Chapter 33
WHAT HAPPENS IF HE’S RIGHT AND OTHER IMPOSSIBLE TEST QUESTIONS
Yeah, this was going just as swimmingly as I’d thought it might.
I hadn’t even made it a quarter of the way into the exam, and the questions were already blurring together. I rubbed my eyes with one hand and tapped my pencil with the other before staring blankly at the paper test this old-school professor insisted on using.
I didn’t remember half of this from the study guide.
One glance at the clock made me squirm in my chair. Time was draining away.
It was like my brain had dumped all the media communications information to make room for words like Pladia and halix and angry Enil set on performing lobotomies. I shuddered.
“Focus,” I whispered under my breath, hoping it might help. It didn’t.
It did annoy my neighbor, a bushy-haired girl who shot me a glare. I mouthed an apology and trained my eyes downward.
Why do we need market research…
Why do we…
Blank. Buzzing blankness filled my head. I tightened my grip on my pencil, lead hovering over the question bubbles. My palm was just visible, the shapes etched into my skin glimmering.
Alien writing.
With an effort, I turned my attention back to the test. Market research helped…it helped with…
Rushing erupted from the vent nearby, and I jumped, biting back a gasp. Air stirred the fine hairs escaping my braid. It was just the HVAC. A bead of sweat trickled down my spine, and I tucked the swaying strand behind my ear.
Just like Sky had done before I’d come in for this test.
That whole interaction hadn’t helped my ability to concentrate.
I turned to look at the closed door. I couldn’t see him through the tiny window, but I knew he was out there.
Standing guard. He’d been leaning with one boot braced against the wall, hands in his pockets, his ball cap pulled low over his eyes when I’d rushed into the classroom with thirty seconds to spare.
Oddly enough, he’d looked completely at home in a college hallway. He wasn’t kidding about his ability to blend in. At least, until you noticed how alert he was. How closely he watched everything. Like he was searching for a threat.
Which, to be fair, was exactly what he was doing.
A very real threat.
The longer the test dragged on, the more jittery I felt. Like the passing of each second wound the coiled dread in my chest a little tighter.
Tearing my gaze from the door, I looked around the classroom instead.
Were any of these students involved in this alien madness? Were there FETR members among us? Did anyone else know the threats hidden in the sky above?
At least…I assumed they were up there. Where were the Enil when they weren’t in their robot mech suits? In those balls of light like the one that’d run me off the road? I hadn’t gotten around to asking Sky. There wasn’t a guarantee he’d tell me, of course, but…
God. I wasn’t paying any attention to this stupid test. It was dumb to even be here. What was one midterm in the middle of all this—
Suddenly, I realized my hand was moving.
I inhaled sharply and yanked the pencil away from the paper. But it was too late. The damage was done.
The writing utensil slipped from my numb fingers and clattered onto the floor. Heads turned my way, but I didn’t care.
Because I’d scrawled alien scribbles all over my paper’s margin.
My heart skidded to a stop before pounding double-time.
I had no memory of writing any of it.
“No way,” I whispered, picking up the paper. I brought it close enough that it brushed the tip of my nose. My hand shook.
“Shhh!” Bushy Hair hissed at me.
I ignored her.
The lines weren’t random. Not a doodle. They were…strangely familiar.
Maybe because I was wearing them. They were the same kinds of shapes on my hand. Pladian writing.
I’d just written Pladian on my comm test.
“Holy shit,” I whispered, clutching the paper tightly enough that it wrinkled.
My neighbor’s glare drilled into the side of my face. “SHH!”
And then—
Pop.
The lights went out.
My fingers spasmed on the test, and I stiffened. Gasps and titters rose around me. The blinds had been pulled shut on the three rectangular windows, and the murky beams of sunlight sliced through the cracks.
“Relax,” the bored professor said from where he’d been surfing the internet on his work computer. His screen was dark now, too. “It’s just a power surge.”
That didn’t make me feel better. Mainly because I knew those power surges were just a flimsily constructed excuse.
A cover-up for something much worse.
Seconds later, the emergency lights flared on, casting everything in an eerie, pale glow. Washing out faces into skeletal visages. Like something from a haunted house.
Also not exactly reassuring.
I gripped the edge of the desk with my free hand, breaths shallow, and looked toward the door. My fingers trembled, and I accidentally wrinkled the test even more. I still couldn’t see Sky through the narrow window. The hall was dark, too.
“Everyone, stay calm, please,” the professor called over the murmurs increasing in volume. “We should be used to this by now. This is likely residual from the solar flares. Let’s give it a minute…”
I stopped listening. Because a prickling, tingling feeling was gathering beneath my skin. The hair on my arms and the back of my neck stood on end. The air was coming alive.
I knew that feeling.
It was unmistakable. I’d felt it before, once in the road, when I’d seen a UFO. Then again, in the lab.
Which meant—
I bolted to my feet, slinging my bag over my shoulder. A tremor shook the floor, a subtle, nearly imperceptible vibration. But I registered it. It settled hard in my gut, hollowing it out.
We were so screwed.
“Raven? What are you doing?” my professor asked, clearly startled when I whirled and began to move quickly.
I didn’t spare him a glance, weaving through the rows of desks. I nearly kicked over a woman’s purse in my haste. People were staring.
The wall-mounted TV burst to life in a fizzing blaze of static. Sparks spat from the connection in the wall. Someone screamed.
Screw this.
I broke into a run, shoving the crumpled test deep into my pocket. Later. I could worry about that later. I almost crashed into a student by the door, but I shoved past him and reached for the handle—only to stop short, gasping.
Not again.
My palm was glowing.
The brilliant white glow seeped from beneath my skin, illuminating the bone, sinew, and blood vessels beneath. It turned my flesh translucent and cast an ethereal halo of light around me, a veritable beacon.
The guy I’d nearly run into stumbled back, eyes wide. “What the hell—”
“Shit,” I agreed.
I made a fist. It did a total of nothing since the light streamed out between my fingers. Giving up, I reached for the door with my other hand, ripped it open, and stumbled through.
“Sky!” I yelled before I’d even made it two steps.
The hallway shuddered.
My startled yelp snagged in my throat as I spun in a circle. The walls shook, raining down dust. Terrified shouts and cries rose through the din. The fire alarm activated, its shrieking horns joining the chorus of screams and pounding feet rounding the corner.
The fear that surged through me was slick and cold, forming a ball in my chest and stealing my breath.
I heard them before I saw them—pounding feet, panicked shouting.
Coming from around the far corner. Before I could move, running, frightened people flooded the hallway.
Someone clipped my shoulder, pushing me off to the side.
I flattened myself against the wall and frantically searched the faces streaking past.
“Sky!”
A wide-eyed man grabbed me. “There’s a— I don’t even know, but you’ve got to run!”
Run. Running sounded great. But Sky was here somewhere.
Pushing free, I yelled his name again and gave the stranger a light shove back into the fray. He didn’t wait around, and I didn’t blame him. Especially as another ominous rumble shook the building.
I hesitated, every cell urging me to follow the crowd. But I was safer with Sky. And he had to be here somewhere. He wouldn’t have left me.
…right?
Movement in my periphery stole my breath—
And there he was.
Sky melted from the shadows, his outline solidifying between one blink and the next.
“Holy crap,” I whispered, staring. Forgetting, for a moment, the imminent doom bearing down on us.
That invisibility was a handy trick. He’d demonstrated it in my apartment, but it was wholly different now, with the adrenaline riding high in my veins and that battle-ready tension he radiated.
His chest heaved like he’d been running, and his eyes glinted every shade of blue in the white light pouring from my palm. His attention dropped to it before lurching back to my face.
“Did it light up before the power went out?”
“No,” I said, fisting my blazing hand. “Or wait—maybe around the same time.”
His hat was gone, and nothing hid his grim expression. He looked deadly serious, focused, and intense.
I’d never seen him like this. Even when he’d found me on the side of the road. Even when he’d shown up at my apartment. Gone was any of the softness leftover from when he’d asked me to trust him and tucked my hair behind my ear with gentle fingers.
Which was probably for the best because a second later he bit out, “The Enil are here. One of their mech-suits just assembled in the boiler room.”
Oh my God.
Terror rooted me in place until Sky grasped my shoulder, pulling me out from the path of more fleeing students. It was enough to jolt me from my shock. I abandoned my pride and threw my arms around his waist, clinging to him in a way I’d undoubtedly be embarrassed about later.
Had these people seen it? Was that why everyone was running and screaming? Evil, murderous robots would do that. Maybe this was finally the incident that couldn’t be explained away and lied about.
There was no way all these people would forget seeing a rampaging Enil in the halls. Especially without Sky to do his brain-zapping thing.
Which he wouldn’t be here to do because surely we were also about to get the hell out of here.
But when Sky didn’t move, I eased my grip and leaned back, peering up at him. “Why aren’t we running, too?” I shouted over the screams and blaring alarm.
He opened his mouth, but a distant boom answered before he could. He swore instead, tensing against me as the building rocked. I buried my face in his shoulder. Emergency lights blinked, and dust fluttered like snow from the vents.
And then I heard it.
A roar. Far away and muffled under all the other noise. But unmistakable.
That same mechanical, garbled sound that haunted my nightmares.
My insides tightened, panic clamping my throat shut. I squeezed Sky’s waist harder, slowly raising my head again.
“It’s too late,” Sky answered finally, when the shaking had subsided. There was resignation gleaming in his eyes, in the thin line his lips formed. “Stay close to me, okay?”
Stay close? I couldn’t get any closer, unless I crawled inside his skin. Which, admittedly, might be safer.
I flinched when the building gave another almighty shudder.
With a crackle, the nearest emergency light exploded, plunging us into dusty darkness.
Distant sunlight filtered in beams from the hall’s mouth and open doors.
It did nothing to dim the glow my palm gave off. It shone even brighter in the gloom.
“Are they here for me?” I asked Sky, gripping his shirt with my non-flashlight hand.
He wasn’t looking at me, and he didn’t respond. He didn’t need to. I wasn’t stupid. I knew the answer.
I’d come to the school despite his warnings. Naively thinking I could pretend, even for one afternoon, that this nightmare wasn’t real. I’d been trying to cling to routine, and look where that’d gotten me.
“We need to go,” I said again, pulling away. Running had to be better than just standing here.
“There’s no use,” Sky said, his face hardening. His eyes were on the distant hallway opening. The one all the scared people had come from. “They tracked you. If we run, they’ll just follow.”
Oh God. Tracked me. I uncurled my fingers. He’d been right. We were trapped, and they’d come for me.
My hand radiated light like a signal flare. Like a lighthouse. Except instead of guiding ships to me, it was summoning alien robots. Sickness roiled in my gut. “So what do we do?”
“You stay here,” Sky said, turning away. He paused long enough to look over his shoulder at me. “And I eliminate the threat.”
“Eliminate the…” I sagged against the wall, staring at him. He was going to fight them? Here? “Wait, Sky—”
“Stay behind me, okay?” With that, he swiveled to face the hallway, settling into a waiting stillness.
I gaped at him, clutching my shining hand to my chest. He seemed oddly calm for someone about to take on a giant Megatron. Like he did this every day.
Did he do this every day, in between mixing martinis?
It suddenly occurred to me that I had no idea.
Tearing my attention from him, I cast a frantic look around for something, anything, to help. It was useless. Nothing would help against the thing I’d encountered in the lab days ago. I was a liability.
Maybe I should run, and he could stay here and do whatever it was he—
All thought drained away when the air vibrated. Every hair on my body lifted. Pulse pounding, I sent one more longing look toward the hallway’s end, where everyone had disappeared.
A metallic groan echoed beneath the droning alarm. Close. Closer than it’d been a second ago.
My chest caved beneath crushing fear. In slow motion, I turned. The lights strobed, but the disorienting flickers did nothing to mask what waited.
An Enil had shown up in Kepler Hall, and it wasn’t here to take a midterm.