I’d never been much with words, especially when I had to speak them out loud. But . . . “Cage,” I said, staring at his chest under its flat green T-shirt, “I want you to know, whatever happens here . . .”

“Nothing’s going to happen to you,” he replied, his voice calm and assured, too calm and assured. It was the same tone he’d used to soothe the prisoners on Sanctuary. I was close enough to see through him now. “To any of us. We got off Sanctuary, and we’ll get through this.”

He’d misunderstood. I didn’t want reassurance. I wanted him: his fears and his lies and his truth and just all of him, every breath, every sigh. I wanted to surmount the obstacles between us, the lies and the death and the betrayal. He examined me, and something slipped in his confident mask, his exhaustion breaking through and giving me a glimpse of the heart of him. I lowered my eyes, searching for words. Somehow, I knew there was something I could say, now, in this moment, that would undo all the hurt, that would set things back to the way they used to be. I just had to find the words and the courage to speak them.

Suddenly Rune broke away from the console with a gasp. Her eyes fluttered open, and Cage flashed across the room to catch her before she fell. “You all right, meimei?”

The unspoken words, still unformed, shattered on the edge of my psyche and disappeared. I didn’t resent Cage for running to his sister, not for a second.

But God, did her timing suck.

Rune blinked as if returning to reality, seeming to take a moment to focus. Then she said, “You’d better listen to this. I tapped into the ship’s comms.”

A second later, Priya’s furious shout filled the room. “. . . docking ring, do you understand me?”

The answering voice was female, cold and impassive, lightly tinged with a Russian accent. “You understand me, Legion. We have an unexplained hull breach and no contact with the residents of that sector. No one is leaving this station until we know what happened.”

“You’re going to have to answer to Omnistellar if they don’t get their prisoners.”

The other woman chuckled. “Right now, that is the least of my problems. Obsidian out.”

Reed and Imani gasped as one, the sound echoing through the enclosed space. My knees weakened, and Cage and I turned to each other, our faces identical masks of horror. My mouth went dry. Hull breach.

This was exactly how the alien attack had started on Sanctuary.

TWENTY-NINE

“MOVE.” AS USUAL, CAGE WAS the first to find his voice. “Move. Now. Rune. Come on.”

Rune released the console and Priya’s furious cursing faded into oblivion. At the same moment, Mia, Jasper, and Alexei appeared in the doorway, their drawn faces reflections of my own. “Hull breach?” Mia demanded.