We entered the building, which was exactly what it looked like: a mining warehouse. Crates along one wall bore neat labels, ready for shipment back to Earth. A few offices and desks were scattered near the front. When Alexei flipped a switch, dim lights flickered around us, revealing a windowless interior caked in red dust.

Reed leaped off a crate, his face collapsing in relief. “Could you have taken any longer?” he demanded.

“You’re the one who wanted to stay behind,” Mia pointed out.

Reed scowled at her. “Yeah, Mia, it was totally a choice. I would have been incredibly useful in a fast-paced prison break.” He met my gaze, shook his head ruefully, and indicated his left ankle. “I think I sprained it jumping off the ship. Ironically enough, I’m the only one I can’t heal. Speaking of which . . .” He limped over and took my face in his hands, turning it with a frown. “Are you okay?”

“I’m not sure,” I confessed. As the adrenaline of our escape wore off, the effects of the stun gun blasts returned: a general sense of dizziness, like my insides had been scrambled.

“You’d better sit down.” Reed guided me to a nearby crate and settled me against it. He closed his hands over mine and shut his eyes. A moment later, a sense of warmth and well-being flowed through me, like a gentle finger running over the interior of my spine. A fog I hadn’t even noticed lifted in the wake of his touch. I shifted my position, and no pain echoed through me as a result. Everything sharpened, coming into clearer focus.

Of course, with my physical pain dulled, the emotional toll only expanded. Dad’s face swam in front of me, and Matt’s, and even Tyler’s, the soft-spoken boy who had forcibly read my mind on Sanctuary. I’d forgiven him for it by the end. I hoped he’d known that in the moment the aliens gored his stomach, tearing him to shreds.

If I could forgive that violation, why couldn’t I forgive my dad, or Cage, or even myself? I knew shooting Matt had been an accident. I knew I couldn’t change it. But it stayed on my shoulders, an omnipresent burden of fear and self-loathing. I had to get it out in the open sometime soon, because every moment I spent with my friends made that bundle of emotion a little heavier.

And that included right now, with Reed channeling healing energy through my battered limbs.

When he stepped back, I rolled my shoulders experimentally. Even the lingering pain from the weight of the cuffs had disappeared. “Thanks,” I said, shoving my guilt aside for the moment. “That’s better.”

Mia tapped Reed’s shoulder and nodded at Alexei. “Check out the tough guy over there.”

Reed straightened, his head snapping in Alexei’s direction like a homing beacon. He was the cheerful joker and prankster until he sensed an injury, and then . . . “What’s wrong with Alexei?” he demanded.