Page 97 of Stardusted

“Come on, Sky.” I planted my hands on my hips. “I deserve to know.”

He ran his tongue across his teeth and gave in. “Yes, that’s the reason you’re in danger. The Enil are here for the halix. It’s why they’re on Earth. They know Pladians left those devices behind when we visited planets, and they’ve been searching for that one here.” His nostrils flared on an exhale. “Since they arrived, they’ve been scanning for the cache’s energy signature. Methodically. And they finally caught up to it here in One Willow.”

Chasing it. Tracking it.

Methodically. Like a…like a search grid.

Damn it.

I laughed once. It came out dry and cracked. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Kelly really was right.”

Chapter 25

THE WORST TED TALK EVER

Skywas in front of me before I’d even registered he’d moved. “Kelly knows about this? Kelly from Oasis?”

I edged sideways just enough to put space between us. He didn’t follow, but his eyes stayed glued to my face while I worked through a response.

“Yes. No. Kind of?” I set my phone beside the mace on the counter and scrubbed both palms over my face. That headache had started to throb again. “This group called FETR suspects aliens were looking for something, because of the weird electrical surges and…well, everything else.”

When I focused on Sky again, he was watching me intently. He appeared to be processing.

That made two of us. A lot of processing happening tonight.

“So what happens now?” I asked when he still hadn’t spoken a moment later.

He sighed. “I wish there was a simple answer to that.” I couldn’t help but notice he needed a shave. I wished it looked scruffy and gross. Instead, it gave him a rugged, sexier edge. “It depends on whether we can retrieve the information the halix imparted?—”

“Oh my God, Sky. How many times do I have to tell you? No information has been imparted!” I thrust my hand at him. “Just these weird marks!”

He considered them, then my face. “So you haven’t been having any unusual dreams? Or any other strange symptoms?”

I stopped breathing.

Last night’s dream…

My reaction must’ve been obvious because his expression darkened with a grim sort of triumph.

“That’s what I thought. You don’t understand the significance of this, Rae.”

“You’re right,” I snapped, grateful for the anger’s burn. It chased away the chills his implication left behind. “I don’t understand. So how about you explain it to me? Because your so-called explanation is full of gaping holes.”

Black holes, maybe, since I felt like all the gravity in the room was warping. Reality itself.

Sky’s mouth compressed again, and I raised my chin. I couldn’t help but curl my fingers to tuck the mark out of sight. Then I vented my frustration on my cardigan, yanking it closed and folding my arms over it.

There was no sudden influx of knowledge in my brain. No message. I’d know.

“Speaking of holes.” I squinted at him. “You were here looking for this halix tablet thing, and it justhappenedto be at TWU? That’s a hell of a coincidence.”

His eyes narrowed a little at the subject change, but he only lifted a shoulder. “It would be if I hadn’t arranged for the tablet to be brought here. My partner and I have been tracking it for years, chasing down every possible lead. The Enil cracked the code first and found a way to trace the signature much more efficiently than we’d been able to. Like they knew exactly what to…”

He broke off, squeezing his nape. Muscles bunched beneath his shirt. Way more than was fair in this moment, if we’re being real.

He let his arm fall to his side and continued. “We’d located it, but it was inside a government research facility. We couldn’t figure out how to get in. The only chance we had was to get it moved. Transferred.” He waved a hand in the air, like he was brushing off the work. “So we found a way to connect Professor Stern at TWU with the right people. It took a couple years of planning, but it worked. The military agreed to move the tablet here. To a less secure facility.” He looked up, brows lifting in a subtle arch. “So no, not a coincidence. A lot of work and a lot of careful planning.”

A couple years’ worth, even. Kelly had said Sky had been at Oasis for two. An undercover alien playing bartender while waiting to intercept an ancient alien artifact. That wasn’t exactly on my bingo card.