Chapter 28
STAR-CROSSED ROMANCE FOR DUMMIES
No way had hot bartender Sky—alien Sky—noticed me all this time.
I gaped at him, shrimp fried rice forgotten. If he was lying, he was doing a damn good job. Because I remembered that day clearly, too. Remembered seeing him.
“How do you…?” I started to bite my lip again, then caught myself. “You’re right. I had to bring my school bag because I ordered a ride from class. Faith broke down that day.”
Sky had been impossible to miss. Even with the impending interview weighing on me. I’d been nervous, not dead.
Now, his attention was back on the ceiling. “You got hired on the spot. Started the next week.” He lifted one broad shoulder, letting out a long sigh. “I don’t know. You were just…different, Rae. The way you move through the world is different.”
Different. Yeah, that was one way to put it. I always went with weird.
I puffed out a laugh. What was he saying? That this whole time I’d been sneaking looks at the out-of-my-league bartender coworker, he’d been doing the same thing? It wasn’t possible.
He angled his face my way, eyes sweeping over me, narrowed slightly in contemplation. “There’s something about how…aware you are. You study things. You watch. Like you’re absorbing and experiencing. You’re present in a way…well, in a way most people on Earth don’t seem to be.”
People on Earth.
There was that little jolt, that little reminder of who he really was. I used it to close my mouth.
“I noticed,” he said simply, temple resting on the back of my couch, “because it’s how I feel living here. Watching it all. Experiencing it.”
Something cracked a little behind my breastbone. I answered him honestly, because I was too shocked to do anything else. “I…have no idea what to say to that.”
He had to know I’d been obsessing over him. If not before tonight, he did now. Amelia had cleared up any confusion when she’d stopped by earlier and oh-so-helpfully spewed my deepest, darkest secrets. If he’d had any doubts, me attacking him in the stairwell should’ve driven the point home.
Even though this was the answer to every one of my daydreams, I knew it came with a giant, looming But. And he was about to give it to me.
“It’s okay,” Sky said, giving me a slight, close-lipped smile that faded quickly.
“You asked why I kissed you—and that’s it.
That’s why.” He sat up with a sigh and squinted down at his hands.
“And why I shouldn’t have, too. Because despite any…
well, feelings, I have a mission. It’s got to come first. Once that’s done, I… ”
He formed loose fists. Head still bowed, he didn’t finish, but he didn’t have to. Right. He was an alien. He had a home planet out there called Pladia.
He didn’t have time to flirt with a waitress from his undercover job, even one who happened to get herself wrapped up in a giant, interstellar mess.
Once his task—whatever that turned out to be—was complete, he’d be leaving, wouldn’t he? That made sense.
It didn’t change that I was feeling all the things.
Or the fact I had so many questions about him. For him. They crowded in, clamoring for release. There were so many more things I needed to know before that time came. Before he was gone.
I’d only just begun to see the real him. The real Sky, who was born on a ship in deep space. Whose world was eight lightyears from Earth.
I tilted my head, looking at him. Really looking at him.
For example, why him? What was he doing here, and why had he chosen to take on this task? Or had it been chosen for him? And when he’d come to Earth, had he left people behind? Family? Friends?
A…a lover?
I tried to imagine leaving everyone I knew—Dustin, my family, Amelia, even the Oasis crew—and a pang of sympathy wedged beneath my ribs. God, no wonder he was lonely. He’d said before that he’d never told anyone the truth he’d spilled here tonight.
What would it feel like to live on a completely foreign planet where no one knew the authentic version of you?
Granted, he’d mentioned a partner. Bast. But that was one person. In a sea of strangers. A sea of stars.
It was overwhelming. Crushingly lonely.
But none of that changed what he was gently telling me right now, that whatever was between us couldn’t happen.
I’d deal with the little ball of hurt ricocheting around my chest later. Later. I’d stuff it down with all the other things I’d be screaming into a pillow about once I got the chance.
For now, I had the opportunity to ask some of the million questions spiraling through my brain.
I just had to keep cool. To let this gentle rejection roll off me. And I could do that. I was a big girl.
It wasn’t like I didn’t have tons of practice pretending to be unaffected by Sky Acosta.
I turned back to my shrimp fried rice and grabbed a pair of chopsticks, pitching my tone light. “Well, if we’re not going to pass the time making out, I have questions.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him staring, as if my sudden acquiescence had surprised him.
Then his light chuckle broke the tension, and he shook his head, reaching for the chow mein again.
“I know you hate hearing this, but I can’t tell you much.
The Creed we follow is very specific. I’ve already broken so many rules telling you what I have.
” He winced, like the reminder was too much. “So many.”
I cocked a brow as I hefted my utensils. “You don’t think they’d make an exception for extenuating circumstances?”
“You don’t know Pladians,” he muttered, and I couldn’t argue with that. I knew exactly one, and he did indeed appear to be really into rules.
“Okay then.” I paused, pinching a piece of shrimp and looking over at him. “Was it really a solar flare, or is that all a big lie?”
He ran his tongue over his bottom lip, hesitating.
When he stayed quiet too long, I rolled my eyes and gave an exasperated growl. “Come on, Sky. You can’t drop bombshells like ‘you’re not alone in the universe’ and then give me nothing—”
“The Enil use the sun’s energy,” he interrupted, exhaling through his nose.
He grabbed one of the soft drinks and slurped it loudly enough to make me blink.
Swallowing, he studied the Styrofoam cup.
“They use solar energy to recharge their engine power cells. So yes, your sun’s energy is fluctuating because of their interference, but that’s not the whole truth. ”
I waited, brows high.
He rattled the ice in his drink. A silent battle of wills commenced until he relented with his own eye roll.
“Fine. Yes. As you’ve probably guessed, most of the unexplained things happening lately are connected to the Enil.
They use a world’s existing resources—technology, in Earth’s case—to create their suits.
The robot, as you called it.” He leaned forward to set the cup down.
“Their ships also absorb ambient electricity. That’s what’s been disrupting your power grids. ”
Power grids. Phone batteries. Car batteries.
It’d been aliens. This whole time. I swallowed hard. “So it was one big conspiracy.”
Sky pursed his lips but didn’t say anything further as he reached for an egg roll and crunched into it. It took me a few heartbeats to organize my thoughts.
An actual conspiracy. An alien invasion—infiltration—had been happening this whole time.
The vlogs were right. Kelly’s stupid reels, too.
When Sky swallowed his bite, I decided to push my luck. “If the Enil use a planet’s resources to create those suits, they’d look…different on different planets?”
That one, he didn’t seem against answering. Expression clouding, he nodded. “Which is why no two look the same here, either.”
I’d only had the pleasure of seeing one so far. Hopefully my luck held. “If the robot body is just a suit, what do the Enil actually look like?”
Sky paused mid-chew, eyes darting my way. When his jaw began to work again, it was more slowly. I waited. He took his time, like he was putting together his answer.
“Even the Pladians…don’t really know,” he said haltingly, after a moment.
“Sending biological forms into deep space at the speeds necessary to travel those kinds of distances…well, it’s difficult.
” He hefted the rest of his egg roll, examining it.
“The Enil found a workaround. They don’t send bodies.
Just minds. Programmed consciousnesses, transferred from their scout ships into the mechanical suits they create after landing. ” He lifted his eyes to mine.
I gawked at him. “So then that means…”
He nodded once, slowly. “Yeah. The suit doesn’t have a body in it.
Just a mind. That’s what I meant by I hadn’t technically killed that Enil in the lab.
” He polished off the rest of the appetizer and brushed crumbs from his fingertips, speaking around the mouthful.
“There’s only a programmed consciousness inside. ”
“If that’s not how the Pladians do it, how—”
“I’m really not supposed to tell you any of that, Rae,” Sky interrupted, mouth twisting. Something like a plea softened his voice. “I’ve taken an oath.”
“Who am I going to tell? The government?” I waved my marked palm. “They’d probably lock me up too, considering this.”
“That’s not the point…” He looked away. His posture had stiffened, shoulders tightening.
I’d reached his limit, it seemed. Okay, so no discussing his people. Got it.
“Fine. Something safe then.” When he didn’t protest, just eyed me sidelong—warily—I leaned in, unable to stop my eager tone. “What’s space like? You said you were born there, right?”
“I was.” He eased back into the couch, seeming to mull it over.
Probably deciding if telling me broke any of his rules. I held my breath.
Sighing, he turned his head. He wore a faint smirk. “I should’ve known you’d have a million questions.”
I pursed my lips, adjusting my grip on the chopsticks. “Sky, you’re an alien. Anybody would have a million questions.”