Page 36 of Stardusted

Or worse. I was about to become a permanent exhibit in the archive room.

But when I peeked around the edge of the shelf, I inhaled sharply. Wait. The far doors—the lab’s doors—were proppedopen. I wouldn’t need an access card after all.

Why? Who’d opened them? My brain snagged on the risk of unfiltered air damaging the specimens before lurching back to more immediate concerns. I couldn’t care about the artifacts. Not right now.

I cared about surviving.

Another moment passed. I didn’t hear anything. Either whatever had been following me had vanished…or I’d been imagining things.

Suddenly, I felt silly.

Maybe I’d just fled from a noisy HVAC system. The pipes down herewereold.

Either way, I didn’t need to know which possibility was the truth. It didn’t matter. I pushed off the shelf. What mattered was getting the hell out of this basement. Because even if I wasn’t being chased, somebody had knocked out some guards and stuffed them into a bathroom, and that couldnotbe good?—

BANG.

The double doors behind me slammed open.A choked squeak caught in my throat as I backpedaled, smashing myself against the shelf again. I barely felt the impact when my temple glanced off the frame.

I didn’t dare breathe.

So much for a noisy HVAC. That wasn’t an air handling unit that’d entered the room.

A harsh creak sounded, like rusty hinges being forced to move. My heart hammered.

CRASH.

I flinched as something shattered, a muted tinkle like glass or pottery hitting concrete. Seconds later came more: the heavythudof boxes, the shriek of Styrofoam, the rending of cardboard. The shelf I pressed against trembled.

Whatever was in here was tearing the place apart.And they weren’t just vandalizing. No, this sounded rhythmic.

Deliberate. Methodical.

They were searching.

Destroying, too, in the process.

I gritted my teeth and pressed harder into the shelf. My fists clenched at my sides.

Then, beneath the sounds of destruction, came that other sound.That mechanicalwhir, low and guttural. Agrinding groan.

The same sound I’d heard before.My heart seized.

I wasn’t running blind anymore. Ihadto see.

Slowly, so slowly, I inched around the corner. A crash rang out from the far side, and I dropped lower, instinctively ducking. The shadows between shelves swallowed me whole.

Clank. Whir. Rip. Thud.

And then?—

A voice.

Not a shout. Not a murmur. Something…else.

Garbled.Digital. Warped like a bad radio signal, yet still undeniably a voice.That was speech.

Ice flooded my veins.Because that speech wasn’t…