Page 94 of Stardusted

“I don’t believe it,” he murmured, looking up. Those eyes landed on mine, widened a little with shock. Enough so, I stiffened, the dreamy daze fading instantly.

“What? What is it?” I asked, swallowing hard. His hand was warm against mine.

As if he’d suddenly realized how close we stood—or maybe my rising blush had telegraphed my reaction—Sky released me and stepped back. Willing away the redness, I curved my fingers into my palm, clutching my fist in my other hand. My stomach was all sorts of confused about what to feel.

Sky backed up, halting a few feet away. Far enough for me to recall how breathing worked.

“That…tablet, as you called it,” he said, grimacing, “was ancient Pladian technology.”

My mouth fell open. “What?”

“I know it all happened fast. But did you see the crystal under the stone façade?”

I blinked rapidly, struggling to follow. “Yeah. I did. I touched it. The stone with the writing kind of dissolved and…” I waved the hand still holding my phone. “There was glowing crystal underneath.”

“And you touched it?”

“The crystal?” At his nod, I shrugged. “Yeah. I thought it burned me and that’s what caused these marks, but…” I uncurled my fingers, looking down at the markings, something cold and hard settling in my stomach. “That’s not what these are, is it?”

“No,” Sky agreed, something grim in the quiet admission. “I don’t think so, Rae.”

That ball of dread inside me grew heavier, and I lifted my gaze to his. “What is it?”

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “As far as I can tell, you absorbed the tablet’s energy.”

“I absorbed…” I stared at him, mouth working. “How the heck would I do that? Whatwasthat thing?”

He studied my face for a quiet moment, looking torn. The storm battered the windows in the tense silence. A moment passed before he spoke again.

“You have to understand. I’m not supposed to talk about any of this, Raven. The Creed—it’s very serious?—”

“Sky,” I broke in, lifting my palm. “In case it’s slipped your mind, I’ve got alien squiggles on my freakinghand.”

“Iknow. Trust me, I know.” He pursed his lips, shifting his weight. “That’s why I’m here and why I’m telling you any of this.”

“Okay.” That and the fact that I’d seen his silver sparkly bits. I kept that observation to myself. “So what exactly was that stone tablet?”

I almost didn’t expect him to answer, but he did. Albeit with obvious reluctance.

“It was…a greeting, I guess you could call it. An info cache. An organic crystal mainframe designed to impart information using nexus technology and coded molecular…” He trailed off when he caught my blank look. Shaking his head, he braced his hands on his hips. “Basically, it was a calling card the Pladiansleft here with the hope humans would evolve to access it. Like…like a hard drive.”

“Wait—left here? That tablet looked old. Ancient, even.”

“Several thousand years old, yes.”

“So…” My head spun. “You’re telling me your people have already been here. On Earth. Thousands of years ago.”

His chest heaved with his heavy exhale. “Yeah. We’re…well, we used to be explorers. Scientists. Millennia ago, we surveyed this sector of space and left behind those crystals. On planets we visited.”

Earth had alien visitors.Millennia ago. Oh my God. The implications of that…for human history, for thegalaxy…

With effort, I gathered myself. Worrying about the archaeological record having somehow skipped over ancient alien visitors could wait. “So Pladians were here, and they left a…rock with a crystal inside it?”

“One programmed with a message. My ancestors did that when visiting planets with budding civilizations. Think of it like leaving our phone number—except a lot more complicated. Obviously.”

“Kind of like leaving your number on the napkin for the waitress.”

Sky shrugged. “Sure.” His mouth twitched. “That happen to you a lot?”