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“Can you smooth that over for me?” Lincoln asked while ignoring my entire rant.

I did find a sympathetic look for him, “Lincoln, I don’t think a new car could smooth that over. You’re on your own.”

And then I walked out. I left my entire tray at my spot. Tristan would deal with it and I was too worked up to even spend one extra minute in that cafeteria. I walked straight to my locker and dug deep in my bag for my cellphone.

Can I meet up with you tonight? I need to kill something. I texted to Serena. And then I stared at my screen until she texted back.

Yes, please. We have a lead. Be ready by nine. I’ll call Jupiter with details.

Thanks.

I was actually impressed at her texting skills. Serena had adapted well to human life, even while I knew she itched to get back up in the sky. I had been bred for a purpose and one of the reasons was so that the rest of the Star community didn’t have to deal with the claustrophobic prison of Earth.

I slipped my phone back into my bag and pulled out my books for my next class. Piper yanked open her locker next to me sounding extra loud in the quiet hallway.

I peeked at her from around my opened locker door and found a miserable expression on her face.

“I know I’m crazy sometimes,” she grumbled. “You don’t have to tell me.”

“I wasn’t going to,” I said sincerely. “You alright?”

“No,” she admitted. She slammed her locker closed and let her forehead fall forward on it. “I’m worried about you.” She tilted her face to mine and I met her concerned eyes with steady ones of my own.

She had reason to be worried about me; I was surprised by her perceptiveness. She wasn’t usually this…. insightful. I mean, she was, in certain ways. But not about the big, secret stuff in my life.

Except maybe Tristan. Apparently I should have given her more credit a long time ago.

“Why are you worried about me?” I asked carefully, already afraid of her answer.

“You would tell me if something was going on, wouldn’t you?” she demanded. “Like if you’d started using drugs or got pregnant or something. I mean, I’m your best friend. I should be the first to know. Plus, I’m the least likely to judge, so-“

“Piper! I’m not pregnant. Good lord.”

“Drugs?”

“No drugs. Geez.” I shook my head at her.

“Something’s going on,” she pointed out gently. “You don’t want to talk to me about it, and I don’t know why.”

“I don’t either,” I admitted. And it was true. I had never wanted to open up to Piper more than this moment. I used to be able to talk about this stuff to Tristan, but that was before we were suddenly more than friends and back when things were a lot less complicated. My problems revolved around accidently lighting up like a light bulb in math class when I didn’t know the answer, or running too fast at practice. He would lend me a listening ear and soothe my ego by telling me I was the hottest alien he’d ever seen. Now those small, conceited problems had morphed into the boy I was in love with sometimes wanting to kill me, sometimes making me feel things I’d never felt before. And in those moments, Seth made me feel things I never knew were possible. An entire faction of bad guys were out to kill me or torture me and the most annoying creature on the planet- Jude- existed as my constant shadow, doing his best to ruin my reputation at school. There was a lot to talk about with Piper, and I needed my best friend to unload on. “But I want to.”

“Then talk to me, Stella. I hate watching your life unravel from the sidelines. I at least want to attempt to help you tape it back together.”

I looked into her sad hazel eyes and felt my chin quiver. “Piper, I wish I could.”

“By not telling me, you’re pushing me away,” she pointed out. Her expression grew harder and I winced at her words. “You’re keeping me out and it hurts, Stella. You probably aren’t trying to hurt me, but you are.”

“Piper, if I could talk to you about this, I would.”

“But you can’t.” It was a statement, not a question but I still shook my head. “But you can talk to Tristan?”

She was accusing me of the one terrible thing I’d done to her. I had opened up to Tristan and not her. I had betrayed her for the person she truly hated.

“No,” I said and it wasn’t exactly a lie. “I can’t talk to him either.”

“Well, he seems to know a lot more than I do.”

I lifted my right shoulder and buried my chin into the unyielding bone. I couldn’t look her in the eye. I couldn’t explain to her how much he knew about my life that she didn’t. It made me feel nauseous and overwhelmingly tired.

She stared at me for a few moments but if felt like forever. She wasn’t just assessing my appearance, she was looking into me, looking for something that would mollify her self-esteem. I didn’t know what she saw in my expression, but I felt miserable. I felt like I was betraying her along with everyone else in my life. I tried my hardest to convey apology in my expression without actually saying it.

I had no idea if she bought it or not, but she eventually offered me a truce. “I’m not going to be mad at you anymore,” she sniffed.

“That’s very generous of you,” I smiled at her.

“I know.”

“I love you, Pi.”

“I love you too, you crazy girl.” She stepped forward and pulled me into a tight hug. My face got momentarily caught in her long dark hair and huge hoop earrings, but I pushed through until I caught air again. “I probably won’t stop worrying though, so if you need me…. for anything, I’m here for you, alright?”

“I know you are. And that goes both ways. If you need me for something, anything, I’m here for you.”

“Good,” she laughed.

The bell rang and we were no longer alone in the hallway. We pulled apart and headed off for class. Jude caught up to us on the way, smelling like cigarette smoke and mint.

He was so wrong about that smell. I did not like it. In fact, it mildly repulsed me.

He smirked at me and asked, “Did I hear that you’re going to prom with the quarterback? Please tell me that’s a rumor. Please tell me you have better taste than that.”

“It’s not even football season,” I pointed out, ignoring all his other words.

“Are you telling me he’s not the quarterback?” he challenged.

Well, he had me there.

Piper leaned forward so she could eye him on the other side of me and then declared, “It actually pains me to say this, but I think I’m officially Team Tristan.”

Jude scoffed, “You mean you’re over me?” His hands flew to his chest like he was mortally wounded. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m deadly serious. You’re trouble.”

“Just the other day you called me an angel!” He was only pretending to be serious; I noticed the amusement dancing in his dark eyes. But Piper was absolutely eating it up.

“I was blinded by your gifts.” She was adamant and I wanted to kiss her. Finally someone was getting my issue with Jude.

“But we bonded,” Jude insisted. “I even gave you my coffee. Do you know how hard that was for me? I was practically on the verge of murdering someone innocent the whole day.”

Now, that I actually believed.

“Sorry,” Piper shrugged. “I have to do what’s best for my best friend.”

“At least that we agree on.” Jude said quietly.

My head snapped around to ask him what he meant, but he slipped passed me and entered our classroom before anything came out of my mouth.

Was he honestly standing up for me? Or was that a dig on Piper? Did he just think Piper should be doing better at her best friendship?

I doubted it was either. In fact it felt very much like I had misheard him. He must have said something else that I didn’t catch, so I subconsciously filled in the blanks and made up my own explanation.

That sounded so much easier than facing the truth.

I slid into my sixth hour desk and refused to acknowledge anyone around me except Piper. It just seemed safer that way, less life-threatening.

At least for now.

But I seriously needed to deal with the whole Jude fiasco.

And fast.

Chapter Eighteen

“It’s really dark in here,” I commented slowly. Nate shot me a look over his shoulder that said, “Duh.”

I shrugged and he smiled. “Stella, it’s nighttime. It’s always dark during the night.”

“I know,” I shot back. “But I mean, it’s really, really dark…. even for nighttime.”

And it was. The Stars were hidden behind thick cloud cover and the moon was completely out of sight. Those factors alone made the night feel extra oppressive. But on top of that, we were wandering through some New England forest and the thick canopy of trees, spaced so impossibly close together, made the darkness feel like it wrapped around our bodies and swallowed us whole, like a man-eating anaconda.

Our Lights were as dim as possible, just a faint haze shimmering around our three bodies. We were like Tasers set to stun, strong enough to do some damage but nothing permanent. Jupiter had decided to join us as well, but he had no light and I could just barely make him out through the lack of light, even with my super sensitive sight.

“Where did this lead come from?” I whispered, even though it was unnecessary. If we were glowing, people would be able to see us; it wouldn’t matter if we were quiet or not. Which was good, because I was stomping my way through this forest, snapping every branch underfoot. But I couldn’t see them and flying was impossible with the trees placed so close together.

“The Council,” Serena answered in a low voice. “They sent a message earlier today.”

I still didn’t get how communication with the Council worked. It wasn’t like they could call on a cell phone. They were light years away. But I knew it happened, just not often. Usually all communication was done face to face. You were summoned, you flew away, you talked, you flew back. Or that’s how it had always worked with my parents.

“And you trust them?” I asked carefully.

Jupiter snorted somewhere ahead of me but Serena said, “It doesn’t matter if I do or don’t. I’m exploring this lead whether it’s a trap or the truth.”

She had a good point. I drew out my swords. I felt like the trees were moving around me, waving in the air, like ocean waves against the shore. It was impossible to tell since everything was so dark, and the atmosphere around me all blended into one obscure, black canvas. But I could swear everything around me was rippling. I felt like I was in a bizarre dream or walking through a portal.

Nobody else seemed to notice though, or they weren’t worried about it if they did.

I was also nervous because if Seven was around she would be able to neutralize our internal alarms, that sounded whenever evil was nearby. I had filled everyone in earlier on the new developments in my life- Seven was not just dangerous and unstable but a weapon as well, Aliah was concerned about Seth and Seth was the only one in the contract currently capable of killing me…. so unless I tripped and accidentally cut off my own head, he was my biggest threat right now.