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"Ducks,"silence followed her correction and I i her down fro with irritation I took the opportunity to try and shift into aat the bandages covering my back instead I clutched at the sheets around ,to be a very long night My veins hurt My actual veins!

"Maybe we send the children home, until they have fully trained," Nathaniel, the temporary Warrior offered

Serena and Nathaniel had been called to account for their absence during our fight from my parents and Jupiter who had been furious with them They were the stand-in Protectors until ere properly trained and should never have left us to the battle tonight alone Their instincts and powers should have alerted them to our battle, should have cried out to the

Granted they had a busy night, fighting off Shadows all over the world that see up in a way of a decoy But they still should have felt our need and the concentrated effort of so many Shadows in one place The silence they experienced was eerie and very unsettling Unless the married couple was a part of this traitorous conspiracy, so on that none of us nor the Council in Heaven could fully understand

I sed the lury replies froestion Seth and I retreat to heaven I found h, "home" I had never been to the lowest level of Heaven where every other Star called home, so it didn’t feel like hoht as well be a different di this farree," Seth smiled sarcastically as he slipped into my roohed weakly

Seth leaned against the closed door, with his hands behind his back looking uncoot I was eavesdropping for aaton mine in a mischievous way that sent a shiver over the core ofhis low-riding sweatpants that made his hip bones pop out provocatively I s how such a representation of all things good and wholesoed up and ready to bring out un

If he was notabout my suddenly questionable virtue…

But he wasto worry about from his full,all limits and boundaries were innately in his nature

His skin started to warlow, and when I refocused my attention on his eyes I realized it was because of the way I was staring at hi with el

"Sorry," Iwell down there?" I changed the subject and avertedelse to look at… anything else

"There are toodown the door into a sitting position on the floor He stretched out his long legs in front of him and crossed his ankles I avoided the way his stomach ht e from him in soft waves

I completely avoided it

"They all hat’s best for us," I decided, feeling soratitude and teenage rebellion "And suddenly they can’t trust anybody else This is a first for them"

"What do you think is best for us?" Seth asked, his aht, to train here and show the Darkness we are ready for this war," I answered quietly, but with the gravity of every one of my convictions

"That’s what I want too," Seth smiled confidently "And that’s e’ll do"

Seth stood up, and reached for the door handle He would inforrownups of our decision and then, because I trusted him implicitly and because I instinctively could feel out his decisions, he wouldn’t give theue

"Seth?" I stopped him before he left He turned his head and waited patiently as I gathered the courage to ask my next question, "What do you think their plan is? Ito do?"

"Kill us," he answered simply

I took a moment to s and let his words settle over ed," I decided "But so have ours"

"Exactly," he s his being

Ultimately it didn’t oals… our fate didn’t change We were born and bred to fight evil and protect this planet And that is exactly ere going to do

My phone buzzed next to htstand and I reached for it as Seth closed the door behind him on his way downstairs Under normal circumstances and if it was anyone else I would have let voicemail bother with it, but Tristan’s familiar picture stared at me and his number scrolled across the bottom of the screen