AN HOUR LATER, I SAT with Rune, Jasper, and Imani in a lounge on the main level of the ship. Creature comforts surrounded us: VR games, prepackaged snacks, holoscreens, and just about everything else. But the closest we’d come to using any of them was grabbing a few sodas from a fridge.
Well, okay. I’d borrowed a tablet and quietly downloaded the latest issue of Robo Mecha Dream Girl 5. I wasn’t callous enough to read it right now, but its presence in my wrist chip felt like an old friend had dropped by to say hello. Even though I much preferred reading on a tablet, I’d use the holoreader if necessary. Almost everything in my old life had gone up in a puff of smoke. Nothing I’d believed in mattered anymore. Robo Mecha Dream Girl 5, though, that I could hold on to. More than ever, actually, since Yumiko’s battles against evil corporations now had an edge of reality.
What we mostly did was pace. Alexei, Mia, and Cage were still missing. Reed had spent so much time drooling over the ship’s controls that Liam had offered him a reluctant tour. And the four of us were waiting.
I hated waiting.
Rune semi-dozed on a sofa, and Jasper and Imani stared out opposite windows. I hesitated, torn between Imani’s hollow expression and the two unread episodes of RMDG5, but my human side won out. I dropped onto a seat by Imani. “You okay?”
She nodded without looking at me. We sat in silence for a few minutes, gazing at the stars as they slid silently away. I tugged at my braid, nostalgia surging. “I didn’t realize how much I’d missed this view while we were on the alien ship.”
She smiled tiredly. “Try three years in a cell.”
I rested my head against the window. There hadn’t been accusation in her voice, but part of me itched to apologize all the same. I resisted the urge. I’d promised myself after we escaped Sanctuary that I wasn’t going to take the blame for Omnistellar’s ills anymore. They’d locked my friends in cells, but they’d done the same to my mind. The chip planted in my arm without my knowledge, without my permission, left a part of me permanently behind bars. “My dad is on the Omnistellar ship,” I told her now, still staring at the stars. Was Dad doing the same thing? “That’s going to be an awkward reunion.”
“You’re not on your own there.” She hesitated. “I lied, you know.”
“To my parents.” She blinked heavily, holding back tears. “I was so desperate to talk to them I didn’t even consider what I’d say about Aliya. When they asked me how she was, I lied. I said she was fine. I said we’d sent her to a family on Mars with another girl from the ship.” She closed her eyes, and tears slid over her cheeks. “Why did I do that? I’m going to have to tell them the truth sometime. And it will be twice as painful for them now.”
My heart lurched sickeningly. I relived the moment I’d found my mother’s body dangling from chains . . . my desperate search for a heartbeat. I heard Rita’s screams as the creatures tore her to shreds. I saw the life drain from Tyler’s eyes as the aliens dragged him from our hands.
And of course, I saw Matt . . . my friend Matt, lifeless on the floor because of my misaimed bullet.
To my horror, answering tears welled in my own eyes. I swallowed them firmly and laid a hesitant hand on Imani’s. Her fingers closed over mine and squeezed tightly. She tugged on her ear, gaze fixed on the window. “Sorry, Kenzie,” she said after a moment. “I know you’ve lost a lot too. It’s not only me.”
“We’ve never talked about it.” I took a deep breath of air, ignoring the tremble of my lungs around it. “Our families.”
“I guess I felt everyone’s awkwardness whenever they looked at me. I knew they were thinking about Aliya, even if they couldn’t bring themselves to say it. When I was with you, it was different. You had your own grief, your own pain. Not like you didn’t care about Aliya, but you didn’t look at me and wonder what to say. It was nice to just hang out.”
“I know exactly what you mean.” I slid closer and tucked my arm around her shoulders. “And for what it’s worth, I get why you lied. I wasn’t exactly honest with my dad, either.” I could have contacted him from the ship before my battery died, let him know I was okay. I’d chosen to let him suffer. Whether because, like Imani, I was afraid and didn’t know what to say, or because on some level I’d wanted him to experience the same pain and betrayal as me, I didn’t know. I didn’t dare consider the question too closely. “When the time comes, we’ll figure out what to tell your parents. I’ll help you if I can. Okay?”
She nodded, tipped her head onto my shoulder, and then quickly wiped the tears away with her knuckles. “Okay.”
Awkward silence stretched between us. “So,” I said, desperate to break it. “Hunting?”
She laughed through her tears. “I know. Not what you’d expect from a belle, but . . .”
“Belle?” I stared at her, taking in her delicately shaped eyes, perfectly formed lips. “You were a beauty belle?” Conversations from the ship drifted back to me: Imani analyzing my facial structure, my skin tone, talking about beauty blogs. I’d known she followed them, but I hadn’t realized she had her own.
“Top five hundred,” she returned defiantly. “My beauty channel was the most watched in Egypt two years running. I was sponsored and everything.”
I continued to gape, trying to imagine Imani running makeup tutorials. I mean, yeah, she was beautiful, and I’d noticed her habit of healing blemishes and hangnails, but . . . “What happened?”
“Omnistellar happened,” she replied, unable to keep a bitter edge out of her voice. “They found Aliya, and I couldn’t let them take her. We spent almost a year on the run before bounty hunters caught us.”
“And they put you on Sanctuary?” I asked. “How did they know you were an anomaly too?” Imani’s power didn’t lend itself to easy notice.
“I told them,” she replied, her chin jutting out in defiance. “What was I supposed to do? Let them send Aliya to that place on her own?”
I started to say something else, apology or question or I didn’t know what, but a sound caught my attention. I turned to find Cage, Mia, and Alexei in the doorway, none of them looking particularly happy. “Where’s Reed?” Cage asked, taking in the scene.
Jasper stretched and leaned forward. “If he got his way? Dismantling this ship piece by piece and pocketing the components. What’s going on?”
Alexei rubbed his face and took Mia’s hand for support. She let him. Aside from the times Mia was in danger, this was the least composed I’d ever seen him. “There are things I should explain.”
A shrill screech tore through the room, jerking Rune awake with a cry and sending the rest of us cringing to the floor, hands over our ears.
“Sorry!” came Reed’s voice, hollow and disembodied over the ship’s loudspeaker. “Oh man. Sorry, everyone. That was too loud.”
“Reed,” Mia growled in the same tone she would have used if she’d spotted a cockroach scurrying under the couch.
Liam shouted something in the background, and Reed said, “Yeah, yeah, I know! Delicate machinery! Got it!” He cleared his throat. “Attention, ladies and gentlemen. We are about to dock on Obsidian. All interested parties, please report to the cargo bay. That is all. Over and out. Signing off, farewell, and—ouch! ” A scuffle came over the loudspeaker, abruptly dying in another, mercifully less shrill, screech.
Silence.
The moment would have been comedic if not for Alexei dominating the scene, his face a mask of some unreadable emotion. I scanned Mia and Cage for clues, but no one gave anything away. “Alexei,” I said, “what’s going on here? If we’re walking into danger, you’d better let us know.”
He smiled grimly. “Oh, it’s danger, all right. Obsidian is my family’s station.”