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 . . .