He stopped, right there in the middle of the hallway, and turned to look at me. Students veered out of the way like we were a boulder in the middle of a rushing river. And that was exactly how Seth felt to me- like he was my rock, like he was the only solid thing when the rest of my life was floating away. And maybe he felt the same way about me.

“We’re going to be alright,” he promised, leaning his face down so that we were only a breath apart. “Whatever they are doing, it’s meant to make us feel isolated….. inadequate. But we’re not either, Stella. We’re going to be alright.”

I dropped my head to his chest and let out a sigh. My chin trembled again, so I pressed my lips together to keep from exposing my emotion. I didn’t feel alright- I felt the opposite of alright.

“If they would just fight us…..”

“It’s the mind games. They want us crazy and lost first.”

“Well, they’re doing a really good job of it,” I grumbled.

“Hey,” he tilted my chin up and stared into my eyes- all the way in, all the way into my soul. “You’re not crazy and you’re not lost. Don’t let them win.”

I nodded, the press of his fingers firm under my chin.

“Are you Ok to go to class?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I tried to smile, but it was forced and unauthentic.

“I’ll see you after school.”

“I have practice tonight,” I reminded him. “Oh, and there’s this party tonight. Well, not really a party, but like a small get together at Lincoln’s tonight if you want to go. I know we have training but maybe we could get out of it? I could use a break.”

“Who’s going?”

“Piper, obviously. Rigley and Tristan…. you and me.” Finally I smiled when I explained, “Piper says it’s couples only.”

“And I’m your couple?” His voice was so full of hope my heart cracked a little.

An aching pain bloomed across my chest and my hands immediately reached for his, just barely entwining the tips of our fingers. It would be so much easier to be stubborn if he wasn’t so sweet.

“According to Piper,” I whispered.

“Then we’ll go,” Seth decided.

“Jupiter won’t care?”

“It won’t matter. If you’re acknowledging us as a couple, I’ll go anywhere.”

I looked up at him, unable to help myself and lost my breath. His golden eyes were glowing- right in the middle of the hallway, right in the middle of school. His skin was hot to my touch and I felt his emotions swirl around me as they warred against each other- hope, reservation, adoration, skepticism….. longing, disbelief.

“Ok, we’ll go.”

He smiled at me, warm and affectionate, and then disappeared down the hallway.

I turned around to head to my class and caught Tristan’s eye while he stood at his locker. He had just watched the entire exchange. My heart, that had been mending and piecing back together, dropped to my toes and splintered. His face was a mask of bitterness, but his eyes held depths of anguish that punched holes in my soul.

I lifted my hand to wave at him, but he slammed his locker and stalked off down the hall before I could explain or apologize or anything. But what would I have explained? And I truly didn’t have anything to apologize for.

This was so stupidly complicated and I had done it to myself. I needed to sort this out immediately.

But first I needed to get to class.

Chapter Five

“Stella,” Coach Farrow called from across the field. We were running our warm up around the grass next to the one-mile track. I looked up but kept running, knowing she probably wouldn’t like it if I stopped just to talk to her. She was pretty intense, but I loved it. “Go grab the practice jerseys from the equipment shed for me.”

“Alright,” I called back and set off to the other side of the field.

Mead High School had a decent field and football stadium for a small farm town. Our jumbotron was only two years old, and our stadium bleachers were new this year. The field, also new, was laid just a few months before- shortly after Seth and I destroyed it in our last battle with Aliah. The school, news and town all blamed the destruction on a freak February tornado. We were lucky freak tornadoes were an actual thing in Nebraska.

The locker room damage was blamed on that same natural disaster in combination with an exploding boiler. Or that’s how the human authorities explained all the melting metal. They were still renovating the locker room. But the fields had to be ready for soccer and track season.

Sports was practically all we had for entertainment around here and everyone took them seriously. Football was the obvious favorite, followed by girls’ volleyball and basketball for both girls and boys. The spring sports were the most neglected, but track and field won over soccer easily.

Soccer was, however, my favorite sport and Coach Farrow was a really good coach. When I first started they had assigned the librarian to coach us and she didn’t know the first thing about it. She wanted the extra cash and the school just wanted to fill the space. Farrow had stepped in the very next year; she was a substitute teacher and got her coaching certificate, so we wouldn’t have to suffer through practices consisting of reading the rule books three times in a row.

The equipment shed was around the building on the grassy side of the school. I kept up my pace as I made my way over there. I passed the boys warming up and shook my head at Rigley and Tristan who were whistling and making odd animal noises at me. Their teammates caught on then, and soon I had the entire boys’ soccer team hollering at me. I laughed, thankful Tristan seemed to be back to normal.

My cleats clicked across the red running track before I hit grass again. I slowed down once I turned the corner, out of sight from the field and the various teams practicing. Spring was by far the busiest sports season. The boys and girls soccer teams and track all shared the space after school. It seemed to work though, since the track team had been to state every single year since the founding of the school and the boys’ soccer team qualified for state last year. We were also state qualifiers but lost in the first round.

That was changing this year.

I yanked on the door to the shed. It was just a metal building that housed all the outdoor sports and PE equipment. It smelled like rotten feet and moldy jock straps, but it served a purpose…. I supposed.

It was never locked during school hours because people were always in and out of it, but the door was a pain to get open. Good thing nobody could see me back here.

I released some of my Light and used my natural strength to yank it. It flew open immediately and out with it came a surge of Shadows.

I dropped to my stomach on reflex and covered my head with my arms. They swirled around me, looking like macabre bats that wanted to eat my face.

They swooped down, low and menacing, but never touched me. I felt their momentum and the rustling of wind over my back as they flew back up in one, unified movement.

Without thinking I rolled over to my back and kicked my feet out so I jumped into standing. I let my hands light up until I looked like I was holding two balls of fire, and then waited for the Shadows to return. I wouldn’t go on the offensive in the middle of the day, just around the corner from fifty students and coaching staff, but I would protect myself.

Jupiter had been pushing me hard during training and it was starting to pay off. I could control my Light in segments and I could use the intensity of my Light more effectively. I was so going to kick ass this afternoon.

The Shadows settled on top of the equipment shed. They took the shape of blackbirds, perched precariously on every edge. They looked down at me, waiting for something…. a command maybe? The smell of sulfur, like rotting eggs drifted around me; I was surprised that I hadn’t smelled it before.

I waited, too. An instinct, deep and intuitive within me, warned that this was just the precursor to whatever was going to happen.

And then the temperature dropped- drastically. A thin sheet of ice spread out across the metal of the equipment shed like layers of lace. The wind picked up, clouds covered the once bright sun and then the most ominous, light-hearted laughter drifted through the air.

Seven.

And Seth was at home by now.

Suddenly she was in front of me, flesh and blood. Her long, wild, golden brown hair whipped around her face and back in the wind. Her golden brown eyes held no light or warmth, they were just…. dead. She was so beautiful, but at the same time not. She was like a rabid animal, there was beauty there, but there was also danger, impulsiveness…. There was no way to predict how she would behave or what she would do.

Except, I did know what she wanted to do- she wanted to kill me.

And she would do whatever she could to accomplish that.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. It wasn’t my most inspired question, but there was this soul-deep fear robbed me of my smarter instincts. For some reason she terrified more than anything else- more than Aliah, or my future, or anything.

“Just stopped by to chat,” she grinned. My back was pressed up against the brick of the school building and she was standing next to the shed. Her hands were clasped in front of her demurely but her black and white striped maxi dress flowed out around her legs in a wild dance with her hair.

“How sweet,” I intoned dryly.

Two Fallen thugs stepped around the shed to join her. I recognized them from Aliah’s gang. One’s name was Saul, but I didn’t know what the other’s one’s name. They were big, muscular and completely dark- as if they sucked all the light around them into their black hole of evil.

“Did we catch you alone?” Seven asked mocking innocence so well that I wanted to give her an Oscar. “Where’s my adorable, little brother?”

“Where you can’t touch him,” I bit out. I was terrified to be alone here, with the pure, raw evil that was Seven and her henchmen. I didn’t even have a weapon on me, not even a dagger or any kind of sharp object. I was completely vulnerable with only shin guards and cleats to protect myself. But I was happy Seth wasn’t here. I would gladly save him this trauma.

Seven’s eyes narrowed and a flicker of impatience flashed across her face. “Tell me, Stella, is Seth still having his bad dreams?” I pressed my lips together and narrowed my eyes at her, wondering if she had anything to do with dreams. “He used to have them when we were children too. Only then, I was the one to comfort him, hold him while he slept, kiss the boo boos better. I was the one that he counted on.”

I just stared at her, knowing she wanted a reaction from me, knowing I could not give her one.

She walked closer to me like a tigress stalking her prey. Stopping just inches in front of me, I realized we were the same height. At different times I’d imagined her a tiny, petite little girl, weeping for help and then I pictured her towering over me, alive with all her dark power. She was neither- she was my size and destructible just like me.

Up close I could see black veins spread out from under her eyes and down her cheeks like the thinnest kind of tree roots. Her chapped lips displayed a cut in the center of her fuller bottom one. And there was a prominent bruise on the underside of her jaw. What was happening to this girl?