Page 150 of Stardusted

I braced my palms against the vending machine’s cracked side and slowly tipped my head back. Water stung my eyes, blurring everything. I could see enough, though. Its neon gaze was trained on my hand. My shining, blazing hand. The reason for all this destruction.

For all this death.

My throat closed, and I looked past the bulky creature, to where the molten pile of metal and burning things lay. I could barely make it out from here, through the water and smoke and my streaming eyes. I couldn’t even see Sky’s body.

Hopelessness welled up. There was nowhere to run. Nowhere to go. They’d trapped me. Those multi-jointed arms were too long, those claws too sharp. I could try for the door, but I wouldn’t make it.

Breathing hard, I curled my fingers around the markings, but it was no use. The glow seeped through, anyway, like I’d stolen a star. My throbbing head spun.

I should’ve listened to him. Should’ve stayed away. Stayed safe.

But a small voice said at leastthisway, it’d be over. I’d be done looking over my shoulder. The Enil would have what they wanted. Maybe they’d even leave Earth. My family, friends—humans in general—would be safe.

It helped a little to know that. Maybe it’d make what would inevitably be a slow, painful death worth it. Make Sky’s death worth it.

My chest squeezed.

I turned my head, a gasped sob escaping. The water was cold, icy, pouring in sheets off the Enil, pinging on metal that reflected the fire in an orange sheen. Long talons flexed, twitching, as if the creature couldn’t wait to dig them into me. As if it was readyto root around in my brain for the information everyone seemed to think was there.

I, for one, hoped it was sorely disappointed.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I cringed against the rattling vending machine and readied myself for the crushing metal grip, the slicing of those scalpel-tipped fingers.

Instead, a warm, hard body flattened to the front of mine, pressing me back.

My eyes sprang open at the same instant a dark form materialized.

A tall, lean form. One Iknew?—

Sky.

I may have shouted his name, or maybe I only whispered it because I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, because how thehell was he alive?

He slammed both glowing palms into the Enil’s chest plate. The metal dented beneath the blow, and the force of it drew a grunt out of him and shoved his body into mine, squishing me between his back and the vending machine.

But it worked.The robot’s furious roar drowned everything else as it launched away from us, colliding with the wall of windows.

Glass exploded in a shower of crystalline fragments. The metal frame buckled, and the ceiling sagged.I screamed and covered my face as shards and rubble rained down in a glittering storm. My legs felt strange, wobbly.

Light and heat and water. Everything seemed muffled. Maybe I’d hit my head harder than I thought, because when I lifted my face, a hazy grayness gathered at the edges of my vision.

Or maybe it was just that Sky was here, and he was somehowalive.

I stared up at him as he spun and reached for me, pulling me against him. Shielding me. The building, the air—everything—shook and fractured, but somehow, I managed to lift my head from his chest.

He looked down, and his midnight-blue eyes met mine. Blood streaked the side of his face, vivid red against his golden skin. A thin trickle of it ran from the corner of his mouth. He was covered in soot and dust and scrapes.

But he was alive.

Too many emotions clawed their way to the surface, but I couldn’t get out a single word. I clutched handfuls of his shredded shirt, going limp in his grip. My legs were completely numb.

“We have to go,” he said, gripping my waist and tugging, urging me to move. It sounded like he was far away. Fading.

He was so pretty with sparks falling and water slicking his hair. Even frowning. His mouth moved, forming words I didn’t catch. Somewhere, an Enil roared, and Sky looked over his shoulder, tensing against me. Water and smoke swirled and blurred everything.

I’d hit my head, and…

“I think I’m going to faint,” I tried to say.