Page 146 of Stardusted

He didn’t need to tell me twice. I backed up a step on shaking legs. The alarm strobed in slow, rhythmic bursts, illuminating the piles of debris, the massive fissures in the walls, and the gaping ceiling. The corridor had become a barely recognizable battleground.

And the Enil still hadn’t moved. Maybe it was done. I started to relax, relief unfurling. That hadn’t beensobad?—

With a shriek of grinding metal, it sprang back to life.

“Look out!” I yelled, but Sky was on it.

He ducked a swipe from its massive claws and sidestepped with flowing grace to avoid a snap of those vicious, sharp-toothed jaws. Spinning, the Enil gathered itself and leapt straight for him. Sharp talons spread.

Sky’s body rippled and disappeared.

The Enil’s claws met air, and it landed with a thunderous, floor-shakingcrack. I staggered back as a low, warped growl rolled from it. If I hadn’t known better, I would’ve thought it was confused. Its limbs creaked and groaned as it whirled, searching.

Now was my chance. It was distracted. I could run. Was I supposed to wait for Sky? Or was it every woman and alien for themselves?

I took too long to decide.

The Enil’s sickly green gaze landed on me.

To be fair, I was hard to miss. Even with the flashing and smoke, the pure white light radiating from my palm was pretty damn obvious.

Slowly, the thing turned to face me, the single, working set of its sharp, grabby chest-fingers opening and closing. Its step in my direction crushed a fluorescent bulb that’d fallen from the ceiling beneath one gleaming, knife-blade talon.

My knees locked up. The empty hallway seemed to contract between us. My stomach dropped out.

It was coming for me.

I stumbled backward, toward the hall’s exit, too afraid to tear my gaze away, like if I took my eyes off it, the Enil would pounce. My soles slid on the dust-coated floor. Sweat rolled down my temples.

Sky hadn’t reappeared.

The creature moved slowly at first, careful, stalking steps. Then faster. Andfaster. Until it was loping like a cheetah—straight for me. Thatcrunch-creak-whirof shifting gears rent the air.

Nope.

“Shiiiiiit!” I turned and took off. I didn’t stand a chance, not with this stupid mark glowing and the alien mech-wolf thing at my back. It wasso much faster?—

Sky materialized beside me and lunged past, intercepting the robot monster on my heels. By the time I’d reeled around, he’d fired a thick bolt of blue straight into the Enil’s chest. Crackling light streamed between his hands and the creature’s scrap-heap body.

The Enil’s distorted roar sounded desperate. Furious. Its foreleg collapsed, but it snapped vicious jaws Sky’s way, trying to fight through it.

He didn’t let up. He poured a steady stream of light into the creature’s shuddering body. I gasped as he bore down, straining, like he pushedeverything he had into that power.

The air was on fire. Electricity arcedeverywhere,stinging and hot, and my teeth chattered. I stumbled, nearly tripping as pins and needles swept down my legs. But it wasworking.

The Enil’s spine arched, limbs juddering. It opened its mouth, and another garbled whine poured out along with billowing smoke. The energy Sky forced into it shone through cracks in its body, lighting it up. Frying it from the inside out. The bitter smoke stung my nose, my lungs, bringing tears to my eyes.

And still Sky advanced, the stream of electricity pouring from him undulating and bleeding sparks.

My lungs ached. It was too bright—much too bright to look at. Turning my head, one hand raised to block the glare, I shuffled back another handful of steps as the storm went on and on?—

The Enil loosed a keening, garbled cry, one that sounded like a death shriek, just before the blue glow winked out, throwing the hallway into sudden murky dark lit only by gloomy sunlight and my hand.

My chest heaved as I came to a wary stop. The alarm still shrieked, strobes pulsing like a heartbeat. Blinking through the black spots crowding my vision, I looked up just in time to see Sky sag. He caught himself on the wall and hung his head, breathing hard.

But it wasn’t done. Movement stirred in the dark.

Somehow, impossibly, the Enil wasstillgoing. Scorch marks covered its metal parts, but its internal mechanisms whirredback to life. It lurched upright, mismatched limbs bending and wobbling before it gained its footing. It faced us once more.