MY FIRST THOUGHT WAS OF Robo Mecha Dream Girl. Of Yumiko, standing in the center of a parking lot as a mech ten times her height advanced, its red eyes flaming, its massive arms clutching a weapon capable of shattering her into dozens of pieces.
Karoch held no weapon.
It didn’t need one.
It was at least twenty feet tall and embodied the worst of the aliens: the slimy, glistening skin, the monstrous claws, the razor-sharp fangs. But whereas they had white, unseeing eyes, Karoch’s glimmered with inhuman intelligence. Its pupils dilated against the electric light, and its gaze flickered around the room, absorbing the situation.
Coming to rest on me.
Strangely, for the first time, I felt no fear.
The others stifled their gasps, and the creatures halted their assault as their leader approached. The room was deathly silent.
I stepped around the corner and became Robo Mecha Dream Girl. I faced off against the creature, me and my nothingness, only the gaping void separating me from sixteen-inch lethal claws and a jaw that could snap me in half.
But when our eyes met, it was Karoch’s that flickered in fear.
I reached inside myself and found Liam’s power, and I drew.
Karoch snarled. It reared its head and lumbered forward, unsteady and clumsy but big and tenacious and powerful enough to crush any of us with a single blow. As if its movement was a signal, the other creatures roared, howled, a deafening cry swallowing us in its fury.
Jasper leaped to my side and slammed his left hand forward. The creatures staggered back as missiles rolled from their racks, crashing into them and sending them flying. Apparently, we’d abandoned all notion of treating the explosives with care.
It didn’t matter. We didn’t need them much longer.
“Get everyone together!” I shouted. “At the side of the room where Cage and Rune are! Now, go, move!”
Everyone lunged into action, and the room, which had lulled momentarily with Karoch’s dramatic appearance, erupted into chaos. Screams and shouts and gunfire. Powers bursting, from my friends and the creatures. Howls. Shouts. Orders.
But in the midst of it all, two figures stood silent and still: Karoch and me, staring at each other. I knew instinctively that when I moved, it would too. And this time I didn’t dare let go of its power and try to grab Cage’s. I couldn’t barrel across the room with lightning speed.
We faced off, and I had never felt so small and helpless—but also so determined, so completely sure of what I was doing. Karoch was afraid of me. I sensed it radiating from the hive mind, no matter how hard it tried to hide it.
And fear was not an emotion it was used to. That, and that alone, probably kept us alive. With the creatures off balance, my friends slowly but surely gained ground, stealing their way toward Rune.
Someone screamed, and I swear to God it was Mia. That girl had managed to put herself in the path of every danger we’d encountered even before she developed her sparkly new death wish. I didn’t dare turn my head to check, though. It felt like my gaze was keeping Karoch locked in place. It was doing the same to me. Its jaws parted and a trail of something oozed from one of its fangs, pooling on the ground by an impossibly large foot, a curved claw capable of separating my head from my body in a single swipe.
I swallowed, and my resolve faltered.
As if my fear had somehow freed it, Karoch took a thundering step toward me. The ground shuddered and I staggered, my heart hammering against my ribs. It snarled, and I got the distinct sense I’d lost a battle I didn’t know I was fighting. Somehow I had to steel myself, face it, but now the other creatures were closing in around me, snarling and swiping and screeching. Shudders racked my body, and I didn’t know what to do. I was alone and helpless and so goddamn afraid.
A burst of wind struck me, almost toppling me, and then hands had me and I was in Cage’s arms. His eyes glimmered above me, blood dripping from a cut on the side of his head, sweat plastering his hair flat, but then he grinned, and he was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. “I thought I’d save you one last time,” he said, “before you save all of us. If, of course, you don’t mind.”
Karoch threw its head back and roared, and I grabbed on to Cage’s arms in answer. He hoisted me up and drove through the aliens, tilting me against him, protecting me from the swarm as he carried me to safety, exactly like he had on Sanctuary. I curled into his chest, and for one blissful second it wasn’t my responsibility to keep us safe, not my job to carry out our crazy plan. I was safe and hidden and could be as weak as I damn well chose and there was no one to lecture me about it.
All too soon Cage was setting me on my feet and the moment was over. The weight of our lives rebounded onto my shoulders. But somehow it seemed a bit lighter with everyone together and Cage’s arms still around me.
My eyes met Karoch’s, and it screamed in fury. The creatures lunged toward us, but even as they moved, Jasper threw a twisted heap of metal between us, creating an elaborate barrier. “Kenzie!” he shouted, his muscles jackknifing with effort. “If you’re going to get us out of here, now’s the time!”
I closed my eyes, letting Karoch’s power envelop me, and I reached further than ever before, into the depths of space itself. I didn’t know how to control this ability now any more than I had before. But back on the Omnistellar ship, I’d wished to go somewhere we could beat the aliens, and that seemed to be where I’d taken us. So now, with all my strength, I wished to go home.
There wasn’t the sickening lurch of using Liam’s power. Karoch was stronger. More controlled. Space and time shifted at my command, molecules aligning beneath my will. Something jolted against me—Karoch, trying to seize the power. But I was in too deep. I imagined Liam, his mocking face, and Alexei, and Tyler, and my parents, and everyone who’d died, and I drew strength from them as I pulled.
Suddenly, a blue shimmer of light erupted in front of me. I staggered, almost stumbling into it. “What is it?” Mia asked, so close she made me jump even here and now. I pivoted to find her clutching her torn side, blood oozing through her shirt, her face pale.
“A portal?” I guessed. “At least that’s what I hope it is.”
She made a face. “Great. So do we go through it?”
“Someone do something!” Jasper shouted. “Before—”
His barrier slammed toward us with sudden violence. Jasper braced himself and shoved both arms forward. The metal disintegrated, but a shock wave of power swept from it, staggering all of us—and dropping Jasper, who collapsed into a heap at my feet. “No!” I screamed.
Karoch roared.
The aliens charged.
“No time to wait!” Cage shouted. “Let’s go! Matt, Hallam, grab Jasper. Everyone move!”
Cage, Matt, and I shoved the others through the portal until only we and Rune remained. She grabbed Matt’s arm. “Hey,” she said, and she stood on her toes to kiss him.
Cage groaned. “Now?” he demanded incredulously.
Rune pulled back, and Matt staggered, his eyes wide. “Rune …”
“Go,” she urged.
Karoch roared behind us, and Matt smiled. “Later,” he promised.
“Later,” Rune agreed, sadness shadowing her eyes. Matt leaped through the portal.
“Come on!” Cage ordered his sister. “Set off the missiles and let’s go!”
Rune, her hand laid against the computer console, shook her head, giving us a small smile. “I can’t go.”
“Rune!” I screamed. The aliens had surrounded us and were awaiting Karoch. It twisted toward us and lumbered a step forward, its mouth splitting in a hideous snarl. “We don’t have time for this.”
“I can’t,” she repeated. “There’s no way to activate a timer on the missiles. I have to be in contact with the system to set them off.”
Cage’s face went dark and ugly. “Screw that.”
“Gege. This has to end. There’s no point in me going through a portal only to die in a few hours when the aliens chase us home.”
“Then I’ll do it!” He grabbed her arm and yanked her out of the crevice, shoving her aside. “Just tell me what to do.”
“You can’t do it.” Rune turned her big dark eyes on me. “Tell him, Kenzie.”
“No.” I spun from her to Karoch, drawing closer by the second. We had to go. “I’ll do it. I can use your power. I can—”
“Not when I’m a dimension away from you, you can’t. It has to be me.” A tear formed at the corner of her eye and spilled over her cheek, but she was smiling. “Tell the others I love them.”
Cage tightened his grip on her shoulders, physically barring her from the computer console. “You’re crazy if you think I’ll let you do this.”
“It’s me or everyone, Cage. Not even that. Me now, or me and everyone in a few hours. You’d agree if you were thinking clearly.” She put her hands on his arms and yanked him in, hugging him until he let go of her shoulders and slid his hands around her, pulling her close.
At the same time, she was maneuvering him. Turning his back to the portal. Our eyes met over Cage’s shoulder, and Rune nodded.
I couldn’t. I couldn’t.
But what other choice was there?
Biting my lip so hard the pain echoed through my skull, I stepped out of the way.
“I love you, gege,” she said, and she shoved him.
Cage stumbled, arms pinwheeling, eyes wide in surprise. For a second he looked like he’d right himself …
But then he fell through the portal and disappeared.
“Go,” said Rune. “Before he comes back.”
Karoch thundered toward me. I didn’t even have time to say good-bye. I met Rune’s eyes and saw the same serene resignation I’d seen earlier, but this time I understood.
Once I’d thought I’d have to sacrifice myself to save my friends. And while I hadn’t wanted to die, I’d been willing to take that risk. Now, staring into Rune’s face, I saw my own conviction gazing back at me. I wanted to hug her and reassure her and thank her and save her and just have one more minute to say anything, do anything, give her the farewell she deserved.
But instead, as Karoch’s massive claw swiped at my head, I leaped into the portal and yanked it shut behind me.