Chapters (48)
- Cover
- Dedication
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Copyright
Mia jumped on that. “You have powers?”
“The alien DNA has a different effect on everyone, but it always does something. Yeah, I have an ability. I can open portals through space . . . or at least, I used to be able to. I’d never transported anything so far before, and certainly never anything alive. I mostly used my ability to win games of valjorvakk.”
“Of what?” Imani asked a second before I could.
Liam frowned. “A sport I played in school. Uses a valvakk, a big yellow ball.”
“Like basketball?” I asked, ignoring that Reed was making faces at me now. I didn’t mean to sound so eager, but it had been a while since I’d done anything normal. I missed basketball. And Robo Mecha Dream Girl 5. And since I was compiling a wish list, regular showers, clothes that fit, and parents who loved me.
Liam nodded. “I’ve seen your basketball played. It’s not dissimilar. Maybe a cross between basketball and hockey. We use sticks. Anyway, prior to the alien attack, that was the most I’d ever managed. But I stole a shuttle in the chaos.” He passed a hand over his face, his strange eyes flickering. “It was . . . fire and screaming and . . . the aliens had abandoned any pretense of subtlety. They attacked to harvest and kill. Everywhere you turned, there they were.”
My brain rebelled at the description and the images it evoked, and Rune threaded her arm through mine, clutching me as if I was the only thing keeping her upright. Liam’s words evoked every moment of the horror on Sanctuary. We all felt it. Tension settled over the room, physical in its intensity, until the slightest sound might have pushed someone over the edge.
Liam’s gaze refocused, and he cleared his throat. “I stole a shuttle,” he repeated with false bravado. “I got it into space, and I saw one of those ships. Just like yours. It was . . . I knew if I stayed I would die just like everything else, so I pulled every ounce of power I could manage. The doctors on Obsidian said I bit through my own tongue, I was concentrating so hard. I didn’t even notice. I pushed that ship so hard and so far, I lost consciousness. When I came to, I was in the Obsidian infirmary, and I’ve been on the station for the last five years.”
Liam sank his teeth into his lower lip. “I abused my powers that day,” he said slowly. “They’ve never worked the same since. Not reliably. Maybe I don’t want them to. I don’t know. I’m scared to try. Anyway. Is that what you wanted to know?”
An uncomfortable silence followed. After a moment, Imani leaned forward and offered him a smile and a change of topic. “But you must know where you came from. I mean, after five years, you must have seen charts. You must have wondered how far you traveled.”