“We thought you were dead!”

“You saw Sanctuary explode!” he shouted, inches from my face. Instinctively, I recoiled. Imani was at my side in a heartbeat, grabbing my shoulders and pulling me back. “You knew damn well what caused that to happen! You were the one who told me about it, Kenzie. One escape pod, triggering the self-destruct mechanism. You saw it, and you didn’t come back for me.”

“Matt!” Rune’s volume matched his, making everyone jump. “We didn’t know. It didn’t even occur to us! We thought the station took too much damage, maybe the aliens caused irreparable harm. We never even suspected—”

“Of course you didn’t.” Was it my imagination, or did his voice soften just the tiniest bit when he turned to her? “As far as you knew, I’d been torn to shreds by alien monsters. And you didn’t know anything about the escape pod. Kenzie and Cage, on the other hand . . .”

Hallam cleared his throat. “All right, brother. This is all well and good and fascinating, but we have other jobs to do.” He pointed a finger in our direction. “If you’re smart, you’ll settle in. This ship’s a bit bouncy on takeoff.”

For a moment I thought Matt would argue. But then he shook his head as if we weren’t worth it, and the two men left us alone in the cells.

Silence reigned. I risked raising my head. Rune and Imani had retreated and sat on the bench on the far side of the cell, staring at me. Alexei glared at Cage. Reed and Jasper only looked confused, but Mia glowered at me with intense hatred. I was suddenly very, very glad she wasn’t in my cell.

Slowly, Cage rose from where he’d slumped against the wall. “All right. We’d better talk about this.”

“About what?” Mia demanded. “About how Kenzie killed Matt and lied to cover it up? Exactly what is there to say?”

Cage sighed, raking his fingers through his hair. “It was my call, Mia. I was the one who suggested we hide what happened.”

I cast him a look of gratitude. I still hadn’t forgiven him for leaving me twisting on the end of my hook earlier. We were supposed to be in this together. We’d lied together. We’d hidden the truth. And then when they called us on it, he’d abandoned me.

But he was back now. Maybe it had just been the shock of discovery, of Matt being alive? My relationship with Cage, if you could even call it that, was so new. We’d only known each other a few weeks. How could I anticipate what he’d do? Did I even really know who he was?

I examined him, looking for signs of manipulation, of lies. But all I saw was the same Cage I’d known on Sanctuary: tough, charismatic, a bit weary. He raised his hand, forestalling Mia’s objection. “If it happened yesterday, we would have told you the truth,” he said, biting off every word. “But back then, not one of you trusted Kenzie, especially you, Mia. If I’d told you what happened, you’d have gone for her throat, just like you did in the hallway.”