The Reluctant King (The Star-Crossed Series) (46 page)

              “Stella Day?” He demanded, stepping directly in front of me. I nodded, unexplainably more afraid of him than the entire force of Darkness. “What in this great, dead Universe, do you think you’re doing?”

              “Who are you?” I deflected meekly. If he came to fight the Darkness, surely he saw me attacked only minutes ago.

              “Does it matter who I am?” the elderly man huffed. “I could just as easily be Lucifer himself or an apparition of Darkness called here by your own stupidity! How could you just reveal yourself like that? You just gave yourself away! After all we’ve worked for, after all the sacrifices that have been made, you just throw it all away because you’re a little inconvenienced one winter night….” He had stopped talking to me, or at least stopped looking at me, in favor of mumbling to himself in an angry, aggressive tone.

              “I’m sorry,” I tried again politely, “Who are you?”

              “I’m the guy that just saved your life! That’s who!” He turned his attention wholly back on me.

              I took an intimidated step back.

              “Well, not entirely on your own,” a deep, amused voice behind the elderly man called. “You did have some help.” The light had extinguished itself into its human form, and as the boy stepped around the angry man to smile disarmingly at me, I took another step back but this time more from surprise than anything else. The boy was perfect, physically perfect. He was my age, with disheveled dark hair that curled adorably at the ends. His eyes were a piercing shade of honey that would have glowed without his internal light, as it were though, they pierced through the night and found my eyes with a locking force that took my breath away. His jawline seemed chiseled out of stone and his broad chest still heaved with the exertion of battle.

              There was no doubt about it, he was an Angel.

              An actual Angel.

              My Star Counterpart.

              “No, not on my own, but we wouldn’t even need to be here if it weren’t for the naivety of youth,” the elderly man continued to grumble.

              I knew I should be offended after that comment, but I was so confused all I could do was look back and forth between the old man and the young man.

              “Where are your parents, child?” the old man suddenly demanded.

              “Uh, they’re uh, they’re on a mission,” I stammered, wondering if they would ever tell me who they were. “They’ve been gone for a couple weeks.”

              “Of course…. Then this was a thought-out attack. They have been planning this….” He continued to mumble.

              “Please tell me who you are,” I dropped my voice to hide my desperation.

              “Oh right, I suppose it’s too late now to go back….” The elderly man turned his full attention on me and for the first time I noticed the color of his eyes were a dull red, as if they had shined like rubies at one time but were worn down with age or exhaustion, I wasn’t sure. “I’m Jupiter, your weapons trainer, and this is Seth. He’s your Counterpart. You obviously weren’t supposed to meet for years yet, but tonight you decided to push up our schedule.”

              “I didn’t mean to!” I gushed, suddenly feeling very guilty for saving my own life. “They attacked me. They came out of nowhere and they just…. ganged up on me as if they were waiting for me to do something! I honestly, I didn’t have a choice.”

              “Then they must have known already,” Jupiter sighed and then lifted his hands to massage his temples with surprisingly delicate fingers.

              “That’s what I thought,” I agreed, finally feeling as though I had been heard. “But wait a second, why are you here? Where is the Protector? Why isn’t she here to save me?” Realization flooded my thoughts with questions that I should have been asking from the beginning.

              “You are the Protector, Stella,” Seth answered gently.

              I opened my mouth to argue but Jupiter cut in quickly, “Sidra is dead. We found her earlier this evening. She…. she was murdered.”

              “And her Counterpart?” I gasped, not able to completely comprehend the gravity of what they were saying.

              “Nisroc was murdered right along with her,” Jupiter replied in a barely audible voice.

              “So that really does make me….” I couldn’t finish my thought. I could barely hear them anymore as the world seemed to close in around me and my heart pounded out a deafening beat that heated my eardrums and seemed to shrink my lungs.

              “The Protector of Earth,” Jupiter finished gravely.