Page 143 of Stardusted

He opened his mouth, but a distantboomanswered before he could. He swore instead, tensing against me as the buildingrocked. I buried my face in his shoulder. Emergency lights blinked, and dust fluttered like snow from the vents.

And then I heardit.

A roar. Far away and muffled under all the other noise. But unmistakable.

That same mechanical, garbled sound that haunted my nightmares.

My insides tightened, panic clamping my throat shut. I squeezed Sky’s waist harder, slowly raising my head again.

“It’s too late,” Sky answered finally, when the shaking had subsided. There was resignation gleaming in his eyes, in the thin line his lips formed. “Stay close to me, okay?”

Stayclose? I couldn’t get any closer, unless I crawled inside his skin. Which, admittedly, might be safer.

I flinched when the building gave another almighty shudder. With acrackle,the nearest emergency light exploded, plunging us into dusty darkness. Distant sunlight filtered in beams from the hall’s mouth and open doors. It did nothing to dim the glow my palm gave off. It shone even brighter in the gloom.

“Are they here for me?” I asked Sky, gripping his shirt with my non-flashlight hand.

He wasn’t looking at me, and he didn’t respond. He didn’t need to. I wasn’t stupid. I knew the answer.

I’d come to the school despite his warnings. Naively thinking I could pretend, even for one afternoon, that this nightmare wasn’t real. I’d been trying to cling to routine, and look where that’d gotten me.

“We need to go,” I said again, pulling away. Running had to be better than juststandinghere.

“There’s no use,” Sky said, his face hardening. His eyes were on the distant hallway opening. The one all the scared people had come from. “They tracked you. If we run, they’ll just follow.”

Oh God.Trackedme. I uncurled my fingers. He’d been right. We were trapped, and they’d come forme.

My hand radiated light like a signal flare. Like a lighthouse. Except instead of guiding ships to me, it was summoning alien robots. Sickness roiled in my gut. “So what do we do?”

“You stay here,” Sky said, turning away. He paused long enough to look over his shoulder at me. “And I eliminate the threat.”

“Eliminate the…” I sagged against the wall, staring at him. He was going tofightthem?Here? “Wait, Sky?—”

“Stay behind me, okay?” With that, he swiveled to face the hallway, settling into a waiting stillness.

I gaped at him, clutching my shining hand to my chest. He seemed oddly calm for someone about to take on a giant Megatron. Like he did this every day.

Didhe do this every day, in between mixing martinis?

It suddenly occurred to me that I had no idea.

Tearing my attention from him, I cast a frantic look around for something,anything,to help. It was useless. Nothing would help against the thing I’d encountered in the lab days ago. I was a liability.

MaybeIshould run, and he could stay here and do whatever it was he?—

All thought drained away when the air vibrated. Every hair on my body lifted. Pulse pounding, I sent one more longing look toward the hallway’s end, where everyone had disappeared.

A metallic groan echoed beneath the droning alarm. Close. Closer than it’d been a second ago.

My chest caved beneath crushing fear. In slow motion, I turned. The lights strobed, but the disorienting flickers did nothing to mask what waited.

An Enil had shown up in Kepler Hall, and it wasn’t here to take a midterm.

Chapter 34

EVEN MORE RUNNING AND SCREAMING

Myimagination hadn’t exaggeratedwhat I’d seen in the anthropology lab. Time hadn’t warped the memory of how horrifying it’d been. Not even a little. I’d seen a monster then, and I saw one now.