Page 118 of Stardusted

He didn’t say it, but I knew what he was asking. Again. The rice turned to dust in my mouth. Giving up, I put it on the table and focused instead on the alien.

He’d turned to face me, and he pointed behind him, at the stairwell. “The Enil won’t be stopped by door locks, and they’re not going to wait for an invitation. They’ll tear down any obstacles—or people—to get to what the halix contained.”

To get what he believed my brain contained.

Great.

My stomach heaved, and I hugged myself. Suddenly cold, I wished I’d put the cardigan back on after my shower.

“Don’t sugarcoat it for my sake,” I muttered, tightening my arms against a shiver.

“I want you to understand the risk. Which is why…” Sky paused and waited until I’d looked at him again. “Which is why I really wish you’d agree to let me stay close. I wish you’d listen to me about lying low, too.” He searched my face, eyes soft but filled with conviction. “If there was another way, one that didn’t upend your life like this, I’d take it, Rae. But too much is at stake. More than you know. More than I can tell you.”

I worried the inside of my cheek, unable to look away. Beneath the worn tee, his shoulders were tight again. He looked…so very grave. Like life-or-death, world-on-the-brink grave.Worlds, maybe.

“I need you to let me keep you safe.” He leaned in. “If you don’t trust anything else, at least trust me with that.”

And there it was. The problem. Because I wasn’t sure I trusted him. Or myself. Or anything, really.

Because aliens weren’t just real. They’d been here. Foryears. They were in my life.

And now they were after me.

Exhaustion rolled over me like a wave, threatening to pull me into the undertow. This had all happened so fast. The UFO encounter. The lab explosion. Sky’s big alien reveal. My life had detonated in real time over the past week.

I drew in a deep breath and dragged my hands down my cheeks.

“I need to study,” I said, letting my arms fall back to my lap. “And then I need sleep. It’s been a long day.”

It wasn’t an answer to his unspoken question, his gentle prod about staying. But Sky surprised me by not pushing. He only nodded and set his empty takeout container down. I stared at him while he finished off his soda. Loudly.

Did he not know how to avoidslurpinglike that?

When he set the cup down by his empty box, I gaped in shock. Wait. He’d left behind multiple empty boxes. Somehow, he’d polished off three of them and just as many egg rolls. While I’d barely managed one bite. Did his alien super-suit come with a built-in metabolism boost? Because if so, that was a load of crap.

Sky stood, and I forgot about the food as he rose to his full height. He brushed his hands off, and I tipped my head back to meet his gaze, trying to ignore the gray sweatpants front and center. Was he doing this on purpose?

He didn’t appear to be. His midnight eyes were serious as they swept over my face. “Are you sure?”

“Sure of what?” I asked. Because the answer was probably no. I wasn’t sure about anything at the moment. Except the fact he shouldn’t look that good in rumpled, comfortable clothing.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?”

I puffed out my cheeks, turning my head toward the blinds. It was dark out there. The storm had quieted finally. Now, only gentle rain pattered against the roof. The kind that’d be great to fall asleep to…if I didn’t have hours of studying to do.

Sky wanted to stay to make sure I was safe. I forced myself to consider it objectively.Logically.

I wanted space. I needed time to scream into that pillow, cram for my test, and possibly spend two full days in a Tylenol PM-induced coma. I’d always needed alone time to process, and that would be impossible with a Pladian attached to my hip. A Pladian whose hips I wouldn’t mind being attached to…

I tucked my tongue into my cheek. See? Already the thought of having him around was making it difficult to concentrate.

But then I remembered that creature in the lab, and the thought of being alone—trulyalone and exposed—made my skin crawl. The Enil had been frightening before I knew what to call them. But after talking with Sky, after all he’d had to say, it was infinitely worse. Now I knew what the monsters were and what they could do…

If he’d wanted me to be afraid, he’d succeeded. If he was right and I was putting off some kind of signal they happened to trace, I had no doubt the Enil would tear this garage apart like tissue paper. And then they’d tearmeapart.

Sickness climbed its way up my throat, and I shivered.

Maybe it was that fear. Or maybe it was the fact that I cravedsomethingfamiliar. Or better yet, maybe it was the fact that this entire night felt like a strange, murky dream that, for some reason, I didn’t want to end.