“The key,” she said dryly. “This isn’t my first run-in with bounty hunters. I found it over there in a lockbox.”

“How’d you open the lockbox?”

“Hello?” Jasper wiggled his fingers.

Imani grinned. “Hold still and let me uncuff you.”

Sure enough, within minutes she had us all free. Rune lunged directly for the console, sinking her hands into it, and the alarm vanished.

The sudden silence echoed, almost as deafening as the klaxon. I held my breath, every muscle poised for action. My mind created footsteps echoing in the corridors. What would we do when the hunters came charging into the cells? And seriously, why hadn’t they come already? The alarm had been going for at least a minute or two. No matter how distracted they were, they couldn’t have missed it.

The others must have followed my train of thought. Mia vanished. Alexei and Cage took positions on either side of the door, poised for action, and Jasper retreated to the rear wall, his fingers twitching, ready to use his power. The rest of us huddled out of harm’s way.

Seconds passed, then a minute. Cage and I exchanged glances. Was nobody coming? Why? Either the alarm hadn’t activated outside the cellblock, which seemed like a pretty stupid setup, or the hunters were deliberately not responding. Because something else had their attention? It would have to be something pretty major. Or because they’d secured us with some other method?

Either way, it gave us a few minutes of breathing room. If the hunters had planned to rush in, they’d have done so by now. Everyone relaxed imperceptibly, although Mia didn’t reappear and the boys stayed in their positions, and I glanced at Imani in admiration.

“How’d you know that was the key?” asked Reed, cracking his knuckles. The echo made me wince, but I wasn’t in a position to criticize. “Or where to find it?”

“There’s always a key in the prison sector in case of emergencies. Medical, evacuation, stuff like that. I told you, I’ve encountered bounty hunters before. They arrested me and Aliya after we’d been in hiding for a month.” Her face crumpled slightly at her sister’s name, but her voice remained steady as she carefully tied her hijab around her arm, fashioning it into a bracelet. “We passed through three of their ships. I got good at spotting their hiding places.” She didn’t quite meet my eyes, but I couldn’t tell whether it was because of Aliya . . . or Matt.

“Rune.” Cage tugged at her shoulder, then growled in frustration. “She’s in deep. We need to get moving. I can’t figure out why no one’s come already. That alarm was ringing for too long.”

I didn’t echo the scariest thought I came up with: something was going on that took precedence over even an escaped bounty. I didn’t want to consider what that might be.