Reality settled over me like a blanket. She was leaving. She was going to walk out that door and not destroy the ship. It would keep broadcasting its signal, because if Rune couldn’t find it, Yang and her team sure as hell wouldn’t. I scrambled for words, but darkness descended around me, claws and screams and terror. “You have to destroy that ship!” I shouted, all of my carefully laid plans of earning her trust and convincing her vanishing in a surge of adrenaline. I had no idea how far away the aliens were or how fast they traveled. Memories assaulted me, the creatures screaming in triumph as they brandished Tyler’s mutilated body, the thud of my own heart as I dodged their flashing claws. “They could be here before Omnistellar, do you understand? If they can destroy a space station, they can destroy a colony!”

“If you’re telling the truth about what happened, and if these so-called aliens are on their way, a prepared Mars security force will be more of a match for them than a station full of unarmed teenage delinquents.”

If only that were true. She didn’t understand, and it was my fault. I couldn’t communicate it. Even with my power, I couldn’t have explained the terror of becoming prey, stalked on our own station, knowing that every step might lead to an alien shriek and a claw tearing through your flesh. And before I found the words to describe it, Yang turned her back and walked away.

“Yang!” I roared, lunging after her. I didn’t know what I was going to do, only that I had to make her listen. We couldn’t let what had happened on Sanctuary happen here. I’d die first. “Wait! There’s more to—!”

The guard grabbed me and shoved me. I rebounded and chased after her. The guard jerked his stun gun into play, aiming it straight at my chest. Agony tore through me as my muscles spasmed, sending me twitching to the floor, my teeth snapping shut on my tongue. A sea of blackness surged against me as two of the guards grabbed my elbows and hauled me to my feet. I struggled to speak, but my brain responded sluggishly, fighting the aftereffects of the stun.

Dragging me between them, they prodded Rune forward, leading us in one direction—and Cage in another.

The call is made. It is not answered. It is and it isn’t and the mind is and isn’t and rises and falls, and more awake, more arise, uncurling and unfurling and spreading.

There is no one. The hive is all. The hive is calling. A ripple tears through it. Pain and fear. Unfamiliar. Unpleasant. Unwelcome.

Follow. They have found it. They have set their sights.

Harvesters are gone.

Hunters awaken.

There will be no escape.