“I believe you,” I laughed lightly.

He sobered some and said, “And while I believe you’re worth the fight, I have to be honest, that wasn’t me. I can admit that Seth didn’t deserve that. And you especially deserved to be treated better. Then I felt like such a jackass. And I didn’t how to apologize to him or you. So I just stayed away. I thought I’d give him a fair shot. I thought… you know, let the best man win and all.”

My lungs stopped working in my chest, and confusion settled thick and cloying over me once again. I lifted my head and met that green gaze, wondering how to process his confession.

“Tristan, I can’t-“

“No, I know, Stella,” he cut me off with the pads of his fingertips on my lips. “And I’m not asking you to. I just wanted you to know where I was. I don’t expect anything today or tomorrow, or even, well, I’m just saying take your time. I waited all my life for you. I can wait a little bit longer. There’s no pressure. But I am here for you. Whenever you’re ready. Whenever….. whenever or whatever you want.”

His last words were said on a throaty whisper that made my stomach flip-flop.

“Thank you,” I smiled up at him.

“I’m just glad we both realize what a prick he is.” He grinned boyishly down at me and I knew he was just trying to lighten the mood, but his words felt right.

My grief had turned to anger and I was ready to punish him- him as in Seth.

“You weren’t really sick though, were you?” Tristan asked carefully, almost like he was already angry.

“I was not sick,” I confirmed. I was silent for a moment more, enjoying his arms around me, his body heat, his smell as it mingled with the stormy air and damp wood around us. “I was attacked.”

“At school?” His eyes narrowed and his throat jumped while it worked to swallow. Oh, yes, he was angry- more than angry.

“It started at school, but it ended somewhere in New Mexico, I guess. I don’t really remember much of the end. Well, except for the almost dying part. But I didn’t. I’m fine. See? I’m fine.” I waved my arms around when I felt all of his muscled frame go tight with furious tension.

“I see that you’re fine now,” he clarified. “But for you to miss school… it must have been pretty bad, yeah, Stel?”

“It was pretty bad.”

“Seth saved you?”

“Seth saved me.”

“And now that he’s gone? What are you going to do now?”

His questions surprised me. I knew Tristan understood this part of my life better than I could ever hope, but I didn’t expect him to give Seth so much credit.

“I get better,” I declared and in that moment I knew it was true. I had to get better, I had to be better. I couldn’t let something like this happen to me again and I absolutely couldn’t be caught off guard like that ever again. I would need weapons with me all the time. And I would have to start taking training seriously.

If Jupiter would still even want to train me. There was a definite possibility with the loss of his protégé he would pack in his whole mission and find a different planet to inhabit.

“I believe in you, Stel,” Tristan said seriously. It could have sounded cheesy, but it didn’t. It didn’t because I needed to hear those words. Up until this moment I didn’t have to believe in myself, mostly because I had Seth to believe in. But now it was up to me and only me.

I needed all the support I could get.

“Thank you,” I leaned forward and hugged him again.

“We should get back before it rains,” Tristan sighed. He helped me down from the log I was perched on, taking my hand and leading me back through the forest.

And I knew he was right. It was time to go back and get on with life.

Seth had only been a part of my life for a few months, but it seemed almost impossible to go on without him. It felt…. wrong. But somehow I’d have to manage. Somehow I would have to force myself to move forward.

I wondered if I would ever see him again- if we’d ever come face to face gain. He was Darkness now and I was Light. So I would have to. I would face Aliah. I would face Seven. And I supposed that meant I would face Seth. Only the next time I saw him, instead of fighting alongside him, I would be fighting against him.

Which sucked.

Because on top of everything else, Seth was good at what he did- killing.

I just had to hope I wasn’t his next victim.

I was so behind with homework. And coach was pissed at me for just disappearing last Thursday- beyond pissed. She was subbing today for Mr. Wilks and had trapped me at the beginning of Physics to give me a ten minute lecture on never walking out on practice again. I tried to explain how deathly ill I was, but she wasn’t having it.

And then she’d marked me tardy, even though she was the one talking to me- in her classroom!

Today was not starting off well.

Now in third hour English, our teacher, Mrs. Shannon, was late, which probably meant she was printing off a pop quiz. Great.

“Still have the plague, Stella?” Rigley asked as he slid into his desk a few up from mine.

“Mostly no,” I smiled at him.

“Is it contagious?” he turned around in his desk and smirked at me.

“Why? Are you worried about catching it?” Tristan asked sounding amused. Rigley, for all his stunts and shenanigans, was a notorious germaphobe. And he was terrified of getting sick.

Rigley turned his attention on Tristan and his smirk grew, “Well with all the sharing of bodily fluids last night, I have been a little concerned I might come down with something.”

Tristan opened his mouth to shut Rigley up but I cut him off, “I am also worried I’ll be coming down with something, but not of the flu variety.”

The boys in the class erupted in “Oh’s!” and “Booms!”

“I can’t believe you just said that,” Tristan laughed at me.

“Me either,” Mrs. Shannon intoned dryly from the front of the classroom. A boy was standing next to her, smirking at me like he knew a secret or like my joke was highly amusing to him.

My eyes skimmed over him and I felt him watching me in return. It was unsettling.

But I couldn’t decide if it was so much his expression or his overall appearance that disturbed me. He was tall, and thin- almost too thin, but somehow muscled at the same time. He stomach was so flat that his jeans sat low on his waist, even with the help of his studded belt. He wore a simple, thin, worn-out white t-shirt that seemed indecent on him, somehow. His face was striking, but not classically handsome; he was all sharp lines and rough angles. His dark, almost black hair was much longer on top and cut close on the sides, but styled so it looked not styled. He was all kinds of contradiction, finished off with black boots that were untied and sloppy at the end of his dark, washed jeans.

He wore expensive clothes, except for the t-shirt, but looked disheveled at the same time. He was too skinny to seem tough, but he was definitely dangerous. He wasn’t classically handsome, but I could already see the girls around me basically swooning at his feet. So much contradiction for just one guy.

He didn’t or wouldn’t fit in here. Except maybe with Piper. And that thought gave me chills. I didn’t want him anywhere near Piper.

I didn’t know why I felt that way, but I couldn’t help it.

“Sorry, Mrs. Shannon,” I finally found my voice and apologized.

“Ms. Day, just remember, people perceive you by the way you present yourself. Do you want people to think you spent last night swapping bodily fluids with Mr. Merritt?”

“Uh, no, thank you,” I squeaked and then sunk down in my chair, hoping desperately to become invisible.

“Then stop announcing it to the class,” she lectured.

Oh, lord.

“Class,” she called everyone’s attention to the front- and off me, thankfully. “We have a new student today. Ironically, we lost one yesterday. If you haven’t heard Seth Smith transferred and won’t be attending here any longer. In his wake, we’ve received Jude Michaels.” She turned to smile affectionately at Jude, but his attention was still on…. me.