Page 80 of Stardusted

He squeezed the back of his neck and closed his eyes, breathing deeply through his nose, like he was gathering himself. Then he pinned me with a haunted stare. “Raven, I can’t. I can’t tell you what you want to know. You don’t—” He swore, dropping his head back. “You don’t understand.”

“You can’t tell me?” Fury erupted in my belly. I didn’t care about the pained look he was giving me. I let him have it. “That’s bullshit, Sky. You’ve spent days chasing me, trying to get information, and now I’m telling you that a…that a fucking UFO drove me off the road, an evil alien robot chased me through the anthro department, and I’ve got these shapes—” I lurched forward, planting my marked palm on his chest. My fingers slipped between undone buttons, brushing skin hot to the touch.

He flinched, eyes widening at my sudden charge or maybe my chilly hand. But he made no move to push me away.

I wasn’t sure what I was doing. Why I was touching him. Maybe I was just trying to form a connection. To ground myself. I was trembling, my vision hazed, the vibration in my blood too much to hold in.

Everything was pouring out, emotions, words. Maybe my insides at this point because I was coming apart at the seams.

“Seriously, Sky. You owe me answers. I know you know more than you’re saying, and I want the truth.” I glared up at him, gripping his shirt. His chest heaved beneath my fist. “Right now?—”

The tension erupted.

Too late, I recognized the charge in the air. The humming in my blood. The static. I’d felt it before, in the lab. Just before the tablet exploded. Familiar and yet not.

Now, it snapped like a rubber band stretched too far.

A white-hot glow erupted from the hand I’d tangled in his shirt.

Heat flared. I cried out, released him, and stumbled back until I hit the picnic table behind me. Swaying, I lifted my palm.

It was glowing.

Light shone through my skin. Bright orange light, pulsing from within. The etched shapes were lined in blinding white. It didn’t hurt. Not like before. Only warmth radiated up my arm.

From myfreaking glowing hand.

I gaped in horror, breath faltering as I wrenched my gaze to Sky.

Or what had been Sky.

Air rushed from my lungs.

“What—? Sky…?” His name cracked apart as it tumbled from my lips. A scream clawed its way up instead, but there was no air to back it up. Instead, I wheezed.

My muscles locked. My thoughts screeched to a halt.

Because Sky had changed.

His skin…wasn’t skin anymore. Not quite. It shimmered, refracting light like thousands of tiny crystals. Like scattered diamond dust. Glittery and…andsilver.

I stared, rooted in place by soul-deep shock and a kind of morbid fascination. Lightning glimmered over him in a sheen. His features were sharper, sculpted from moonlight and stone. Not…human.

His dark hair was gone, and his scalp shimmered, the same jeweled starlight spiraling with darker patterns, delicate whorls that swept down across his brow.

And yet…

He was still in there.

Paler lips the same shape as his had been a second before. Sweeping ridges traced over his temples, tapering into pointed ears. But that jaw, those cheekbones…

It was Sky, and itwasn’t.Like I was looking at him through a filter. Like this had been there all along, lurking beneath the surface.

Dizziness swept through me. The world pitched. I was going to be sick.

I could smell the fryer grease still clinging to my clothes. Hear the pattering of the rain. Its cold, clammy kiss misted my slack face. But none of it felt real.

And I wasn’t the only one reeling.