Chapter 25
THE WORST TED TALK EVER
Sky was 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 just happened to 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.
“What happened at the university is my fault,” Sky said suddenly—in a rush.
As if the words had been pent up too long.
I blinked, caught off guard. His jaw tightened.
“I underestimated them. I didn’t know how many Enil were here—or how close they’d gotten to finding the halix.
I sure as hell didn’t expect them to get to TWU at the same time I did…
” He huffed a bitter laugh. “I suppose it getting destroyed is better than the Enil getting their hands on it, though.”
I frowned at that. I was missing an important part of this puzzle. “You said it was just a greeting. Why is that so important?”
His eyes flicked to mine, then away. “I can’t tell you that, Rae.”
“Part of it is literally tattooed on my hand. I think that earns me the inside scoop.”
“Maybe we can find a way to remove it,” he said, dodging the question. He turned on his heel and began to pace. “Maybe we can extract the information. Bast would know. He’s better with tech than I am.”
“And who is Bast?”
“My partner,” he said over his shoulder.
“Exactly how many Pladians are roaming around Earth?”
He sent me a sidelong look. “Just us. Bast and me. We’re a Pair.”
Two more than I’d anticipated before this afternoon. Well, that was fine and dandy. It didn’t matter. I didn’t want Sky, this Bast, or any other potential alien visitors extracting anything from me.
So I tried again, this time more gently. “There’s no information, Sky. I’m telling you. I don’t feel any different. Weird dreams are totally normal considering how weird everything is right now. In case you haven’t noticed, my life’s become pretty insane.”
“I know. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.” He paused in his pacing to peek out the blinds again. “But even if you don’t recall anything now, there’s a chance you will with time.”
“Recall what? I wouldn’t even know what I’m looking for!” Irritated, I tugged on my frizzy braid, tossing it behind me. “Was I supposed to start speaking Pladian or something? I told you, everything’s been normal since the lab. The UFO on the road, the lab—”
“You did see the Enil scout probe on the road,” Sky cut in, spinning around to face me. “I knew it wasn’t an animal. You’re a terrible liar, you know.”
So everyone kept telling me. I rolled my eyes.
“Yeah, well, we all can’t be a locked vault of alien secrets.
” At my pointed scowl, he merely raised an eyebrow, and I shook my head.
“That doesn’t change the fact that besides the shiny version of you showing up today, things have been relatively normal the last few days.
I haven’t shown any signs of anything else. Just these marks.”
Dragging in a steadying breath, I lifted my hand. The pearlescent etchings gleamed faintly in the dimness. Alien symbols. I felt the weight of Sky’s gaze, but I couldn’t look up.
Alien markings. Alien visitors. Alien robots.
To think two weeks ago, my biggest stressors were exams, Faith, and fifty-cent wing night.
When I raised my head, Sky was still watching me, his expression unreadable. Lightning blazed through the slats, bathing him in blue light, hollowing out his handsome features into something starker and striking.
He was a Pladian.
And yet his face was so familiar.
“You killed the Enil in the lab,” I said, battling a shiver at the thought. “Didn’t you?”
That familiar face shuttered completely. “I took care of it.”
“By…killing it?”
At the question, his eyes darted to mine, then slid past. He shoved his hands into his pockets, shifting his stance like he was uncomfortable. He didn’t answer, but…
“So that’s a yes,” I whispered. The realization settled with a metallic clang in my gut, as if a giant robotic dinosaur foot had planted its weight on my middle.
Just what exactly was he capable of if he’d taken out that Enil?
Apparently a lot more than slinging whiskey sours and pouring local drafts.
As if picking up my sudden apprehension, Sky exhaled through his nose, closing his eyes. “I’ve never told anyone any of this, Rae. If it wasn’t so important that you understand the danger you’re in—if I didn’t fully believe you’d absorbed the halix—I wouldn’t be here.”
I believed him about that, at least. He looked borderline distraught. Breaking that Creed of his really was bothering him. I wouldn’t have pegged Sky for such a rules stickler. It’d be cute if my life didn’t hinge on whatever part of this he was keeping to himself.
With that same, defeated expression, he elaborated, “Technically, no, I didn’t kill the Enil. But I neutralized the one you saw at the lab. And I haven’t picked up any more activity in the area since. For now, at least.”
Well. That was good to know. On one hand, glad they weren’t lurking around every corner.
On the other, he’d taken out a killer robot.
So Sky wasn’t just an alien. He was an alien badass.
He chose that moment to step closer, and I stiffened before I could stop it. He halted a few feet from me, face tightening. Tension arced between us, thick with words—spoken and otherwise—the revelations of the night. All he’d dumped on me.
Everything had changed, including how I saw Sky. That’d never go back to normal. The version of the man I’d pined over for the better part of a year was gone. Maybe I’d mourn it if I wasn’t so overwhelmed.
And yet when he took another step, I froze, stuck somewhere between backing away and staying right there, waiting for him. The simultaneous urges tangled up my insides. Just like my thoughts, I couldn’t begin to pick apart the mess of confusing feelings when it came to this Sky.
He seemed to know, too. Or maybe he was feeling just as tangled.
Hard to tell. His hands twitched at his sides like he wanted to reach for me, but I was glad he didn’t.
My nerves were strung tighter than harp wire.
I couldn’t guarantee I wouldn’t snatch up the pepper spray and blast him in the face. I was holding on by a thread.
It was either that or kiss him. Maybe vent all this wound-up tension into that instead. At the thought, my stomach flipped.
…alien, Rae. He’s an alien.