“Well, I suppose you could hang out in the shaft and block anyone else from climbing the ladder,” she replied dryly. I scowled at her, flipped over, and resumed crawling.

I found an exit vent in short order. Like the others, it was magnetically attached on three corners and came away easily in my hands. Was that a station quirk, or had Liam casually fixed all the vents to his own specifications? I dropped into a surprisingly comfortable area, resembling my own quarters on Sanctuary, a small but well-furnished living room done in shades of gray, with a leather couch facing a holoscreen on the far wall. I had no idea where we were, but it beat the ventilation system. It almost felt nice enough to be the upper levels. No way we’d climbed that far, though.

I moved away to let the others drop behind me. As soon as Cage hit the floor, I grabbed his arm. Guilt over leaving him behind gnawed at my chest, and now here he was rescuing us. “Are you okay?” I demanded. “What happened?”

“What happened ?” he repeated, his eyes so wide I could see the red rimming them. “Kenzie, how the hell did you move so fast back there?”

I sagged against the back of the couch as my last doubts vanished. “I don’t know,” I whispered, acutely conscious of the others listening. “I opened a portal, and . . . and I think I might have helped Mia keep us invisible on the hunter ship.”

“You did.” There was no hostility in Mia’s voice, only frank curiosity as she draped herself across an armchair, examining me with interest. “Or someone did. I was losing my grip, and then it got much easier. I didn’t know what had happened at the time. You say it was you?”

“But how?” The words exploded from me in a panic, and I finally understood why Mia had been so upset on Mars. Having something inside you that you didn’t understand, no matter how useful, was terrifying. Goose bumps prickled over my skin and my stomach flip-flopped. “What else can I do? Where are these powers coming from?”

“I don’t even dare guess,” said Cage, exhaustion seeping through his voice.

Jasper and Reed flanked Imani, who had dropped into another chair. All three seemed deep in thought. “Invisibility, speed, portals,” said Jasper slowly. “Mia has invisibility and Cage speed. Your original power is picking up other people’s languages. Maybe now you’re somehow picking up other people’s abilities?”

“What about the portals?” Reed demanded. “We don’t know anyone who can do that.”

“Yes, we do,” Rune interrupted so quickly she almost tripped over the tail end of his sentence. “Liam. Remember? He said he opened a portal to Obsidian.”

She was right. I exchanged glances with Cage and shook my head. “I can’t deal with this right now,” I whispered. “I just can’t. I know it’s important and we need to figure it out, but please, please, can we talk about something else? Just for a minute?” I needed time and space to process this, to come to terms with what was happening to me, whatever it was.