Starbright (Starbright #1)

Starbright (Starbright #1) Page 13

These swords were manmade and meant for practice and fighting battles on Earth. They would do the job that my father’s would, if I was ever called to fight with them, but they weren’t nearly as cool. After all they didn’t glow.

I took a tentative step forward, toward a sword with a hilt made like a cross. The blade rounded like the end of the pirate sword only from hilt to tip like a long crescent. Watching out of the corner of his eye, Seth cleared his throat, and tilted his head discretely to the left.

“That, young Star, is a shamshir, and not what I asked you to pick up,” Jupiter reprimanded me, noticing my hand drop to my side at Seth’s warning. Jupiter bent down and picked up a sword with the same style of hilt, but with a blade that was straight like Seth’s. I had a hard time telling the difference between Seth’s broadsword and my two-handed claymore at first, but then I noticed the weapon I held was a little smaller and maybe easier to handle for a first-timer.

Or for a girl.

Or maybe both.

Jupiter went on to explain what I already instinctively knew, “This sword is a bit lighter than Seth’s but will match up well when it comes into contact. Although keep in mind that it’s shorter than his, so you will need to give yourself some space. You will need to grip it with both hands, even if it’s lighter than Seth’s, it still has some weight to it. You’ll need both hands to maneuver it properly.”

I had started to realize how heavy it was just while Jupiter was talking. Being a Star, I had access to supernatural strength, but I wouldn’t come fully into my powers until after I turned eighteen. My glow intensified as I let the inner-Star kick in and help wield my weapon.

I gripped the leather-wrapped handle with both hands and held the sword in front of me, staring it down as if I could will its power into my abilities without having to struggle through the hard work and blood, sweat and tears part. But nothing happened. The doubled-edged blade stared back at me waiting for me to make the first move, not the other way around.

Seth stepped forward, holding his weapon in front of him and slinking down into a crouched-ready-for-action position. I mimicked his pose, sinking back into my thighs, but staying alert on the balls of my feet, letting instinct lead the way. A smile played at the corners of Seth’s mouth, and his eyes twinkled devilishly. I couldn’t help but get distracted by the perfect lines of his jaw and the way his shoulders flexed with his readiness. It didn’t seem fair that I should have to train with an Angel…. maybe there was an uglier version of a training partner available?

“Seth, make first contact, but tread carefully for now,” Jupiter instructed.

All I had time to do was swallow my anxiety and brace my body in preparation for the hit. I moved my arms into my preparing for the impact before reaching my sword out to meet Seth’s in a swift, aggressive motion. Pride would not let me just hold a weapon and wait for the hit to come. Seth met my blade in the air, a little shocked by the force from my end and our two deadly weapons met with clanging clarity.

I stepped back with one foot, stabilizing my body that felt like it was wobbling right along with the metal in my hand. I was shocked at how jarred I felt after just one hit, it was as if the hilt of the sword connected straight to my bones and felt the full strength of Seth’s swing.

Still, I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across my lips as I realized how good combat felt. I liked to believe, being a Star, a lesser Angel, that I was made up of only good things. But the instinctive thirst to swing my sword again whispered otherwise. Blood thirsty wasn’t a word I was ready to throw around just yet, but I was created for battle, destined for war, I could learn to love this new aspect of my life.

Easily.

Before Jupiter could instruct me further, I took the initiative and parted the locked weapons, noticing with satisfaction that Seth had become comfortable and had to adjust by taking a quick step forward. I raised my hands again and met Seth’s blade in the space between them with crashing finality. Seth was quick to recover and an almost criminal expression lit up his face.

I stretched my Warrior instincts further and met Seth blow for blow, the quickness in my step and swiftness of my hands attributed to my supernatural origins. Our swords clashed between us as our feet made arching circles in the now disheveled snow-laden field.

I knew I had limitations. Beyond a friendly back and forth, I wasn’t prepared to make an all-out attack on Seth and the muscles in my shoulders and arms had already started to burn with the unfamiliar movements. But it felt good to get a sense for the weapon in my hand and I ached for the time when it would be second nature. That is until Seth stepped forward as if to strike at me and then at the last minute leapt into the air, flipped over my head and landed with his sword at the base of my throat. He stood close behind me, pressing me against his body with his sword at my neck and his arm wrapped around my stomach.

Stunned and in jealous awe, I dropped my sword and raised my hands in the air.

“You win!” I squeaked. The heat of his body pressed against my back and I relaxed my head against his shoulder, promising that it was just to get further away from his sword.

“Ah, you give up too easily,” Seth laughed in my ear, with a low, husky chuckle. He removed the sword from my neck and released me so I could pick up my discarded blade.

“Only the first time,” I promised back.

“It only takes one time to get yourself killed,” Jupiter ground out grumpily from his place a few yards away. “Again,” he commanded.

I readied my body again, and this time when Seth’s sword came at my head, I was quicker to defend myself. I let natural instinct take over and met his blows time after time with matched strength. I could tell he was going easy on me, letting me find my way around a battle field, but the feeling of power and strength was intoxicating, even at a beginner’s level.

Jupiter would stop us occasionally to critique my stance or hold, or technique and every great once in a while to reprimand Seth about his own performance. But for the most part, I learned what worked for me through trial and error. Expert skill would come with practice and use, but basic technique was something I had been born with.

Seth moved around me with the talent of a trained Warrior. His feet danced across the frozen ground, even buried up to his shins in snow. His sword moved easily from one hand to the next just as effortlessly as when he used both hands to wield it. The power and strength in his arms seemed to be endless, and the muscles in his arms from shoulder to wrist flexed with each movement he made and promised to be a serious threat when put to real use. He could jump, and flip and maneuver out of danger in a cacophony of acrobatic moves that made me excited to continue my training and just the tiniest bit jealous. He had to be the best of his kind for his age. I had no doubt. I had watched my father train before, in the same ways that we were now, and I knew that Seth shouldn’t be as good as my dad was for his age. I knew Seth shouldn’t already rival my father for skill.

But he did.

And he was shining magnificently with the effort of it.

Human boys could always be just as attractive as Warriors on the surface, but when Seth radiated from the core of his being the true power he held inside, there was something so brilliant and intoxicating about him I found myself way too distracted and way too often staring at him; I could only describe him as beautiful. His already golden skin shined with warmth, there was a glow of light surrounding him and the pupils of his eyes lit up with the thrill of the challenge.

We worked like that for hours, so I could get acquainted with the huge arsenal of swords. Jupiter let me get the handle on the difference in a double-edged blade and a single, or a two-handed sword and a single without too many impatient outbursts. I was a bit clumsy, and more than a little slow, but I was getting the concepts and the movements. Seth was an easy partner to work with; he knew the weapon so intimately that every one of his calculated movements was thought out to allow for my beginner’s instincts. He was careful with me, instructive but also protective. I admired that about him, his willingness to teach me and not just train with me, but his inability to put me in harm’s way. Although there was a fight inside of me that hungered for a little danger.

“You have a long way to go,” Jupiter interrupted a back and forth battle between the two of us that had gotten competitively aggressive.

Seth and I slowed our forward attempts and backed away respectfully. I caught my breath, and wiped my wet brow with the back of my hand. I had been using all of my supernatural strength to stay in step with Seth, but still he seemed unbeatable. Even now, only one bead of sweat trickled from his hair line down his temple and I inwardly cursed him for remaining so perfect. He probably didn’t even feel the uncomfortable burning in his shoulder blades or the Jell-O-like feeling of his arms.

“But she’s not as bad as you expected her to be,” Seth chimed in, his eyes glinting mischief at me.

I didn’t know whether to be offended or elated.

“No, she’s not. But she’s not as good as I wanted her to be either,” Jupiter scoffed.

That time I knew exactly how to be offended.

“This practice is good for you if and when you face a Fallen. They are like you, they are flesh and blood and will need to be killed the same way you would destroy a man. Hand to hand combat will be very similar to Seth, only they will not be nearly as nice or forgiving. They will expect a skilled fighter and when you are presented to them as the opposite, they will murder you,” Jupiter explained and his words hung in the cold, still air like a death sentence.

“They will not get close to her while I am around,” Seth growled from across the circle we had been working in. His most basic instinct was to protect me and I breathed a bit deeper knowing that Jupiter’s warning came with a clause. The Fallen would murder me if they could get to me.

Jupiter made a gruff grunting noise and changed the subject, “Shadows however, are not flesh and blood; not even when they manipulate our eyes. They are and will always remain part of the Darkness. Fighting them is less of a thrusting, side-stepping affair and more of a constant swinging of your sword. If you make contact with them, the only way to successfully destroy them is to slice them in half at the place where their life’s blood beats. I would call it a heart, but to attribute them with a feeling organ is to give them far too much credit.”

I waited quietly for Jupiter to continue, but after he remained silent with his eyes locked on me I decided he was waiting for me to demonstrate what I hadn’t realized were instructions. “So, like this?” I asked while swinging my arms back and forth in front of me. I quit when I realized my motion seemed more like Zorro marking a tree with his initials than an Angel putting evil to death.

“No, not like that,” Jupiter shook his head, clearly discouraged.

“It’s more like this,” Seth offered. He had exchanged his broadsword for the cutlass he was apparently fond of and took a step forward into the circle of tousled snow we made together.

Seth swung his arms around his body, both hands gripped firmly on the hilt of his curved sword, in effortless, beautiful motions that reminded me more of a dance than a fight. His arms swung overhead and behind him before he brought them powerfully but efficiently to his side and then back and then to his other side. He moved his feet in quick, easy steps, kicking up snow in short bursts of blizzard white-outs that he would step through thrusting his sword forward at the same time.