Priya shrugged. “Doesn’t matter to us. We’re out of here as soon as we’re cleared for takeoff. Stow the baggage and let’s get moving.”

My mind raced frantically as they shoved us into their ship, leading us toward the holding cells. “Bian, Finn,” Priya said, addressing the Asian woman and the bald man, “ready the ship and get clearance from Obsidian.”

“Understood,” Finn replied in a gruff voice tinged with a British accent. Bian only nodded.

“Contact Omnistellar and let them know we’re en route. Hallam and Matt will take care of the prisoners.”

Priya didn’t say what she was going to do, and no one asked. My mother would have garnered the same respect from her crew. I looked at Priya with new eyes, seeing not a bloodthirsty bounty hunter, but a woman fiercely dedicated to her job and her corporation.

Which meant, maybe, she could be reasoned with.

Or maybe she had the same undying loyalty to Omnistellar as my family.

I wouldn’t get a chance to find out now, though. Hallam and Matt took us to the brig, shoving Imani, Rune, and me into the first cell. “Listen,” I pleaded. “Matt. You’ve seen the aliens. You know what they’re like, what they can do. Omnistellar is luring them in, using them to get new tech. If those things show up here—”

Hallam rapped on the bars of my cell, a smirk on his face. “I think the entire combined might of Earth’s corporations might have a little more success against your aliens than a station full of unarmed teenagers, sweetheart. No offense.”

But something flickered on Matt’s face, something like terror. Then he glared at me like I was responsible for the feeling, shook his head, and loaded the others into the remaining cells: Cage and Alexei in the second, Mia, Jasper, and Reed in the third. Mia hissed and snapped her teeth at Matt, aiming for his jugular, but he sidestepped her easily and shoved her into the cell with such force she bounced off the rear wall.

“Easy, brother,” said Hallam, clearly surprised.

Alexei’s face settled into a neutral, almost pleasant expression. “You will pay for that,” he promised.

Matt snorted. “Take your best shot,” he invited. “My teeth are reinforced steel. So is my spine. I have a crew of superpowered bounty hunters behind me. And apparently, I’m immortal. What do you think you’re going to do against that?”

“Matt, please.” I approached the bars. He spun on me, his expression anything but friendly, but I didn’t let myself back down. This mess was my fault. I was the one who’d pulled the trigger. If I could only make him understand . . . “Please,” I repeated. “You have to listen. You can’t really think I wanted to kill you.”

For a split second, his face gentled before returning to its now-characteristic scowl. “I know you didn’t. I don’t even blame you for that, Kenzie. What I blame you for, what I blame Cage for, is leaving me behind. Leaving me to face Omnistellar by myself.”