I closed my eyes, prayed very hard we weren’t about to die, and reached.

The door opened so close beside me I tumbled out of it, Cage and Rune landing heavily on top of me. A flash of light illuminated over my head, and I got a quick glimpse of the portal I had opened before it faded back to metal. There was a lot of cursing and apologizing as we untangled ourselves and scrambled to our feet to find ourselves exactly where I’d envisioned: right in the middle of Liam’s den, complete with Liam himself, gaping at us.

My insides surged with conflicting emotion: relief that I hadn’t blasted us into space, fury at the sight of Liam, confusion about where we’d landed. Had we coincidentally been right beside his nook? Maybe I’d subconsciously led us here. . . . In any case, I was coming to terms with the idea of my new status as a chameleon. The thought of regaining some agency, of serving a purpose, revitalized my very core. But I needed time: time to think, to practice, to see what I could do. And that was a luxury we couldn’t afford.

“Um,” said Liam, “you came out of the wall.”

“Yeah, apparently we do that now.” I sank onto a nearby crate, too exhausted to argue. “I see you managed to get to safety.”

To his credit, he didn’t play dumb. He only nodded and gestured toward his computer setup. “I saw what’s going on,” he said, all the blood draining from his face. He played with the hilt of his stupid sword and shuffled his feet. “They’re back, aren’t they?”

“It sure looks that way.”

Liam laughed shortly. “Fantastic.”

Cage and Rune sank down beside me and we all stared at one another bleakly. “The rest of our friends were captured by Legion bounty hunters,” I told him. “It’s just the three of us now.”

“And me, I guess.”

My head shot up, my eyes narrowing in suspicion. “I mean, it’s not that I don’t appreciate the offer. But you never did tell me what you were doing with my comm unit.” Fury surged in my chest, and I knew all of it wasn’t directed at him. It was all the stress and fear and hurt and anger of the last few hours clawing inside me, desperate to escape. If I let it now, I’d punch Liam in the face before he could explain, so I forced my voice to be calmer, closing my eyes to avoid his strange gaze. “Until you explain that, you aren’t going anywhere.”

“You aren’t in a position to refuse the help, sweetheart.”

“Oh, I think we are,” said Cage calmly. “Especially if you plan to stab us in the back.”

Liam groaned theatrically. “Why the hell would I do that? What would it gain me? Look, I took your comm unit because I was looking for records of the zemdyut. Okay? That’s all there was to it. I didn’t want to say anything earlier because frankly, I don’t really like talking about them.”