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A spy had worked their way inside the Council of Elders before, but not in a very long tiht It was hard to ih, with all of the security precautions and the way the Elders kept tabs on their current army, how a spy could slip past their wall of defenses It would have had to be someone embedded deep inside their ranks for hundreds, maybe thousands of years And they would have had to be very patient to wait all this tih? Why would they attack Sidra now? And if they killed her, why hadn’t they gone after me the same way? Even if they were unsure if I was the next Protector, a hu to them, why hadn’t they just killed me to be safe?

There were more questions than there were answers, and I had to trust the Elders to get to the bottost the safe anyels? I didn’t have much of a choice, but suddenly their lack of interest in hoas raised became a concern Maybe it wasn’t so ht after all, but a concentrated effort by the spy a the Elders to keep me unprepared

A few deep breaths later, I decided there was nothing I could do aboutI could do toht up as quickly as possible I trusted Seth and Jupiter was growing on me, so all that was left was for enes and instincts I had been born with

Shutting ht, I showered quickly, relishing in the heat of the water and blow-dried -sleeved volleyball t-shirt courtesy of Mead High on when there was a tap onwool socks, so outdown next to Tristan

"Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight," he teased softly, as we snuggled up next to each other for warht now," I warned, unable to keep the smile off my face

"What?" Tristan asked innocently He was dressed aly sweatpants and a red, Mead hooded-sweatshirt He had a black stocking cap pulled over his shaved head and thick gloves that he used when he went snowboarding on trips to Colorado

"At least it wasn’t Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," I ad us both up with my inner heat that radiated softly fro to change now isn’t it?" Tristan asked, the tone of his voice changing dramatically He was rarely serious except on his respective sports fields and I couldn’t stopto falsely reassure him

But I couldn’t I could never lie to hie," I recalled o and settled deeper next to him "The Darkness has never launched an attack like that before, at least on Earth We are suddenly playing with a different rulebook; I’m not sure ill happen next"

"I lanced over at hihtened I knew it stressed him out when I talked aboute between us?" I asked, pinpricks of anxiety lifting the hairs on the back of my neck

"Stella, we can’t stay best friends forever You have bad guys to fight, and I have farhed at the way his life sounded stacked next to mine

"We can stay best friends forever," I replied seriously "Or are you unclear hat "BFF" hed "Obviously we need those necklaces"

"What necklaces?" Tristan asked

"You know those ones you give to your friends in elementary? Like it’s usually a heart broken in two and one side says "best" and the other side says "friend" And you give it to your best friend so that everyone knohere you stand" I explained

"No, I have no idea what you’re talking about I don’t think guys are ever supposed to give each other necklaces" Tristan grunted

"Well, you don’t just give theive them back when you decide you don’t want to be best friends with that person anymore It’s a very e how serious elementary life was once upon a tih school in a few years

"That sounds irls can soive your necklace back," Tristan assured irl," I agreed

"True," Tristan laughed "So nothing’s going to change?"

"Nothing," I pro in the air between us There was both promise and prophecy in that statement and I took the moment to reflect We sat huddled next to each other, I was trying to keep Tristan as war at the wide open sky, like we had on so hts I could nah I referred to them as battle formations and I could name almost all the closest Stars by na to therevealed to him I wondered if he was the only hue and then wondered if he was crazy for taking me seriously But he would never doubt me; he cared about me way too much