A babble of argument rose, and I cut it off. “I’ll go with him.” Cage opened his mouth, but I silenced him with a glare. “I’m not leaving you to navigate this place by yourself. Rune, I’ll keep him safe,” I promised, noticing the tension in her posture. “We’ll meet again in the . . . lower market?”

Cage sighed. “I couldn’t get rid of you on Sanctuary, so I guess I’m not getting rid of you here,” he said, and I punched him in the arm, making him grin. “The rest of you, find us another escape.”

Alexei frowned but nodded. “If you’re not there in an hour, I’m coming after you.”

“If I’m not there in an hour, I’m probably dead.”

“Reassuring,” snapped Rune, about as angry as I’d ever heard her. Cage caught her by the arm and pulled her aside, talking quickly and softly in Mandarin. I deliberately tuned it out.

“One more thing,” Imani said quietly. “The shift in our powers. I want to know what’s causing it. And I want to know if it’s going to continue. What if Alexei starts bursting into flames unpredictably?” She glanced at him, taking in his impassive demeanor. “No offense. But if our powers start raging out of control, you clearly represent the biggest danger.”

Alexei never changed expression, but I nodded, resisting the urge to hold my head. “One thing at a time.” There was only so much I could handle at the moment, and standing on Obsidian was messing with my brain. The station bore only a superficial resemblance to Sanctuary, but my last moments on the orbital prison refused to leave me. Facing the aliens there had been bad. Facing them here, with the worn-out security and the rusted grating . . . I choked on my own fear. No. We were safe now. We’d destroyed the signal, stopped the aliens. Sure, we had Omnistellar to deal with, but I could handle them. Even if I couldn’t, the worst-case scenario beat a lungful of alien slime and an eternity as a mindless stalker killing and slaughtering to express my reproductive drive.

Bile touched the back of my throat, and I stared at my shoes until the sensation subsided. Every time I thought of the aliens, it left me hollowed inside. I forced myself to consider Imani’s words instead. My power was useful at times, but it left me defenseless in a lot of situations. Diplomacy had never been my strong suit. What if a more useful power lurked inside me? Definitely worth exploring.

And more than a little concerning, given the destructive nature of someone like Jasper or Alexei.

So far, everyone’s powers seemed to be extensions or adaptations of the original. I probably wouldn’t find myself firing force missiles or bursting into flames. But if I could do something more, I wanted to know about it. Maybe something lingered inside me that could give us an edge against Omnistellar—or the other, darker threat constantly lurking in the corners of my mind.