Tristan faltered a little, realizing after all these years that I probably didn’t need his help. I could fly. Actually fly. Probably jumping a few feet to a cement floor wasn’t a trial for me. But he had never seemed concerned about that before and I didn’t mind if he wanted to be chivalrous.
“You’ve never needed my help, have you?” Tristan confronted me gently; searching for the truth he knew I was incapable of hiding from him. My eyes glistened against the sun as I looked up at him and I blinked rapidly hoping to keep my Star instincts at bay. Glowing eyes could be unsettling. At his direct question though, emotion flared beneath my skin, causing it to warm ever so slightly, glowing right along with the rest of me despite my effort to stay completely normal.
“No, I’ve never needed it,” I admitted, reaching out for Tristan’s fingers with my own. “But I’ve always appreciated it.” I gave him my most charming smile, hoping to distract his sour mood. I loved Tristan like a brother and I hated that he felt disappointed. He was used to human girls, raised to be gentlemanly. And I hadn’t lied to him, even if I had an arsenal of super-human abilities, it was still nice to be treated like a lady.
Tristan held my gaze for a moment longer before exhaling a sigh that told me I was forgiven. He slid in through the half window and then waited for me to join him. When I was halfway through the window, he reached up and held me by the waist so that he could slowly lift me to the floor. The gesture was familiar and practiced and even if he realized I didn’t need his help, it was still comforting that he wanted to give it to me.
I beamed at him when my feet touched the floor, turning to face him again and plant a kiss on his cheek. “I’m sorry this is weird,” I whispered quickly, before Seth joined us. “I was so excited for you guys to meet, I didn’t think that it might be…. awkward for you both.”
“Stel, it’s fine. I promise,” Tristan smiled back at me, and his eyes told me he was sincere. Whew. “Now tell me what happened, and why he’s here to begin with.”
“Ok, so last night, on my way home, I was kind of…. attacked,” I explained as Seth made the jump from window ledge to concrete floor. The boy’s locker room of Mead High School sat below ground and smelled like dirty feet. The old lockers, two half-lockers stacked on top of each other, made tunnels in the dim light leading through a maze of discarded jockstraps and assorted athletic cleats. An even dingier community shower took up one side of the room, encased by a tile wall, with two entrances. A bathroom connected to the showers, but I had yet to find the courage to explore the inside of those stalls.
“Attacked?” Tristan stepped forward, instinctively wrapping his arms around me. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“I’m sorry, I thought about it…. but there was nothing you could do, really….” I cringed, knowing he would hate the truth to the answer. I quickly continued to explain, hoping he would forget that he wasn’t a part of my war, well not in the army sense of things. “Anyway, there were hundreds of Shadows and they came out of nowhere. They destroyed my car and then, well, I don’t know what they planned to do with me, because it would have taken a lot more of them to kill me than that,” I rambled, a character trait Tristan was accustomed to. He waited patiently for me to gather my thoughts and finish. “Anyway, I scared them away with my whole Star-power thing and then Seth and Jupiter, my weapon’s trainer, showed up and kind of saved the day. They did the actual killing of Shadows, while I had just been content to scatter them.”
I noticed Seth try to hide his smug smirk when I talked about him saving the day, but it was obvious he was proud of his battlefield accomplishment last night. I glanced over at him and winked, which was something I had actually never done to a boy before and smiled. He should be proud.
“But you did do an excellent job of scattering them,” he praised me indulgently.
“Why did they attack you in the first place? I thought no one knew who you were or that you were here? Do they usually attack people like that? Or, uh… Stars like that?” Tristan asked seriously, clearly not taking comfort in the fact that Seth had taken so many Shadows out so quickly. Tristan had known the truth about me since we were ten years old. I had come right out and told him everything about my origins, my destiny on this planet and my future role in saving Earth from the legions of Darkness one day when we were climbing hay bales on his family’s farm. It had been hard for him to listen to as a ten year old boy, tasked with keeping the secrets of Heaven confidential. But he had believed immediately. Not just because the topic was raised when he asked her why I glowed every time he teased me and not because he had seen the proof I wasn’t human but because our friendship was everything to him, and to me. Even at ten he knew I couldn’t lie to him.
“No, they don’t.” I replied sullenly, “They knew who I was. We’re not sure how they figured it out, or if someone betrayed us, but they knew. We are hoping my parents will know more when they get back tonight.”
“So how did you know she was in trouble?” Tristan turned to Seth. I could see the mixture of gratitude for saving me warring with his need to mark his territory. Not that I was his territory, just more like the general area of our small town.
Seth looked at me warily. I knew my honesty with Tristan was unsettling to him. I was really upfront in general, but especially to Tristan. I knew Seth would never be able to trust Tristan the way I did. Tristan was just a human, and Seth owed him no explanations, but I hoped Seth at least trusted me.
“It’s Ok, Seth. I tell Tristan everything,” I reassured him, recognizing his doubts. “But he’s the only one that knows, he’s been sworn to complete secrecy and he won’t tell anyone,” I promised and then exchanged a smirk with Tristan.
Our shared look only caused Seth to look less inclined to share information with him. “Jupiter and I received a distress call from Sidra and Nisroc, requesting immediate aid. By the time we got to them, though, they were already dead,” Seeing the confused look on Tristan’s face, Seth clarified, “Sidra was the Protector of Earth up until yesterday and Nisroc was her Counterpart. When we found them murdered, we knew our leadership had been breached and so we came straight here to find Stella and make sure she was Ok. We found her easily enough; the sky surrounding her was completely filled with Shadows. “
“But you had already banished them or whatever? They just weren’t dead yet?” Tristan asked me, wanting to restore some of my credit.