“Kenzie,” said Imani softly, “it’s okay. When we need you, you’ll pull through. You always have before.” The others nodded, even, after a moment’s hesitation, Mia.

I squashed my weakness and forced my spine straight. “Thank you,” I whispered. Whatever I could do now, I was going to figure it out. But in the meantime, Imani was right: In times of stress, when I needed my powers most, they were there for me. I had to trust that. For now, it was all I could do.

We hesitated, looking at one another across the room. “No one has to come,” I said at last. “Some of us are better suited to fighting than others. If you want to stay here, it’s fine.”

Imani shook her head. “We’re not safe here, either. If those things are on Obsidian, we’re not safe anywhere.”

“But once they’d done their initial sweep on Sanctuary, they seemed to prefer picking us off one by one to attacking in a big group,” Alexei pointed out. “Safety in numbers.” The others nodded, although no one moved, trapped in their own fear.

I hadn’t planned on staying behind anyway. I’d merely wanted to give everyone else a chance. “All right. Then no sense delaying.”

But still no one moved, as if to take a step would be to irrevocably commit to reentering the nightmare we’d so recently escaped.

At last Mia heaved a sigh of dramatic exasperation. She cursed under her breath and, with no further ceremony, stalked toward the door. Alexei shot after her. Cage and I exchanged a glance, then ran to catch up. The others followed on our heels.

Mia poked her head into the corridor, stun gun in her hand. I missed the heavy weight of my own, but I trusted Imani to take a shot if she needed to. Between Mia and Imani with stun guns, Alexei’s fireworks and Jasper’s ability to rearrange matter, and our foreknowledge of the aliens’ tactics, maybe we had an edge this time. Maybe we had a hope.

Mia must not have seen anything, because she proceeded into the corridor and climbed the stairs. Our footsteps echoed in the uncanny silence. I glanced into the next prison area as we passed. It looked exactly like the one we’d just vacated. Where was everyone? Were we the last people alive on Obsidian? No. Impossible. The aliens had taken hours to work their way through Sanctuary, and this station was at least three times bigger. The survivors were probably locked away on the main floor with every weapon they could find. Alexei had theorized that they’d barricaded themselves somewhere. Maybe they were safe.

Or maybe the aliens had killed them and left their bodies stacked where they fell.

Or kidnapped them, taking them back to their ship. I didn’t know. I couldn’t know . . . at least, not yet.