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Chapters (48)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. ONE
  4. TWO
  5. THREE
  6. FOUR
  7. FIVE
  8. SIX
  9. SEVEN
  10. EIGHT
  11. NINE
  12. TEN
  13. ELEVEN
  14. TWELVE
  15. THIRTEEN
  16. FOURTEEN
  17. FIFTEEN
  18. SIXTEEN
  19. SEVENTEEN
  20. EIGHTEEN
  21. NINETEEN
  22. TWENTY
  23. TWENTY-ONE
  24. TWENTY-TWO
  25. TWENTY-THREE
  26. TWENTY-FOUR
  27. TWENTY-FIVE
  28. TWENTY-SIX
  29. TWENTY-SEVEN
  30. TWENTY-EIGHT
  31. TWENTY-NINE
  32. THIRTY
  33. THIRTY-ONE
  34. THIRTY-TWO
  35. THIRTY-THREE
  36. THIRTY-FOUR
  37. THIRTY-FIVE
  38. THIRTY-SIX
  39. THIRTY-SEVEN
  40. THIRTY-EIGHT
  41. THIRTY-NINE
  42. FORTY
  43. FORTY-ONE
  44. FORTY-TWO
  45. FORTY-THREE
  46. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  47. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  48. Copyright

Silence met his pronouncement. I risked glancing at the others. Rune closed her eyes and clenched her hands at her sides. Imani and Reed looked somewhat sympathetic, and even Alexei, Jasper, and Mia’s hostility deflated a bit. I examined Cage again, torn between admiration and fear. I’d noticed on Sanctuary how easily he manipulated a crowd. It was only recently that it had occurred to me to wonder if he did the same to me.

But he gave me a tired smile, and all the artifice I’d seen in him slid away, leaving only the boy who’d fought by my side against the aliens. “Hate me if you must,” he said. “But leave Kenzie out of it. You don’t know what she’s put herself through since she pulled that trigger, how many times she’s tried to convince me we should tell you the truth. This is on me.”

Alexei laughed humorlessly. “But that’s the problem,” he said, his accent a bit thicker than usual. “Do you not understand that? The lying is the problem.”

“Lex,” I pleaded, “I wanted to tell you the truth. I did. But I couldn’t know how you’d react.”

“You mean you didn’t trust me.” He gave me a sad smile and I opened my mouth to argue, but then shut it again. Because he was right. I hadn’t trusted them. Cage had started the lie, and I’d tried to convince him to tell the truth a few times. But had I really wanted to succeed? Or did I just want Cage to talk me out of it? The reality was, I hadn’t trusted the others. I thought I knew what was best for them. But now, staring at Alexei, I realized what a high-handed and presumptuous choice that had been.

Alexei heaved a sigh. “Cage,” he said quietly. “Three years together in that cell, and you still lied to me.”

“Yes, I did.” Cage glanced at each of us in turn. “Maybe I underestimated you. Maybe the stress of the situation got to me. I just knew we couldn’t afford any more conflict, not when we’d barely escaped Sanctuary. I made the best decision I could at the time, and I won’t apologize for it.”

Rune drew close to the bars, slumped in sadness. “You always do this, gege,” she said, not at all unkindly. “You take the weight of the world on your shoulders and make decisions for everyone else. Don’t you think it’s time you trusted all of us, trusted Kenzie, a little bit more? We can make our own choices. We don’t need you to do it for us.”

Cage’s eyes flew open in surprise. I didn’t think his sister had ever spoken to him like that before. For once, he was at a loss for words.

And before he could find them, alarms rocked the ship.

TWENTY-EIGHT