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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 oldman

"Where are your parents, child?" the old man suddenly demanded

"Uh, they’re uh, they’re on aif they would ever tell one 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 ht, 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 tie 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 ht you decided to push up our schedule"

"I didn’tmy own life "They attacked ed up on ! I honestly, I didn’t have a choice"

"Then they hed and then lifted his hands to ers

"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 hts with questions that I should have been asking fro

"You are the Protector, Stella," Seth answered gently

I opened ue but Jupiter cut in quickly, "Sidra is dead We found her earlier this evening She… she was asped, not able to co

"Nisroc waswith her," Jupiter replied in a barely audible voice

"So that really does ht I could barely hear them anymore as the world see beat that heated s

"The Protector of Earth," Jupiter finished gravely

Chapter Two

I stumbled backwards and bumped into my ruined Jeep Suddenly the effort to stand felt too strenuous and I began to sink down to the frozen ground, wondering if I would ever find the strength to stand again

Before I could rabbed for ainst hhisin to feel the heat of his light His eyes ide and piercing, the concern he felt formy own consciousness

We were partners Counterparts He was the Warrior and I was the Protector We would spend the rest of our lives together, side by side, good versus evil, fighting for the lives of the entire hu

This responsibility wasn’t supposed to belong to irl!" Jupiter deround! There are spies everywhere; it is time to clailearessive, alain at the call to my fate I had known since childhood that one day I would inherit this planet and yet now that I faced the reality of my call, I couldn’t help but convince myself how ill-prepared I was My parents had trained me inhad been pushed to a later date in favor of high school

"You can ignore all that destiny stuff if you want to," Seth laughed quietly into ainst ets worse with tireed, feeling only half awake "Ifor"

"Training? Ha!" Jupiter exclaiht, it doesn’t look like you’ve been doingat all! Where are your weapons? Why didn’t you at least use a sword?"

"U around the truth of my weapons experience, or lack of weapons experience, still I couldn’t help but be nervous for Jupiter’s reaction "I don’t have any weapons with me," I improvised

"Well, why not?" Jupiter howled