Page 152 of Stardusted

My stomach heaved. I slapped a hand over my mouth, breathing in stilted gasps through my nose.

Sky drew back, wrenching the wheel. “Hang on, I’ll?—”

We swerved. That panic clawed its way up, scraping my throat.

“Air. I need air.” I fumbled blindly for the window control, then the door handle. I needed to feel the wind and rain. My body tingled, and a creeping numbness was spreading.

I’d nearly died. The Enil really were after me, and I’d thought Sky wasdead.

I was a walking, talkingalien beacon. Sky was right. Nowhere was safe. There was nowhere I could go. I’d tried to fight it, and I’d nearly gotten killed. Nearly gottenhimkilled. Had anyone else been hurt at the university?

Because that was my fault. My fault for not listening.

My vision began to tunnel. I finally got my fingers curled around the handle, and I yanked. The car’s alarm dinged, but I barely heard it. I was going to throw up if I didn’t get out of this damn seatright now.Wind blasted in through the cracked door, bringing with it icy droplets.

“Hang on, Rae,” Sky bit out. The SUV lurched as he slammed on the brakes, and I was only vaguely aware of shapes and lights flying by as he cut across lanes of traffic, jolting onto the shoulder.

The moment the car came to a stop, I shoved the door open the rest of the way and half-fell out, ignoring his shout.

Wind and water slammed into me.I gulped air,clinging to the chill, the stinging on my bare skin. Doubling over, I braced my hands on my jelly knees. I couldn’t seem tobreathe. Rain soaked through my shirt, my jeans.

The storm raged, so cold and so alive.

Iwas alive.

Somehow, I was alive.

My heart beat like it was trying to punch its way out of my ribs. Straightening, I managed two staggering steps away fromthe SUV, puddles splashing my ankles, before Sky rounded the hood.

“Rae!”

I looked up, weaving a little. Bright headlights tore by on the highway beyond. Two of them. Like green eyes bearing down. Sharp claws?—

I clutched my chest.

And then Sky was there, tall and broad, blocking some of the fierce wind as he pushed close.

“You’re having a panic attack,” he said, tone pitched low and calming.

I shivered as he reached for me slowly, but this time I didn’t shrink away, and his warm hands closed on my upper arms, dodging the lurid bruise on my bicep.

His fingers tightened, and he bent to meet my eyes. “It’s okay. You’re safe now. I’ve got you. Try to breathe.”

Safe.That word—and his touch—jolted me from the shocked haze. Just enough. Some of the blind fear faded, and without it, I was left with a tangle of feelings far too complicated to begin to sort out.

He was still holding me. I grasped his wrists in shaking hands, searching for an anchor. The rain swirled over us, driven to needle-sharp pinpricks by the cold wind. I trembled so hard my teeth clicked, but I forced words out. “They came for me. You were right.”

Thunder grumbled like a distant warning. Sky’s breathing was shallower than normal, like me nearly leaping from a moving vehicle had shaken him up.

“I know.” He gave me a light squeeze. His face was tight, eyes shadowed by the SUV’s headlights. The downpour had washed the blood away, but the scrapes and bruises remained along his temple and cheekbone, the left side of his forehead. Withthe injuries and his ripped, charred clothes, he looked like he’d survived a war.

Which was close to the truth. The memory of him crashing through that table, of flames leaping high above where he’d fallen…

“God, Sky.” I tilted my head back, chest constricting. “I thought they’dkilledyou. I thought you weredead.”

His throat worked, and he looked away, at the cars rushing past, the raging gale. Beads of water gathered on his lashes. He blinked them away before refocusing on me.

“They didn’t.” His lips twisted into something between a grimace and a dry smile. “It was close, but…they didn’t.” The trace of humor vanished. “Which is why we need to keep moving.”