SEVENTEEN

ALEXEI EXPLAINED AS WE RUSHED for the cargo bay. “My family is powerful in Russia. Powerful on Earth. Not corporate powerful, but the other side, the side the corporations don’t touch.”

Organized crime, in other words. I bit my lip to keep from judging. After all, I’d spent seventeen years blindly believing every lie Omnistellar fed me. I tried not to leap to conclusions anymore. “It wasn’t a life I was interested in leading,” Alexei continued, “even before my parents and my brother were killed in a . . . terrorist attack.” He glanced at Mia, almost imperceptibly, and suddenly I remembered she’d been in prison for domestic terrorism.

She was framed, Cage had told me.

Was she? Unbidden, my gaze also slid to Mia.

She caught my look and muttered a curse. “Are you going to ask if I did it?”

I stared at her a moment longer. Rune, Jasper, and Cage all watched me expectantly, although I wasn’t sure what they were waiting for. “I don’t have to,” I replied at last, realizing as I said it that it was true. Mia was violent and unpredictable and volatile. But she never meant to hurt anyone. I knew that now.

To my surprise, her mask wavered, something like vulnerability surfacing before she slammed it down. “I might disappoint you,” she said, so quietly I barely heard her.

My heart skipped a beat. Beside me, Rune stopped short. “So, you did it? You killed Alexei’s family?”

“They took my sister.” The words spilled out of Mia in a rush, her gaze fixed on the floor, her hand lost in Alexei’s grip. Imani tensed at the words. “Or he did. There was a man, someone who . . . who used me occasionally. Once he learned of my powers, he’d have me set things up for him, steal things, spy. That kind of crap. I went along with it because he paid me well, and I needed to take care of Shannon.” She swallowed hard. I got the sense she hadn’t said that name in years, that she hadn’t meant to say it now. But as always, she recovered quickly. “And maybe because I was afraid.” She met each of our stares in turn, bright, challenging, as if she expected we’d pounce on her admission of weakness.

But no one did. We all knew fear. Jasper moved toward her, but Cage gestured him back. “What happened, Mia?” he asked softly.

She sighed. “They wanted me to get my hands dirty, starting with Alexei’s family. There was a bomb. I was supposed to plant it on the top floor of their hotel and let it go off. I refused, obviously. But when I got home . . .” She took an unconscious step closer to Alexei, and he slid behind her, still holding her close. “Shannon was gone. No one knew where she was. My mom was never in any condition to notice anything. Even her youngest daughter being kidnapped, apparently. And then he called me. Caleb.” She put so much fury and hatred into the name, I didn’t have to ask who he was.

“Caleb wanted Mia to assassinate my father.” Alexei picked up the thread of her tale. “And also, me, my mother, and my brother. He threatened to kill Shannon if she resisted. So Mia went to the hotel, all the way to the penthouse. But when she saw my little brother . . .”

“I couldn’t do it,” Mia snapped. “All right? I didn’t want to kill anyone, even a notorious criminal like Lex’s dad. I certainly wasn’t going to murder a child. But in that moment of hesitation, I lost my invisibility, and Alexei saw me.” She glanced at him, and he slid a hand over her face. Turning her cheek into his palm briefly, she continued, “He followed me outside. He’d never seen another anomaly before. He was fascinated. He . . .” She looked at him with an expression I couldn’t read, something I’d never seen on her face before. “He knew what I’d been sent to do, and he didn’t blame me.”

Alexei shrugged as if dismissing the murder plot against his entire family. “My father was a horrible man. Many people wanted him dead. Besides, you didn’t go through with it.”

“No, but Caleb did. He suspected I’d fail him, so he had a backup in place. And he pinned it on me.”

“My father died in that explosion,” Alexei continued. “No great loss.” The tendons on his neck stood out. “But so did my mother. Vitaly, my brother. And for them, I needed revenge. Unfortunately, by that point . . . Mia did too.”

“Alexei’s father and uncle founded Obsidian almost a decade ago,” Mia broke in quickly. She obviously didn’t want to discuss the vengeance they’d taken, or what had happened to her sister. She didn’t need to. I remembered Alexei’s words on Sanctuary: Mia had a little sister. “They made it the interstellar hub for black-market deals and organized crime. Kenzie, you asked why Omnistellar allowed somewhere like Obsidian to continue. The short answer is, it suits their needs. If there’s something they don’t want to get their hands dirty with, Alexei’s uncle takes care of it. In exchange, they leave him Obsidian.”

Jasper let out a slow whistle. “And that’s where we’re going? A hub for organized crime run by Alexei’s uncle?”

Alexei nodded. “An uncle who may try to throw me out an airlock, yes. The Danshovs blame Mia for the attack. They believe the official line. And they think I am izmennik—a traitor. That I chose the girl who murdered my family over them.”

“Fantastic.” I turned to Cage. “Any bright ideas?”

“Hijack the ship?”

But even if he’d been serious, Rune was already shaking her head. “There’s no way we get anywhere but Mars without refueling, and even if we did, somehow I don’t think we’d be welcomed at any station with a stolen ship and warrants for our arrests. We’re going to have to dock on Obsidian. Alexei, can you reason with your uncle?”

Alexei snorted eloquently.

By now we’d reached the doors to the cargo bay. Alexei hesitated. “I hate to even suggest it, Mia mine, but . . . maybe you should stay on the ship.”

She shrugged. “I will if you want me to,” she said, uncharacteristically agreeable. “If you think you can trust Liam not to tattle. And if you think your uncle doesn’t already know I’m here. And if you think Obsidian doesn’t have the technology to scan the ship and notice someone left behind, and if you’re sure they’re not going to kill the life support while refueling or doing maintenance or—”

“All right.” Alexei scowled. “I get the point.”

As we reached the door, Imani suddenly stepped in front of Mia. The girls’ eyes met, and Imani seemed to falter. “Mia,” she said softly, wringing her hands as if trying to break her own fingers.

Mia hesitated, not looking at her, then nodded. “Thanks,” she muttered. That seemed to satisfy Imani, and we entered the cargo bay to find Liam and Reed arguing over something. Reed blocked the controls, arms spread wide, a look of terror on his face, and Liam . . .

Liam stood in front of him pointing a pistol at his chest.

I’d barely registered the pistol before Mia raced across the room, catching Liam’s arm and shoving it into the air, stomping on his instep in the same movement. Alexei leaped to her assistance, but she didn’t need him: by the time he arrived, Liam was on the floor with Mia’s foot on his throat, the gun trained on his face. “Why don’t you go ahead and move?” she suggested pleasantly. Her every limb trembled with restrained violence, as if eager to compensate for her recent disclosures.

Liam scowled and sputtered something.

“Mia,” said Cage, “I think you’re choking him.”

She considered that for a moment, then stepped back, releasing him but keeping him in her sights. “Want to repeat yourself?”

Liam sat, gagging and choking theatrically. “Bloody hell.”

“What’s going on?” Imani demanded of Reed.

He scowled. “I said not to open the doors until all of you arrived. He said he was getting off this ship now. I told him to wait, and he pulled a gun on me.”

Liam sniffed daintily, rubbing his throat. “Well, joke’s on you, kiddo. That gun’s not loaded.”

Mia hesitated, then twisted her wrist to check. The second she did, Liam lunged for her. He encountered Alexei’s fist halfway through his leap and collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

“It is so loaded,” Mia said crossly.

Alexei sighed and glared at Liam’s unconscious form. “Guess we’ll have to open the doors sometime.”

We quickly filled Reed in on what Alexei had told us. He responded with his characteristic optimism: “We have enough fuel to get us back to Mars,” he suggested.

“And what then?”

“I don’t know. Hide in the desert until we run out of life support? It’s sounding like the best option at the moment.”

Rune sighed and flicked her fingers toward the console. Gears shifted, and the doors slid open. The rest of us withdrew, weapons held loosely, ready for action.

The seals parted, and three uniformed security guards strode inside, looking so official that for a moment I almost could have been on a corporate station. Three more stood in the docking ring, weapons drawn. They all stared at Liam’s unmoving body. The man at the front of the group scowled. “We ordered him to open the doors some time ago.”

Alexei shrugged. “He fell.”

The guard didn’t seem amused. “You will follow us.”

We exchanged unhappy glances, but there wasn’t much choice. We followed them.

I craned my neck, desperate for my first glimpse of a rogue prison station. Was this what Cage had in mind when he took over Sanctuary? Another Obsidian? Or did he only mean to escape, to secure passage off the station for himself and his friends, maybe even get them to Obsidian itself? Had he known a station like this existed? Aside from Earth, Obsidian must be the only place in the solar system a criminal could disappear. Everywhere else was too small, too rigid. On Earth, you still had government-run territories, places the cunning and ruthless remained hidden.

And apparently on Obsidian, you had what was essentially a mafia-run space station. My head swam. I’d heard rumors of the place, of course, but Omnistellar had quickly dismissed them. They described Obsidian as a run-down first-generation prison. Nothing more, and nothing less. With better technology, better orbital prisons, and better security on planetside facilities, Omnistellar had made the decision to abandon Obsidian almost ten years ago, and it had sat empty ever since.

Well, that much I could declare categorically false. Sure, the station looked a bit old-fashioned, with less shiny chrome and more exposed pipework than Sanctuary. But Omnistellar’s unique brand of architecture was everywhere. We emerged into a large docking ring and ascended a lift, exiting into what should have been the crew quarters. I suspected if I made a break for my right, I’d find the entrance to the prison spiraling below the domed station proper. Except who the hell knew what was down there now? I wished I’d had more time to question Alexei. I hated walking into a situation blind. If there was one thing Omnistellar had drilled into me, it was preparation. We had the Cub Scouts trounced in that area. And yet here I was, with almost no information, marching into a situation I’d considered fantasy until fifteen minutes before.

Three security guards in front, three behind, they led us through seemingly deserted halls. I scrutinized the others. Cage stared straight ahead, his dark eyes working frantically as they always did when he planned. I hoped he was coming up with something good, because right now I had nothing. Rune was on his other side, chewing her bottom lip, her hands clenched into fists. Alexei and Mia walked in front of us, their arms almost touching, both seemingly relaxed aside from the tension in their shoulders. I glanced behind me and caught Reed whispering to Jasper. He winked at me. I exchanged worried looks with Imani. Sometimes Reed’s easygoing nature bordered on denial. Jasper at least seemed appropriately concerned.

The guards led us inside what should have been the commander’s rooms. The quarters resembled my own back on Sanctuary so closely my heart gave a sickening lurch. The decor was different, and it was a bit bigger. But Omnistellar had clearly kept the same room model when they designed their newer stations. For a moment I pictured my parents lounging on the couch, Mom going over work schedules, Dad reading the old historical novels he loved. It even smelled the same.

I swallowed a lump in my throat. This wasn’t home. My bed wasn’t through that door. That room was gone forever.

And so was my mother.

The security guards withdrew, leaving us alone. Before anyone could speak, a massive, broad-shouldered man strode into the room. He was the spitting image of Alexei in thirty years, but with a mean edge Alexei lacked. Even dressed in a button-down shirt and casual pants, even without weapons, even lounging casually against the wall, he made my heart catch. Cage’s arm tensed against mine and I knew he sensed danger too.

“Uncle Grigori,” Alexei said coldly. He shifted subtly, pressing Mia behind him and placing himself between all of us and his uncle.

Grigori broke into a broad grin. “Lyosha,” he said, stepping forward to embrace his nephew. Alexei returned the hug one-armed, his right hand remaining deceptively loose at his side, ready for action. Grigori withdrew and held Alexei at arm’s length, examining his face. “Prison has been kind to you, my boy. Perhaps kinder than you deserved, huh?”

He chuckled. Alexei did not. “It seems we find ourselves in need of your assistance,” he said through clenched teeth, as if every word pained him.

“Of course. Of course!” Grigori spread his arms wide, encompassing all of us in a suddenly beatific smile. I drew a step closer to Cage, who slid his hand against the small of my back, and we both moved to shield Rune from his view. “Let me see if I understand the situation. You have all escaped from prison and have Omnistellar on your tails. You staged a second prison break on Mars, then proceeded to blow up a valuable piece of alien technology. And now you have incapacitated the man sent to help you and left him bleeding on the deck of his own ship. Have I summarized the situation?”

“Well, when you put it that way,” Jasper said dryly, “it does sound kind of bad.”

“Sent to help us?” I broke in sharply. “He said he came to destroy the alien ship.”

Grigori brushed that aside. “Of course, of course. I misspoke.” Had he, though? Grigori didn’t strike me as someone who made mistakes. Who the hell was Liam? I believed his story, as far as it went. But that lingering sense of mistrust warned me he hadn’t told us everything.

Cage and I exchanged nervous glances. Grigori’s genial act was somehow almost painful in its duplicitousness. You could read through every friendly glance. He was a man of pure danger, and every muscle in my body sensed it.

All at once, the mask slid away, leaving only malice in its place. Grigori switched to Russian, presumably not aware I understood him. I kept my face carefully blank as he said, “I am happy to help you, Lyosha, on two conditions. One, that you run a small errand, nothing of importance, for me. And two . . .” He nodded in Mia’s direction. “She does not draw another breath on my station.”