“Yes,” I whispered. “And confused. But then she would switch, and she would be completely Fallen. The only time she seemed at all consistent was when Aliah was there, but it wasn’t a good kind of consistent. She was so… fragile around him. He has her mind so twisted up, Seth, I’m not sure she knows up from down- not really.”

Seth ran two hands roughly over his face and turned to stare out the window. He hated his sister, but at the same time he loved her. How could he not?

Sure, she was a deranged psychopath, but she was still his sister.

And Aliah was basically his uncle.

Ugh. Seth. My heart just continued to splinter for him and all this frustrating trauma.

“Aliah wanted you dead?” Jupiter changed the subject. “It was a direct order?”

“Yes,” I nodded. I forced my fear and panic to shut down and focused on answering the questions. I became clinical. I had to. If I didn’t shut off my emotions, this hysteria would swallow me. Never before had I felt so helpless. “He wanted me dead. I’m actually kind of amazed he hasn’t come after me sooner.”

“Well, he’s been busy,” Nate sighed. He sounded tired.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s causing problems everywhere, Stella,” Serena explained. She ran a hand through her fiery orange hair and looked up at me from the floor. She was ethereal, even as she stretched out in a mess of my dirty clothes and school papers. Her long limbs were elegant and willowy, and her warrior’s frame seemed too big for my small room. She continued, “We’ve almost called in reinforcements several times. He’s hitting us everywhere. They have more forces here than they’ve ever had.”

“But how?” My eyes darted back between Serena, Jupiter and my parents. How could they have kept this from me?

“Earth is the last living planet,” Serena shrugged. “They don’t have to spread out their armies anymore. They can send them all here.”

“But how are they getting through?” I demanded. “We don’t have to spread out our army either. They shouldn’t be able to get on the planet!” I was adamant and exhausted. This fight would never end. I knew that, but why did it have to start so early? Why couldn’t they have waited until I was better prepared?

Although, obviously I knew why they hadn’t waited.

“We’re not exactly sure,” Jupiter said carefully but I read the text that wasn’t spoken aloud.

“The Council?” I demanded to know. “Do you think it’s the traitor in the Council?”

There was a heavy silence as my blunt question was digested. Stars and Angels didn’t just talk about the Council of Elders this way. They were treated with absolute respect and their authority was basically unquestioned law. To suspect there was a traitor in their midst was the most serious allegation one could bring, and to talk about it flippantly was not acceptable. If an accusation was made and turned out to be false, the accuser would be stripped of his title and job, and returned to the lowest level of Heaven for the rest of his days. Not exactly the worst punishment in the world, except if you were a born fighter. You could easily go crazy by being taken out of the field, or worse, become Fallen.

“Yes, we think so,” Nate admitted quietly.

“So what are you going to do? How are you going to approach the Council, if the traitor is already apart of them?”

“We’re not,” Serena answered quietly. “At least not yet. We’re going to focus on destroying Aliah. And then we will decide from there. Right now he’s our biggest threat. And chances are the name of the traitor has not been uttered outside of Aliah’s head. A conspiracy this big would take an incredible amount of silence. If we could take out Aliah, then all we would have to do is wait. The defector will make a move at some point. We wait for him to out himself and then we trap him. But Aliah comes first.”

“And with him, Seven,” Seth announced. I couldn’t tell if it was a statement or a question and apparently nobody else could either, because nobody answered him.

“So you’re hunting Aliah?” I asked in an effort to change the subject.

“Yes,” Serena confirmed. “Now, more than ever.”

“And as soon as you’re ready we will use you and Seth as backup. The more we have on our side the better,” Nate explained.

“Good,” I agreed.

“And we’re not going to leave you alone at practices or games anymore. Someone will always be with you,” my dad informed me. “We won’t let that happen again.” Seth started to say something but my dad cut him off. “Son, it’s not your fault. There is something going on, something that keeps us from hearing or feeling each other. So we’re going to take away the risk of being caught alone.”

I hated the idea of being followed around by anyone other than Seth. But I understood the need, especially after almost losing my head thing.

“What did you tell the school?” I asked out of pure curiosity. I knew my parents would only lie in an extreme case, but this kind of seemed like an extreme case to me. And it wasn’t like they could exactly tell the truth about why I had suddenly disappeared.

“We said you got suddenly sick, and called your dad to pick you up,” my mom admitted. “You’ve been absent the last two days because you’re not over it.”

“Your coach was really worried about you,” my dad took over. “She called after you didn’t return to practice and your mom came up with the story then.”

“Did you know something was wrong?” I asked in a small voice.

“Seth did,” my dad confirmed, turning to look at Seth with as much pride as he was capable. “From what it sounds like, he knew right away. The bond is very strong between you two.”

“I didn’t know until you were airborne,” Seth corrected him. “I didn’t feel the danger until right before I saw you.”

“Is that going to be a problem?” I asked quickly. “I was burning pretty bright.”

“It might be,” Jupiter answered. His dull red eyes seemed dimmer today, more so than usual. He ran a hand over his gray hair and leaned forward so that his elbows rested on his knees. “The government might stop by to check things out. Although the phenomenon in the New Mexico desert will have them over there too.”

“Is that where we landed?”

“Yep.”

“How did you find us there?” I turned my attention back to Seth.

“I felt you. I followed you. They won’t ever take you from me.”

My breath caught in my throat and my bones felt gooey. I believed him. He was the reason I was still alive, the reason I was still able to walk and move. I knew without a doubt that he would never let this happen again.

He would always take care of me.

“Thank you,” I said with watery eyes. I couldn’t see straight through the tears clouding my vision. Seth was just a big, blurry figure in my line of sight. I blinked once and two tears fell from both eyes. He came into focus then. His jaw had hardened tightly with tension but his eyes had softened into infinite emotion.

“Always, Stella,” Seth promised.

My mom patted my knee and stood up. My father followed her and then everybody else.

“We should probably let her rest some more,” my mom suggested, but it definitely felt more like a command.

“Feel better, Stella,” Nate tapped my toe and then took Serena’s hand. She gave me a small, encouraging smile and then they disappeared with Jupiter on their heels.

“Come on, Seth,” my dad called from the doorway. “You’ve seen she’s alright, now let her sleep.”

Seth walked over to me, ignoring my dad, a gesture that seemed very brave to me. He stopped by my side and bent down to place another sweet kiss on my cheek. With his lips lingering on my skin he promised, “I’ll be back later.”

And then he followed after my parents, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

I had been filled with fear and paranoia lately. And after everything I went through I should probably be feeling it even more. But I didn’t.