No one seemed to have noticed my appearance except the woman with the tablet and a wide-eyed boy. He gave me a shy smile, as if people popping out of grates was normal in his world, and turned back to his mother.

I was in a small, dark room, but it didn’t seem to be anyone’s private quarters, more like a public gathering space. A door stood open to one side, and when I emerged, I found myself in the prison proper. I didn’t know what the room had been. A server room, equipment long since stripped? Obsidian predated Sanctuary by several decades, and although it seemed familiar at first, I was quickly realizing that I couldn’t rely on my memories of Sanctuary, or of any Omnistellar facility, to navigate.

I pressed through the prison. Families and individuals inhabited some of the cells, but no one gave me a second glance as I passed, emerging at last into the stairwell. The buzz of the market reached me from above. I was right, I’d descended a level at some point. At least now, I had a minute to breathe.

So . . . what next? The most sensible thing was to head upstairs. That was where I’d last seen Cage. I drew my hood over my face, enclosing myself in safety and anonymity. I’d caused some commotion, but with my hood I was nothing but another grubby teenager on a crowded criminal hideout. The sheer indifference of the place sheltered me.

“Kenzie!”

I winced at the shout from below. So much for anonymity.

Mia grabbed my arm and shoved me forward. “Don’t look!” she bellowed. “Just run!”

Alexei seized my other arm, and they tore up the stairs, dragging me between them. “What’s going on?” I cried.

At that moment, a stun gun blast erupted behind me, narrowly missing us. “Does that answer your question?” Mia shouted.

“No!”

We shot into the marketplace, diving into the crowd. I fought a surge of panic. Who the hell was chasing us now?

The signal is gone, but the draw remains. The pull. The strength is weakened but present. There is connection. They are growing. They are expanding. They are increasing.

Prepare.

Draw.

Contain.

TWENTY-TWO

MIA AND ALEXEI DRAGGED ME into the upper market. I caught a glimpse of familiar leather jackets in the distance and pulled my hood farther over my face. “Where’s Cage?” Mia demanded.

“The person he needed to talk to wouldn’t see me. Who’s chasing you?”

“Bounty hunters,” said Alexei grimly. “Apparently Earth knows we survived Sanctuary.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said, and told them as briefly as possible what had happened to me. “Didn’t Jasper warn you?”

“We got separated.”