We turned to face the others. Priya, Matt, and Hallam had picked themselves off the floor and faced off against Alexei, Mia, and Jasper. No one lowered their weapons—or, in the case of Alexei and Jasper, their hands, which shimmered with energy. Flames sparked at the edges of Alexei’s fingertips. Rune, Imani, and Reed stood behind them, their relief palpable. Seeing everyone again brought home how desperately I needed them. I’d always thought I could do everything on my own. Not anymore. And the weird thing was that I didn’t even care.

Of course, before I could fall over myself and tell them I loved them, I had to stop everyone from killing one another. “All right, children,” I announced loudly, forcing my unfamiliar rush of emotion beneath my more characteristic Omnistellar mask. “You want to put the guns down before someone gets hurt?”

Matt, Hallam, and Priya barely glanced at me, keeping their gazes focused on their opponents. “Sure,” said Priya. “Just as soon as they do.”

I took in the three faces opposite and ventured for the most reasonable option. “Alexei, you know we need to work together right now. Remember? Survival and all that. These three helped me. Let’s escape the aliens before we deal with grudges, okay?”

He grunted in reply, his eyes narrowed. Then, abruptly, he dropped his hands, the shimmer of heat fading away.

Matt responded by lowering his rifle. Within seconds, everyone stood down, and Rune flew across the hallway, taking a second to elbow past Matt and glare at him on the way. She hugged me tightly. “We were worried,” she explained in Mandarin. “We didn’t know what those creeps might have been doing to you.”

“Taking me to my father,” I replied in the same language. I glanced over my shoulder at Cage and added, “Who’s missing. Matt thinks there’s someone in engineering.”

Cage frowned. It didn’t take powers to follow his thoughts. We’d been here before, on Sanctuary with my mother. It hadn’t ended well. My hands trembled, and I clenched them into fists at the thought of Sanctuary, its familiar halls and corridors turning into deathtraps as we searched for my mother.

Things with Dad would not end the same way. I would find him, and not dead and shackled to a wall. Whatever happened between us, I couldn’t let him die like Mom.

Imani and Reed drifted to our sides, Reed keeping a careful eye on Matt. Imani squeezed my arm, and I squeezed back. Relief passed between us without words.

Before I could speak to either of them, Priya started barking orders. “We need to get out of this hallway,” she said. “The aliens are just tearing through chunks of the ship. We have three priorities right now: recover Kenzie’s father, find a way off this ship, and destroy it, Obsidian, and the alien vessel before those things set off for Earth.”