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.

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 make it all the way down, Seth grabbed for my arm and steadied me. His hands were solid against me and I felt the warmth of his inner light radiating through my thick coat. I looked up at him, studying his muscular jaw and angular cheek bones, instinctively leaning in to feel the heat of his light. His eyes were wide and piercing, the concern he felt for me shooting through the darkness and penetrating my 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 human race. And yet we weren’t supposed to meet this young.

This responsibility wasn’t supposed to belong to me yet.

“Well, stand up girl!” Jupiter demanded. “We can’t have the Star of Earth cowering on the ground! There are spies everywhere; it is time to claim your destiny!” This time when Jupiter spoke there was a gleam in his eye, a glint of excitement that I found aggressive, almost dangerous.

I felt myself weaken again 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 in many ways, but the important stuff, the practical training had 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 my ear, the low timber of his voice vibrating against my earlobe. “But it only gets worse with time; it’s best just to agree with him.”

“Right,” I agreed, feeling only half awake. “I mean, of course. This is the day I’ve been training for.”

“Training? Ha!” Jupiter exclaimed. “From the little stunt you pulled tonight, it doesn’t look like you’ve been doing much training at all! Where are your weapons? Why didn’t you at least use a sword?”

“Um….” I knew there would be no getting 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.

“Because, I didn’t think I would need them…?” I finished meekly, ending my sentence as if it were a question.

Seth let out a chuckle next to me. He looked down at me as if I was a fragile teenager and I felt something grow between us. Something I couldn’t yet define. Wisps of my golden blonde hair escaped from my bulky stocking cap and moved gently in the wind as if defying the angry cold night, they blew across my face, tickling my nose. I stared at Seth, silently asking him to defend me from the wild man spitting unjust accusations at me even though I knew Jupiter meant no harm. I saw him respond, watched as his eyes changed from sympathy to determination, I felt his protectiveness over me grow into something anyone should be scared of, including Hell itself.

There wasn’t love between us. Obviously we had just met. But he was my Counterpart and whether it was a supernatural calling to stand beside me and guard me from the evil of this life, or if it was his own attraction to our supernatural bond, something so beautiful, so pure, I couldn’t tell. But I felt the roots of his protection firmly make a home inside my heart. Roots that neither Heaven nor Hell could remove.

“You didn’t think you would need them?” Jupiter spat, hardly comprehending the meaning of my words. “Of course you need weapons! You always need weapons! Surely your parents have gone over that with you.”

“Well, not exactly….” I started, more afraid of Jupiter than ever. I felt myself lean into Seth for security. I knew he was my destined partner, the one that would stand by me in battle, his very life devoted to keeping me safe. I hoped that included keeping me safe from Jupiter, my weapons trainer. “We haven’t actually gotten to weapons yet….”

“You haven’t what?” Jupiter shouted in a harsh whisper. “No wonder you lit up like a lantern! Oh, Callisto, this cannot be happening to me!”

“Callisto?” I repeated and then turned my questioning gaze to Seth.

“It’s one of Jupiter’s moons,” Seth explained in a calm whisper.

“He has his own moons?” I gasped.

“No, Jupiter, like the planet Jupiter,” Seth laughed at me again. I blushed at my own naivety.

“Oh….” I sighed and then turned my attention back to the person Jupiter who had started to pace frantically.

“So you haven’t had any weapons training?” Jupiter repeated and I nodded wearily. “Ok, have you had any kind of training?”

I shook my head furiously, excited to answer his question and opened my mouth to reply, but Jupiter cut me off quickly with a clarification, “Physical training?”

“Well, yes. I mean, my parents and I… Since the whole purpose of being raised on Earth was to get to know humanity and all, well, we decided that I should play sports.” I finished matter of fact expecting to get at least a nod of approval from Jupiter, but the look of disbelief that narrowed his eyes and turned his facial muscles to stone caused me to take a step back out of fear instead.

“Sports? As in high school sports?” Jupiter repeated as if it were the most insane thing he had ever heard. “Which ones?”

“Um, all of them…. Volleyball, basketball, soccer.... In the summer I am in a running club,” I tried to sound enthusiastic about my experience, but I was positive, at this point, nothing would redeem me in Jupiter’s eyes.

“God must hate me….” Jupiter sighed, tilting his head back so that he stared hopelessly into the still-clouded sky.

“Jupiter….” Seth warned in a voice that held the first sound of true rationality all night. “We should probably take Stella home. It’s late, and we can discuss the rest of this in the morning.”

“Yes, you’re right. When will your parents be home? I will want to discuss most of this with them,” Jupiter calmed down enough to see how much he had frightened me.

I wanted him to be more careful with me, to realize that I was dealing with an overwhelming revelation tonight. Things had spiraled so quickly out of control that yelling seemed the only way for him to grapple back the reigns of control. And I couldn’t ask him to be gentle or pacifying. It wasn’t his attitude that needed to change, it was mine. I was the one who was cowering, afraid of the future and what tonight meant. Jupiter was right. I should have been better prepared.

“Sometime tomorrow night, or the following morning,” I explained, finally taking a big breath at the mention of going home.

“All right, that will do. Seth and I will need to stay with you. I’m sure you have enough room for us, especially if you’re staying there alone right now,” Jupiter explained to me as if I wouldn’t naturally come up with the idea on my own.

“Well, there is plenty of room,” I agreed and then continued carefully, “But I’m not staying there alone. My parents hire a woman to watch over me whenever they leave on a mission.”

“Are you telling me there is a human woman staying with you, receiving compensation, in order to…. protect you?” Jupiter’s amazement with the backward way my family operated continued to grow every time I opened my mouth. “Is she a police officer, or part of the military?”

“Uh, no….” I continued reluctantly, “She’s my best friend’s grandmother.”

Jupiter couldn’t have responded to that if he wanted to. I watched his face color to match his dull red eyes and his cheeks puff out as he worked deliberately to keep his mouth shut tight. Next to me, Seth shook into good-humored laughter as he watched his mentor become more and more flustered.

“Pick up the car, Seth, we wouldn’t want Stella’s guardian to begin to worry and do something dangerous like break a hip,” Jupiter grumbled angrily, which only caused Seth to laugh harder.

I stood in shocked silence for a few minutes, feeling the righteous outrage for one of the most beloved people in my life come under attack. When I finally responded to Jupiter it was in uncharacteristic angry retaliation, “And how old are you? Seth and I should be just as worried about you breaking one of your hips!”

“I am not an old human, child. I am in no danger of one of my hips breaking!” Jupiter argued and then walked around the Jeep to wait impatiently for Seth to join him.