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Without realizing what I was doing, I brushedthe lines of his abdo the hardness of pure low, re Seth’s eyes He stared back atdeeper behind his obvious entertainate yet

"Sorry," I laughed, trying to lighten the sudden tension between us "I was justsure they were, uh, real"

Seth srin He sat up fully then, leaning forward and cupping , calloused hand "Stella, what are you doing here? Seriously, are you Ok?"

I wasn’t expecting the gentleness of his tone and felt ht actually start to believe I was as crazy as I felt

"I had this dream… I mean, I’m pretty sure it was a dreah I can’t really reuish what had exactly happened and what it was that madehere I woke up and I just knew you were in trouble I could feel you Seth, your agony, your fear… And I could feel the Darkness here What may have started as a dream… a dream I can’t remember at all… turned into real fear when I woke up and believed it was actually happening to you I rushed over here, prepared to save your life when I got here Except, when I got here, you weren’t being attacked by hordes of ShadowBut I felt it everywhere, I felt the Darkness everywhere, Seth I was so scared, even when I got here The air was so thick with evil… I have honestly never been more scared in my life I was positive you were in trouble Iexhausted and deflated I just wanted everything toin s I needed to adjust to I didn’t really want to deal with being crazy right now

I just wanted to fight the Darkness Completely sane and with all my mental faculties completely intact

Why did that feel so unattainable?

"Oh, Stel," Seth sighed syainst hihtly against his chest "So what you’re telling ht is pretend to be in danger?"

I snappedhis joke He s so I slapped his bicep, pretending to be very offended He just chuckled, dipping his head into the crook of hter

"We are going to figure this out," he whispered, his breath hot againstwrong with you so stop thinking those thoughts right now"

My shoulders trembled from the seriousness of his tone and I desperately tried to obey hi with me when the walls of my sanity seemed to continue to crumble

"Seth? Where are you?" Jupiter’s sharp voice called from somewhere else in the house "Are you Ok?"

"I’m in here, I’m fine," he called back He adjusted us on his bed so that I wasn’t curled co side by side instead ofhis way through the sot distracted when I noticed Seth reaching down to pull sweatpants over his bare calves and thighs and oh dear lord… boxer briefs

I quickly turnedmy face with a hand over my eyes Unfortunately Jupiter entered the rooray pants over his waist

"Oh," Jupiter grunted suddenlythis whole situation extremely uncomfortable "Uh, sorry, I didn’twhat happened to the front door?"

"This isn’t what it looks like!" I blurted, standing up and putting distance between Seth and me "I was just worried about Seth and I needed to make sure he was Ok!"

"So worried you had to break my front door?" Jupiter accused, but hisI could al back to irritation

"She felt the Darkness again," Seth explained sole with Jupiter, although I knew that I should Mostly I just wanted to forget this night ever happened and I would have stayed in bed where I belonged

"You felt it here?" Jupiter questioned, his bushy eyebrows drawn together in concern , white, fuzzy caterpillar crawling across his forehead "You mean with Seth?" Jupiter clarified and suddenly I didn’t feel so crazy or wrong, suddenly I felt like Jupitermore; he didn’t even attempt to alleviate my fears He just continued to look between us

"Where are you co Jupiter’s worn leather jacket and brown loafers that had tracked in snow