Page 157 of Stardusted

A new kind of dread crept in, and I sat up. He was worried they’d wipe out his whole world. It wasn’t only about getting back to his planet. It was about potentiallysavingit.

This kept getting better and better.

He tracked my movement—and the understanding that I knew had dawned on my face—adding grimly, “We don’t even know if Pladia knows what happened out here, since we have no way to communicate. They’d have no warning.”

Blood roared in my ears, and I pressed my fingers into my temples. My head ached, and I didn’t think it was only from headbutting the vending machine.

He wasn’t kidding when he’d told me this was bigger than I could imagine. Talk about out-of-this-world stakes. He’d basically just plopped a whole planet on my shoulders.

This was it. His mission. He was here to save his people—possibly his whole damnworld.No wonder he was stressed out. And so desperate to protect the map to his world that he thought was inside mybrain.

A map. I rolled the idea around in my head. The shapes I’d been seeing. That constellation I’d recognized at Dustin’s. The things I’d doodled on the test.

The test! I’d completely forgotten about it.

“Sky!” I bucked my hips up and tried to jam my hand into the pocket of my wet pants. Waterlogged jeans were the worst. Groaning in frustration, I wiggled my fingers, forcing them deeper. “Damn it.”

Sky’s grip slid from the wheel as he reared back, frowning in confusion. It only deepened when I produced a sodden, crumpled piece of paper and shoved it across the center console at him.

“Look at this.” I shook it.

When he only stared at it, I clicked my tongue and tried to peel it open, ripping part of it in the process. Sensation hadn’t completely returned to my cold fingers—especially after all he’d just revealed.

“I wrote it during the test. I didn’t even realize I was doing it. Like I was in a trance. But…”

I unfolded it enough that a few of the smudged symbols became visible. Sky’s eyes flared wide, and he snatched the paper from me, tilting it so the dash’s light washed the waterlogged page. He muttered a word that didn’t sound like English.

“What’s it say?” I asked, leaning closer. Close enough that our shoulders touched.

“It’s hard to tell.” His brows pinched. “What I can read looks like ancient Pladian. Like the symbols on your palm. Another part of the greeting.”

He looked up. Our noses nearly brushed, and I started to pull back, cheeks heating.

He stopped me by tucking his knuckles below my chin, tilting my face up. I let him because his fingers were warm, and his touch felt more real than reallyanythingright now.

“This means I was right.” His words whispered over my lips. He lowered the paper to his lap without looking away. “You’vegot to believe me now. After what happened at TWU. And this.” His eyes skimmed between mine. We were sharing air. “The halix did something to you, Rae. The map is in there.”

In mybrain.

God, this was overwhelming. The pressure, what it meant. Being so near him. That earlier panic threatened to creep back, tightening my chest.

But he was right; Icouldn’tdeny it. I couldn’t keep lying to myself.

Something had happened to me when I’d decided to manhandle that stone tablet. When I’d touched the crystal slab beneath. The white-hot light that’d followed. I could dismiss each individual symptom—the dreams, the weird reaction to his hypnosis, my mindless doodles—but together? Together, they were too much of a coincidence.

And whatever it’d done put me in danger. Me—and anyone around me. It’d nearly gotten Sky killed today. I could be responsible for other people getting hurt.

What would I have done if it’d been Amelia? Or Dustin or Lisa?

I’d never forgive myself.

My stomach plunged off the edge of an invisible cliff. The growing lump in my throat ached.

There was no going back. Not yet. Not now.

I couldn’t even say goodbye, because how was I supposed to explain any of this?

As if Sky had seen that acceptance, and the cold, harsh slap of reality that came with it, his expression softened. “I’m sorry. But we can fix it.” He let go of me. He didn’t pull away, though.