Page 141 of Stardusted

Maybe because I was wearing them. They were the same kinds of shapes on my hand. Pladian writing.

I’d just writtenPladianon my comm test.

“Holy shit,” I whispered, clutching the paper tightly enough that it wrinkled.

My neighbor’s glare drilled into the side of my face. “SHH!”

And then?—

Pop.

The lights went out.

My fingers spasmed on the test, and I stiffened. Gasps and titters rose around me. The blinds had been pulled shut on the three rectangular windows, and the murky beams of sunlight sliced through the cracks.

“Relax,” the bored professor said from where he’d been surfing the internet on his work computer. His screen was dark now, too. “It’s just a power surge.”

That didn’t make me feel better. Mainly because I knew those power surges were just a flimsily constructed excuse.

A cover-up for something much worse.

Seconds later, the emergency lights flared on, casting everything in an eerie, pale glow. Washing out faces into skeletal visages. Like something from a haunted house.

Also not exactly reassuring.

I gripped the edge of the desk with my free hand, breaths shallow, and looked toward the door. My fingers trembled, and I accidentally wrinkled the test even more. I still couldn’t see Sky through the narrow window. The hall was dark, too.

“Everyone, stay calm, please,” the professor called over the murmurs increasing in volume. “We should be used to this by now. This is likely residual from the solar flares. Let’s give it a minute…”

I stopped listening. Because a prickling, tingling feeling was gathering beneath my skin. The hair on my arms and the back of my neck stood on end. The air was coming alive.

I knew that feeling.

It was unmistakable. I’d felt it before, once in the road, when I’d seen a UFO. Then again, in the lab.

Which meant?—

I bolted to my feet, slinging my bag over my shoulder. A tremor shook the floor, a subtle, nearly imperceptible vibration. But I registered it. It settled hard in my gut, hollowing it out.

We weresoscrewed.

“Raven? What are you doing?” my professor asked, clearly startled when I whirled and began to move quickly.

I didn’t spare him a glance, weaving through the rows of desks. I nearly kicked over a woman’s purse in my haste. People were staring.

The wall-mounted TV burst to life in a fizzing blaze of static. Sparks spat from the connection in the wall. Someone screamed.

Screw this.

I broke into a run, shoving the crumpled test deep into my pocket. Later. I could worry about that later. I almost crashed into a student by the door, but I shoved past him and reached for the handle—only to stop short, gasping.

Notagain.

My palm was glowing.

The brilliant white glow seeped from beneath my skin, illuminating the bone, sinew, and blood vessels beneath. It turned my flesh translucent and cast an ethereal halo of light around me, a veritable beacon.

The guy I’d nearly run into stumbled back, eyes wide. “What the hell?—”