“Alright,” I agreed.

“Bye, Stella,” he whispered when he was standing near the window.

“Bye, Seth,” I matched his desolate tone and waved at him.

I watched him leave and close my window behind him. I stared at the window for a long time after he was gone. I wasn’t really sore anymore; my body had done a great job of healing itself, but I couldn’t bring myself to get up and walk to the window or even leave the bed. A heavy depression had settled over me and I felt inexplicably sad that Seth had left. I wanted to blame it on my intensifying feelings for him, but it was something more than that- something I couldn’t even explain yet.

I allowed fatigue to settle over me again, and because I didn’t have anything else to do, I went back to sleep.

I had weird dreams. Well, I’d been having annoying nightmares ever since the attack, but this time, in my place, the nightmare centered on Seth. He took my place, and I stood in a weird limbo watching it happen in front of me, unable to intervene or stop him from getting hurt.

I saw him near the equipment shed in deep conversation with his sister. But he didn’t look right. His skin was ghostly white, and his eyes were black and blue with fatigue. He was gaunt and sickly, a shadow of himself. I watched as Seven whispered lie after lie into his bleeding ears. And even though I couldn’t make out what she was telling him, I knew it was bad; I knew it would change him forever.

Then Aliah showed up, and didn’t just bring two henchmen with him, but thousands and thousands of Fallen. They surrounded him until I couldn’t see him anymore, until all I could do was listen for the strangled call of my name- pleading for help. But it never came. He was swallowed up by all that evil, into the depths of Hell and he seemed to go…. willingly.

And then we were back in that desert. Only instead of me propped up into sitting, waiting for the blow of the sword, it was Seth. And while he looked as calm and laid-back as ever, I was scrambling to find a weapon to protect him. But when I’d finally located a suitable blade it was too heavy for me to pick up. I tried dragging it over so I could stop Saul from swinging his sword, but I couldn’t make it budge. Finally, I gave up and attacked Saul with my bare hands. I clawed and scratched at his face; I bit his shoulder like a savage cannibal and I ripped his skin and muscles from his bones. Finally Saul fell to his knees, and then to his face as he bled out all over the dry, cracked desert floor. I kicked him, so that he rolled over, suddenly feeling like something was very wrong.

Instead of Saul’s intimidating features, it was Seth’s hollow eyes that looked back at me, dead, lifeless, vacant.

I woke up screaming in bed, ripping the blankets off me, desperate to get the blood off my hands.

My parents came running into the room, panicked and slightly afraid of my hysteria.

I eventually calmed down and focused on my breathing evenly, but it was too late.

The realization settled over me as the panic ebbed away. I was too late. The knowledge was so concrete and right inside me that my soul felt sick with awareness. He was my other half, my Counterpart. I could feel his emotions when we were together, I could find him anywhere on Earth if I needed to. If he wanted me to. But he didn’t.

Our connection was severed- completely.

Seth was gone.

And not just for the day.

Seth had left me for Seven.

For Aliah.

----

“I’ve looked everywhere for him,” I walked back in the kitchen door and slunk down into a chair around the table. “He’s gone. I feel that he’s gone.”

Serena and Nate were still out canvasing the sky for him while Jupiter sat at the table with his face buried in his hands. My revelation that Seth had disappeared was first met with disbelief and denial. But at my prompting, we all split up to find him.

And, no surprise to me, he was nowhere to be found.

A note had been left for Jupiter on their refrigerator but all it said was, “Trust me.”

Jupiter apparently did not trust Seth because he pretty much lost his mind after the first few hours when Seth couldn’t be found. The school had called and asked where Seth was, and Jupiter had given them the sick excuse.

This would get messy now that Seth was enrolled in school.

If Seth was truly gone, we would have to go through the steps of filing a police report for a missing kid, or make up some story about why he would just suddenly disappear.

And that was on top of trying to process the idea that Seth would leave us- leave me. I couldn’t comprehend why or what he thought he could accomplish.

If Seth was hunting Aliah himself, they would kill him. As strong as Seth was, he was no match for all of Aliah’s men.

And if he wasn’t trying to kill Aliah…. then what was he doing? Joining them?

That thought was inconceivable to me. It was an entire idea I could not wrap my head around.

But it was the only idea that made sense. It explained why he just disappeared. And it explained how our emotional connection died.

“But why?” my mom asked in a gravelly voice. She had not taken his disappearance well either. We knew it meant one thing- that he was Fallen now.

Our side didn’t do the whole spy thing, but only because it wasn’t possible. There was no way to pretend you were evil without losing your Light, and that was the whole reason we existed. Once Seth crossed over, he wouldn’t be able to come back.

And he knew that.

“What is he thinking?” my dad asked Jupiter. He too sounded ragged from loss.

“I can’t be certain.” Jupiter sat up a little straighter and met my father’s eyes. “But I imagine he thinks he is doing something noble.”

I sat back in my chair, feeling like he had just laid an immense weight on my shoulders- that was too impossible for me to carry.

Seth was doing this for me?

Did he think he could protect me this way? Honestly?

He could do a better job of that if he was with me. How could he possibly watch out for me if he becomes as twisted and sick as the rest of the Fallen? In no time at all, he would want me dead as much as Aliah and Seven. As soon as he handed over his will to Aliah, he would be bent to their desires, and they would always, always want me dead.

It didn’t make sense.

And what was worse, was that this felt like betrayal to me.

Just hours ago he had kissed me so sweetly and promised to take care of me. He’d asked me not to give up on him! But now I realized what an impossible request that was. How could I hold out hope when he abandoned me? And what kind of hope was I supposed to have, anyway?

That he only stoop to a semi-evil Fallen status? That his mind only become half-polluted? That he only carry out the occasional terrible demands?

This was the worst thing he could have done! He had to know that!

And it was incredibly stupid.

The door opened and Nate and Serena walked in. Serena’s hair naturally flamed bright orange. Her head looked like she was on fire, it was so bright and shining. And golden skin radiated Light constantly because she was always fighting, or flying. She wasn’t meant for Earth and had never learned how to be human. Only here temporarily, she was the epitome of the constant reminder of the Warrior’s life I would never lead- the one off planet and where most of my compatriots were.

Nate was the quintessential Warrior. While Stars were as different as night and day, with our array of hair and eye colors, our height differences and body shape variables, Warriors seemed to fit into the same mold with varying degrees of gorgeous. Their skin color was always a rich, golden tan, their hair the same naturally highlighted deep brown and bodies muscled to the max and well fit for fighting. The eye color and facial features changed from Warrior to Warrior, but all of them looked like they could be brothers, my dad and Nate included.