She puts out an all-call after dinner, and the entire crew packs into her throne room. My newfound invisibility has me pressed up against the back wall, trapped behind a sea of bodies that block my view of the dais where the captain sits. From the glimpses I catch between shoulders, she isn’t dressed up like the last time we were in here; instead she’s armed to the teeth and decked out in a sleek set of body armor. The pursuit is coming, and our captain is ready for war.

“Cassandra,” she barks over the grumble of the crowd, and silence washes over the room. I push off the wall and make my way forward, nudging my way past the crew members that block my path.

Santa Elena steps off the dais to meet me as I approach. She wears a predatory grin, but underneath it I can see the stress that’s eating away at her. The whole room aches with tension. My gaze flickers to Swift, who sits on the dais’s edge with Chuck and Varma. Lemon’s off in the navigation tower, keeping watch over the instruments and the horizon. While Chuck and Varma keep their eyes fixed on the captain, Swift’s are locked on me.

I draw my lips tight, trying not to give anything away as Santa Elena circles around me, her hands folded behind her back.

“We have a bit of a situation here,” the captain starts. “Which is to say, we have a complete clusterfuck on our hands, and it’s centered around you. Your IGEOC friend’s got hell raining down on us, and from what I’ve gathered, we’ve got ships with Reckoners of their own inbound to bring our merry little adventures to an end.”

A discontented mumble rises from the ranks, but Santa Elena quiets it with a wave of her hand as she stalks back around to face me. She lays her hands on my shoulders and I wince as her nails bite against the cotton of my shirt. “Fortunately for us,” she says, her gaze unflinching as she stares me down, “you’re also our way out of this mess.”

I can’t blink. Not now. I shift my weight, but Santa Elena’s grip stays rooted in me.

“You did a fine job with the quadcopters. I’m genuinely impressed with how far the beast’s training has come. But it’s become clear to me that our endeavor with him is not sustainable. We’re abandoning it.”

A roar fills my ears, overwhelming the shouts of the crew. Bao is my life aboard this ship. I’ve put so much work into making him the monster he is today—what right does she have to throw that away?