Hands grabbed me, almost painful in their intensity, and I cringed away. They released me. I tumbled onto something that felt like sandpaper and screeched as it scraped my back.

The hands had me again, less violent than before, lifting me off the sandpaper and propping me up. Sounds slowly coalesced into voices. I focused on the most familiar, which turned out to be Rune: “What’s wrong with her?”

“Give her a minute.” That was Cage, close by.

Hands ran over my skin, and they weren’t violent at all. Something had oversensitized me to every little sound and sensation. It faded now, but for a moment it had overwhelmed me with pain and intensity like I’d never known, not even when Cage cut the chip from my arm.

I forced my eyes open, blinking against what I now realized was dim, shattered sunlight. I slumped in a pile of sand with Rune and Cage crouched nearby. Imani and Reed knelt behind me, Imani holding me up while Reed used his power on me. The sensation on my back—Reed’s hands, touching, channeling, healing. Strength and cooling seemed to flow from him, and I closed my eyes, embracing the awareness.

After a moment the pain receded, the world coming into sharper focus. But with the physical pain receding, my grief surged inside me. I dropped my head to my hands to hide my tears. I couldn’t cry in front of them, not now, not here, wherever here was.

But Dad . . . I could have convinced him. I was so close. He’d been opening up, ready to listen. We could have escaped together. And instead I’d left him lying on the floor of an Omnistellar ship, soaked in blood, killed by the aliens he’d summoned and entombed by his own corporation.

Cage slid a hand over my arm as if he knew what was going through my mind. I bit hard on my lip, so hard I tasted blood and saw stars, and between that and the warmth of his hand I managed to choke back the tears. Dad, my dad . . . but no. Not now. I almost laughed. It seemed like I never had time to grieve anyone properly.

But Dad would want me to survive. He’d want me to fight. And to do that, I needed to get myself together. I closed my eyes until the urge to cry passed, surreptitiously wiping a few stray tears away as I got to my feet. I tried to pass the effects off as the lingering consequences of the healing. “Thanks,” I managed. Cage cast me a knowing look but kept his mouth shut. His hand lingered on my arm, and I leaned against him gratefully even as I squared my shoulders and found what remained of my training, becoming Omnistellar strong. “What happened?”

“We don’t know.” Imani regarded me carefully, as if wondering if I’d break. I forced a little more steel into my spine. “You pulled us through the portal and instantly collapsed. When you woke, you were screaming. We didn’t know what happened, so Reed tried healing you.”