by no means one hundred percent.

“Maybe I was wrong,” I ground out, gasping for breath. Seven didn’t even turn around, she just kept trudging through the bloody sand. “Maybe you do need saving.”

And then I swung my sword at Seven, slicing a straight, bloody path down her back. She shrieked at the contact and writhed with back bowed as I cut the length of her from shoulder to opposite waist. Her blood-curdling scream resounded louder than any of the current fighting and for a moment it seemed that everything and everyone stopped.

I lunged forward and with my left hand I dropped my sword and grabbed her full head of golden brown hair. I ripped her back to me and had my sword at her exposed throat in a second.

“Stop fighting!” I shouted. “Or I will end her.”

She laughed a light, nervous sound and because I had my face pressed against hers I felt it vibrate against my skin. “Look who finally found a backbone,” she taunted.

I pushed the sharp blade of my sword through her soft skin and dared her to keep talking. My dad and Seth were locked two swords against two swords and were the closest to us. Seth broke apart first, giving up easily and stepping away from my dad. Aliah was there next, five feet away from us and dangerously angry.

“Let her go,” Aliah commanded in a deceptively controlled voice. And then he lost it a little bit, “Or I swear to you I will make Seth kill himself!”

“At this point, it’s either Seth or me, Aliah, so be my guest. You’d be solving a problem for me.” I feigned a lot of bravado, but inside I was shaking with nerves.

I looked around and counted my friends and family. My mom was bloody and heaving for breath, but alive and standing. A pile of bodies lay at her feet. Serena and Nate were back to back and much the same. Blood and gore covered them, either from their victims or their own wounds, which were many. My dad and Seth stood several feet apart, still gripping their swords defensively. And Jupiter stood not far off from them. He walked a few feet toward me, and consequently too close to where Seth and my dad were fighting. He was limping severely and his sword arm dangled at an odd angle from his shoulder.

“Stella,” Seth called from a few feet away. “I will never forgive you if you hurt my sister.”

Manipulative much? Yeesh.

“That’s alright,” I promised back. “I’m not sure I’m going to forgive you for trying to kill me!”

A huge grin broke out across his dirty face and a low chuckle rumbled in his chest. “We’re

playing a game, Stella. I try to kill you, you try to kill me. It’s how we show our love.” The word love sounded like the dirtiest word in the English language, but he didn’t give me time to dwell on that. “But my sister is going too far. You don’t touch my family.”

“Like you don’t touch mine? You were just fighting my dad, you idiot!” I shouted. This was taking too much time. The truth was, I wasn’t emotionally equipped to kill Seven right now. I had enough issues to deal with. And while I wanted this bitch dead and buried, I wanted those I loved safe first.

“My sister can’t protect herself!” Seth yelled back, his anger breaking free again.

“Stella, let go of Seven, before I come after you myself,” Aliah growled. He took a step forward and I made a point of meeting his cool green gaze and pushing my sword further against Seven’s throat. She cried out in a whimper of pain and dug her fingernails into my forearm. She wasn’t exactly gentle about it and soon blood dripped from her viscous nails. Still I held my position, ignoring the pain she was inflicting and the tremor in my soul.

“We’re leaving,” I declared.

“And how are you going to do that?” Aliah smiled confidently.

I narrowed my eyes on him, hating him all over again for what he was doing to Seth. “Do you remember the first time we met?” It was a rhetorical question and I didn’t wait for his answer. “I hope she can fly.”

I heard Aliah growl out a shout, but I was already taking off for the sky. I hovered for only a moment, a gruesome, horrifying moment. And it was a moment too long.

In a rage Seth whirled around and took his two swords, plunging them into Jupiter who had moved too close. One through his heart, the other into his side at a horizontal angle. Jupiter’s face crumpled in agony while Seth loomed over him, pushing his weapons in deeper. Seven’s delighted laugh was the only sound I heard before I lost hearing all together. My head swam, my ears rushed with panic and uncertainty. Seth turned around, as if sensing my indecision to stay or to go and met my eyes. He was not even a shadow of himself, but completely consumed by the Darkness.

I felt myself gasp at his change and then I was gone, into the sky and far away from the grief and disaster littering the beach below. I paid enough attention so that I could count the Lights that were following me- one, two, three……. Four. Jupiter could have been with them or just as easily still be bleeding out on the beach. He didn’t have a Light so it was impossible for me to tell. And I couldn’t dwell on that now, anyway.

A swarm of black smoke followed after them and I knew it was the Fallen following. I still held Seven clutched against my chest. Her nails were still digging into my skin, but if she was making noise I couldn’t hear her. I was too lost in the confusion of the moment.

Letting my sword slice across her throat, a severe wound, but not a fatal one, I released my hold and watched her fall, flailing and frantic, to the Indian Ocean below. This time I could hear her thickening, bloody scream as she struggled to take flight and hold her gaping wound at the same time.

I turned around, not caring what happened to that evil wench and took off at a slower pace. I saw one by one Nate, Serena, my mom and then my dad who was carrying an injured and barely alive Jupiter. We didn’t say anything to each other, each of us too weary to form words. But we flew with a renewed pace, anxious to leave this disaster behind us. There was an urgency to get home, to make sure Jupiter would survive the night, but there was also relief.

The Fallen had abandoned their pursuit of us. Aliah was no doubt tending to Seven and the battle that waged so hot and deadly before would be put off to another day. I was thankful for Aliah’s foolish, but sole focus on Seven, even on Seth. If it meant we could escape this time, then it was momentarily to our benefit. I breathed deeply for the first time, feeling the weight of the battle lift from my shoulders.

Until Seth came flying up behind me; he grabbed my arm and whirled me around midair. His swords were gone, still deep inside Jupiter’s limp body and as far as I could tell he was alone.

His haunted amber eyes met mine and he said, “You almost killed my sister.”

“I didn’t,” I defended. “I just wanted to leave.” We had to shout over the force of the wind this far up, but I still heard the depth of emotion in his words and hoped he heard mine. It was weird to see him this vulnerable and emotional just minutes after he tried to kill me. But I also knew that the monster that held a sword to my throat was not who he really was. This lost, broken man resembled Seth more than anything.

“Well, now you’re leaving!” he shouted. “Again. And back to Tristan like always.”

“I’m not going home to Tristan!” I was livid at his accusation. I had given this man my heart- this one, monster and all. And I loved him. I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t go back to Tristan even if I wanted to. “I said goodbye to Tristan. It’s you. Even like this, it’s you!”