by Caryn Lix
“Well, only kind of,” I replied, and quickly explained Liam’s theory: Omnistellar was working on summoning the damn aliens to steal their tech.
He took it about as well as could be expected, shaking his head, his eyes wide in disbelief. “No offense, but your company is short a few brain cells.”
I scowled. “It’s not my company, not anymore. And we’d better get out of here. This is someone’s home, and from the looks of it, someone important.”
“Can we stop for just one minute?” Imani sounded on the verge of hysterics. I blinked. I’d never heard her speak with anything but perfect calm. Even when she’d been on the edge of tears, her control remained in place. Now she trembled, her hands clenched into fists. The encounter with the bounty hunters had shaken her. “We haven’t rested in hours. We’re exhausted. We’re going to start making stupid decisions very soon. In fact, we already are.”
Jasper laid a gentle hand on her arm, and she peered at him through a veil of unshed tears. He said, “We do need to rest. But this is not the place to do it. We might still have hunters on our tails, and Kenzie’s right: whoever lives here isn’t going to be happy to see us. Okay? Let’s keep moving. We’ll find someplace safe soon.”
“Will we? Where on this station is safe?” Imani shook him off and stomped her foot. “Where in this solar system is safe for us now? I wish I’d stayed on Mars with the others.”
Mia scowled. “If that’s what you want, we’ll find a way to get you back there. And if you want to stay here while the rest of us move on, that’s fine too.”
“Take it easy, Mia,” said Jasper quietly. Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t tear into him. “Imani. We’re all scared. It’s going to be okay. Keep moving a bit longer, all right?” I wasn’t sure anyone but me caught his next words, spoken so softly I barely heard him. “I know you’re thinking about Aliya. About who’s going to tell your parents what happened. I’m thinking about my family too. It’ll be okay. I promise.”
So, he’d been listening to us back on the ship. Imani didn’t seem to catch that detail. She laughed shakily and wiped her eyes. “Sorry,” she said. “Sorry. I’m tired. I’m . . .”
Cage was already on the move, checking other rooms. “No one’s here,” he reported. “We can stop for a few moments, Imani. Okay?”
She nodded gratefully and sank onto the leather couch, Jasper beside her, keeping his hand on her arm and speaking softly. Our eyes met, and he nodded. A wave of some unrecognizable emotion surged over me, concern and love and gratitude and fear and sadness somehow all bundled into the pit of my stomach. Jasper understood family. He, more than anyone except me, knew what Imani was going through.
Cage and Rune drew to the side a bit, Rune recounting their capture in hushed tones, and Mia and Alexei sat on either side of the door, their hands joined across it. That left Reed and me as an awkward duo near the holoscreen. Was he going to ask about my powers? What was happening to me? Was my ability to understand languages somehow becoming an ability to translate powers? I squeezed my fists to hide my shaking hands and pushed it to the back of my mind. Practical concerns. Something, anything to distract me.
I glanced at the stun baton in Cage’s hands. It was the only weapon we had. If someone came through that door, we might need it. But I didn’t want to interrupt him to say anything. Besides, Alexei and Mia wouldn’t let anyone in. They hadn’t chosen their position by coincidence.
Reed had vanished while I considered this, but now he reappeared with his arms full of bottled water and a bag of dried fruit dangling from his hand. “I raided the kitchen,” he said around a mouthful of apples, passing the bag to me.
I only hesitated a second before helping myself. We were so far beyond breaking the law that a handful of rations probably didn’t matter. I passed the bag to Jasper on the couch and bit back a moan as the sweet tang of dried peaches burst over my tongue.
Reed and I leaned against the wall, sipping from water bottles. He gulped down his food and said, “Hey, Kenzie. I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said about Liam earlier. Doesn’t he seem like he knows a little too much?”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I’m not sure, exactly.” Reed shook his head and drained half his water in a gulp, crumpling the bottle in what seemed entirely too noisy a fashion. “I just . . . watch out for that guy, all right? I mean, he can decode transmissions, he monitors alien frequencies, he has powers but he can’t use them, he works for the Danshovs but also against them . . . Whose side is he on?”
“I really don’t know. His own, I think.” I considered Liam for a minute, the terror in his eyes when he mentioned the . . . what did he call them? The zemdyut. “I believe this much: he is genuinely afraid of the aliens. He’d do anything to keep from facing them again. Other than that, you don’t have to worry. I don’t trust him at all.” And I still didn’t know what he’d wanted with my comm device. I ran my fingers over the sleek metal. Part of me really wanted to run into the guy again and get some answers. Part of me hoped he just stayed in his hole so we didn’t have to deal with him.
On the couch, Imani raised her head, apparently calmer now. “I’m with him on that. Whatever it takes to keep those things from coming back here, I’ll do it. Whatever it costs. We have to stop Omnistellar, Kenz. You know that, right?”
“I do,” I told her, and a sudden burst of warmth surged in my chest. For a moment, just a moment, I felt like I had at Omnistellar training camps. Part of something. Like I belonged, knew my place, knew my heart. I risked a smile and Imani returned it—determined and grim but a smile nonetheless.
Cage scraped the last of the raisins out of the bag of fruit, then set the empty container and his water bottle on a nearby shelf. “Everyone okay? I really think we should get out of here. We don’t know how far the hunters are behind us.”
The question was really for Imani, who sighed but nodded. Jasper squeezed her arm once more as they got off the couch and we reassembled at the door, Cage and me in the lead. Having him by my side reassured me. Somehow, no matter what happened, the two of us kept winding up together. We had problems to work out, but in terms of survival, we were at our best side by side, and I knew everything would be all right as long as we stayed together.
At least until we opened the door to find the Silver Oni lurking in the corridor.
TWENTY-SIX
“YOU!” I CRIED. CAGE, REED, and I all skidded to a halt simultaneously, crashing into one another and almost toppling to the floor. We struggled for footing as the bounty hunter pivoted on us. He was of average height and build, but something about his posture combined with the mask gave him a distinctly threatening look.
He raised his weapons: a stun gun in his left hand and, no lie, a shiny silver sword in his right. I knew enough about Japanese weaponry from my obsession with RMDG5 to know it wasn’t a katana or a wakizashi, but it was a reasonable replica—with some modern upgrades, as I realized when electricity arced along the blade.
Something brushed against me: Mia slipping past, positioning herself more strategically. Cage made a show of folding his arms, keeping the hunter’s attention on him. “You really think you’re going to take us all on by yourself?” he demanded.
At last, the Silver Oni spoke. “Hold still, Mia,” he said, his voice tinged with amused malice. “Or I shoot Alexei in the head.”
I blinked. Something about his voice was familiar. Was he copying the Silver Oni’s tone from the films too? But no, that wasn’t it. Everything about this guy was familiar. I’d known it from the moment that mask glimmered in the marketplace. Who was he?
Beside me, Cage had gone ramrod straight. “Take off your mask,” he said, his voice barely a whisper.
“Let’s see you, Mia,” the Oni continued. “Right now. If you’re not standing in front of me in three seconds, I’ll kill Alexei. I don’t care about the bounty. I have this thing set to full power.”
I got to two counts in my head before Mia shimm
ered into view between us and the hunter. I couldn’t see her face, but her posture told me she was furious. The Oni gestured. “Back up,” he said, and Mia complied, retreating until she hit Alexei, who quietly pulled her behind him.
I looked to Cage. Obviously, I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed something strange about this guy. But whatever I’d hoped to find in his expression: reassurance, confusion, just that moment of shared camaraderie—it wasn’t there. Instead, Cage had focused all of his attention on our adversary. “Take off your mask,” he repeated, his voice stronger, carrying a ring of authority.
“You sure that’s what you want?” The Oni laughed, although there was no humor in it; more like bitterness. “Is that what everyone wants, or is Cage making decisions on the group’s behalf again?”
Rune pushed through us, dodging Cage’s attempt to grab her. She stood directly between her brother and the Oni, her eyes even wider than usual, her hands clenched into fists. She opened her mouth to speak but seemed to trip over her words and just stood there, staring, her entire body trembling.
Silence settled over the group. We all felt it now. Something was wrong. This wasn’t your typical bounty hunter. He knew us too well. And we . . .
The Silver Oni hesitated. Slowly, he returned his sword to its sheath at his side. Then, keeping the stun gun trained on us, he reached up and slid the mask aside.
A collective gasp echoed through the hallway. “Matt?” asked Cage, his doubt and fear so strong they echoed through my own terrified heart.
My knees gave way. I dropped to the floor, gaping up at him as disbelief warred with terror and elation. Seeing Matt standing here, alive and . . . well, alive, brought back every second of that moment on Sanctuary. The alien scream. The tearing claws. The gun bucking in my hands.
I’d killed him.
But here he was. Glaring at me with barely contained fury. Drawing breath.
Alive.
“Impossible,” Rune whispered. She caught Cage’s arm to steady herself but couldn’t seem to tear her eyes from the newly unmasked hunter. “Even if the aliens hadn’t killed you . . . we left you on that station.”
Matt—because it was Matt, no doubt about it—laughed coldly. “Yeah, that about sums it up. Except, of course, for the part where Kenzie shot me.”
The shocked silence greeting his pronouncement was of a different variety. I felt five pairs of eyes glued to my back, and Rune twisted in Cage’s arms to stare at me, bewilderment in her face. “Kenzie what?” she demanded.
“Oh.” Matt laughed again. I was starting to hate his laugh, even as I fought to process the sight of him. “Did you forget that little detail when you told them I died, Kenzie?”
Rune shook her head, frantic. “It’s not true. It wasn’t only Kenzie. Cage said it too. The aliens got you.” She pulled away from Cage and turned to him, but he wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Cage?” Then, almost hysterically: “Cage? Kenzie? It’s not true.”
I swallowed hard. “It’s true,” I said, forcing the words around the icy hand clenching my throat. I grabbed the wall and leveraged myself to my feet, clutching it for support. My legs still didn’t want to hold me up, but I couldn’t kneel there in the middle of the hallway.
I opened my mouth to explain further, but before I managed another word, Mia slammed me against the wall. She jammed her forearm under my throat, not quite choking me, but clearly meaning business. “What the hell, Cord?” she snarled. “You and Cage told us the aliens killed Matt.”
“And they did,” Cage interjected from behind her. “Kenzie tried to shoot them.” He met my eyes over Mia’s head, and I couldn’t quite read his expression. “She missed.”
“She missed?” Mia shouted so loudly I winced. “What do you mean, she missed ?”
“Mia!” Jasper grabbed her and tried to pull her away, but Mia shoved him aside. I looked frantically to the others. No one moved to help. Alexei stared at me with the same raw fury I saw in Mia’s face. Tears slid down Rune’s cheeks, betrayal and fear and an awful, heart-wrenching sadness mingled in her eyes. Imani and Reed stood very close together, both looking confused. Imani hadn’t known Matt, and Reed hadn’t been there when we’d lied about his death. But they knew what his death meant to us, and they knew I was a liar. A murderer. Except . . .
My eyes met Matt’s over Mia’s shoulder. Not a murderer, then. Somehow, Matt had survived. To my horror, tears spilled over my lashes. But I’d been holding in this secret for so long, living with this guilt, knowing that no matter how many people I saved, I’d always carry Matt’s blood on my hands. I swallowed as best I could with Mia’s arm wedged against my throat. “I’m so sorry,” I said. In some ways it was a relief to get it out. My secret was a wall between me and my shipmates. It was a wall instigated by Cage, who’d believed they would turn on me if they learned the truth, but a wall nonetheless, and one I’d helped him build. “Mia,” I pleaded, turning to the personification of fury in front of me. “I didn’t want to kill him. You know I didn’t. I saved your lives on that ship. I would have given anything, anything, to save Matt, too.”
She shook her head and dropped her voice, speaking just for me. For once her tone wasn’t enraged. It was flat and cold and something underlaced it, maybe hurt or betrayal, and that was somehow even worse than rage. “You lied about it, Kenzie. You and Cage both.”
“Yeah.” I forced myself to meet her gaze. “Yeah, we did.” I could have pointed out that they didn’t know me as well back then, that they would have greeted the truth with suspicion and anger. I could have told them how it had torn me apart, carrying this secret. I could have made excuses. But I didn’t. Because when you came down to it, Mia was right: I’d killed Matt, and Cage and I had covered it up.
Or so I’d thought. But here stood Matt, glowering at me, a stun gun trained on his former friends.
Mia must have had the same thought. Slowly, as if it hurt her to do so, she released me. She took a step back, her arms tightly corded bars of steel at her sides. Squaring her shoulders, she faced Matt. “Your ability is to sense life, not heal. So what the hell happened to you?”
Matt seemed disappointed she hadn’t killed me on the spot, but he only shrugged. It might have been a casual gesture if not for the stun gun still pointed in our direction. “I died,” he said bluntly. “Kenzie shot me, and I died. And then . . . I got better.”
“How?” demanded Rune, her voice little more than a tremor.
I watched to see how Matt would respond. He and Rune had been close not so long ago. They’d stolen moments and gazes and maybe even the odd kiss. Now, though, he resolutely avoided her eyes. “Beats the hell out of me. I hoped one of you might know.”
“The mask,” I said dully. “Did you wear that just to mess with me?”
Matt shrugged. “I needed to hide my identity.” A slight grin touched his lips, nothing humorous about it. “But I guess messing with you was a secondary motive.”
“How did you know?”
“You’re also not the only one who can read a file, Kenzie.” He tossed me a disdainful glare, one I wouldn’t have thought the old Matt capable of. “And your fanfiction sucks, by the way.”
Blood rushed to my cheeks, and I struggled for words, but before I found them, Reed literally shouted. “Your powers!” he exploded, answering Matt’s earlier wonderings. “It has to be.” We all turned to him, and he waved his hands excitedly. “Our powers have changed. I can suddenly heal myself, and Kenzie can do whatever the hell she’s doing, and Mia can—” But Mia stomped on his foot hard enough to make him swear and hop up and down, glaring at her.
“Mutated powers?” Matt arched an eyebrow. “Don’t quite see how that’s possible, or what coming back from the dead has to do with my abilities. But you might be right, because somehow, I woke up. I dragged myself to the airlock just in time to see you escape in the shuttle, taking the aliens with you. Not to mention Tyler’s dead body. Did you accidentally kill him, too?”
Cage moved to tak
e my hand, but I pulled away. He had barely managed a syllable in my defense this whole time. Maybe for once he was merely at a loss for words. Or maybe he wasn’t used to getting caught in his lies. All of my earlier doubts about him surged to life, the pain and frustration and betrayal simmering just below the surface. I closed my eyes. “That was the aliens,” I said to Matt. I remembered Matt and Tyler had been friends, cellmates. Another reason for him to hate me.
“That’s what you said about me,” he pointed out, eyes narrow. “Right before you left me to die. It’s a good thing I remembered something Kenzie told me about an escape pod.”
My eyebrows shot up so far, I saw my own hairline. “That’s why Sanctuary blew up. You activated the self-destruct and took the capsule.”
“And arrived on Earth to find a not-so-friendly squad of Omnistellar soldiers waiting for me. They were very interested in my story, though. Interested enough to cut me a deal. Work for them, sign on as a bounty hunter, and they’d clear my criminal record, provide for my family, and give me a chance to take out the people who killed me in the first place.” A sneer touched his face. “How could I refuse? It was a good thing I already had some training. All that remained was an expedited surgical process. A very painful process, but at least it was fast. And look at me now: an honest-to-God Omnistellar metal soldier.”
Mia scowled, sagging against the wall. “How fast? You’ve been gone less than a month, Matt.”
“Legion had an idea where you might be heading. They set me up on their ship. I spent most of the journey here”—a shadow crossed his face, a glimmer of remembered pain—“being rebuilt. I lay in their med bay and screamed while machines shoved steel into my spine and reconstructed organs. My healing ability helped with that, or I’d still be on bed rest. No one had time to ask too many questions about what that ability was or where it came from. They just wanted me on my feet and ready to fight.” He glared at each of us in turn. “Priya promised me vengeance. Every time I woke up screaming, she was there, her face inches from mine, whispering promises of strength and power and a future, a future where my murderers would face the justice we deserved, and I’d have a place with the hunters. And here we are.”