The Rebel Star Part 8

“I thought you were the ones who threw her out in the first place,” I said in a trembling voice.

“Don’t, Stella,” Fallen warned.

But the bear’s eyes flickered to me. My knees shook.

“But now you want her back?”

“Don’t,” Fallen said.

Mum crying on the bed.

“What’s she even done wrong? Asked a few questions?”

A flame in the bear’s eyes, and his lips pulled back from massive teeth. “She has disrupted the order of things.”

“She’s not very big, to have disrupted the whole sky,” I said. It was pointless, we all knew that. I was playing for time we didn’t have, but I couldn’t stand the thought of Fallen trapped between those huge paws, unable to glow.

The bear went very, very still. “Human,” he rumbled, “do not dare to challenge me.”

He stepped towards me. I felt the shudder of it through the pavement and flinched back.

“Don’t touch her,” Fallen snapped. She was ignored.

What could I do except keep talking with all of the spirit Fallen had shown me?

“And you’re not very smart, for someone so big.”

A snarl. Black gums dripped with saliva.

“Stop it,” Fallen murmured. I couldn’t tell who she was talking to.

But my back was to the wall now, with nowhere else to go. Fallen was between us, her arms splayed like an angel, but there were no branches this time to conjure into a bow. No power left in my angel to even try. The bear reared on his hind legs and roared.

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