by Caryn Lix
No one seemed to have noticed my appearance except the woman with the tablet and a wide-eyed boy. He gave me a shy smile, as if people popping out of grates was normal in his world, and turned back to his mother.
I was in a small, dark room, but it didn’t seem to be anyone’s private quarters, more like a public gathering space. A door stood open to one side, and when I emerged, I found myself in the prison proper. I didn’t know what the room had been. A server room, equipment long since stripped? Obsidian predated Sanctuary by several decades, and although it seemed familiar at first, I was quickly realizing that I couldn’t rely on my memories of Sanctuary, or of any Omnistellar facility, to navigate.
I pressed through the prison. Families and individuals inhabited some of the cells, but no one gave me a second glance as I passed, emerging at last into the stairwell. The buzz of the market reached me from above. I was right, I’d descended a level at some point. At least now, I had a minute to breathe.
So . . . what next? The most sensible thing was to head upstairs. That was where I’d last seen Cage. I drew my hood over my face, enclosing myself in safety and anonymity. I’d caused some commotion, but with my hood I was nothing but another grubby teenager on a crowded criminal hideout. The sheer indifference of the place sheltered me.
“Kenzie!”
I winced at the shout from below. So much for anonymity.
Mia grabbed my arm and shoved me forward. “Don’t look!” she bellowed. “Just run!”
Alexei seized my other arm, and they tore up the stairs, dragging me between them. “What’s going on?” I cried.
At that moment, a stun gun blast erupted behind me, narrowly missing us. “Does that answer your question?” Mia shouted.
“No!”
We shot into the marketplace, diving into the crowd. I fought a surge of panic. Who the hell was chasing us now?
The signal is gone, but the draw remains. The pull. The strength is weakened but present. There is connection. They are growing. They are expanding. They are increasing.
Prepare.
Draw.
Contain.
TWENTY-TWO
MIA AND ALEXEI DRAGGED ME into the upper market. I caught a glimpse of familiar leather jackets in the distance and pulled my hood farther over my face. “Where’s Cage?” Mia demanded.
“The person he needed to talk to wouldn’t see me. Who’s chasing you?”
“Bounty hunters,” said Alexei grimly. “Apparently Earth knows we survived Sanctuary.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said, and told them as briefly as possible what had happened to me. “Didn’t Jasper warn you?”
“We got separated.”
The three of us ducked behind a stall selling some sort of broth, and my stomach rumbled again in response. The bounty hunters would no doubt follow us into the marketplace, but they’d have a hard time locating us. “Why’d Liam take your comm device?” Mia asked abruptly.
“He, um . . .” I cleared my throat in embarrassment. “He didn’t say.”
“And you just let him walk away?” An edge of disbelief laced her anger.
I ground my teeth and forced my voice calm. “No, I walked away, because I wanted to warn all of you before some team of bounty hunters caught up to us.” And because Liam had manipulated me, using my fear of the aliens to stop me from asking too many questions. I didn’t add that part.
“I don’t suppose you had the common sense to demand to see the contract? Or ask who it’s for? Is it all of us? Do they know who lived? Is it a blanket call for the survivors of Sanctuary?” My face must have answered her question, because Mia scowled in disgust. She might like me better now, but a few weeks of living in close quarters hadn’t increased her patience any. “All right. Lex? We’re going to have to nab one of the bounty hunters and get a look at that contract.”
He grinned. “That, I can do.”
“Yeah, but we’re going to have to do it quiet. That, I can do.” She smiled grimly. “You two wait here.” The air shimmered, and Mia disappeared.
I swore internally. Once again, my training failed me. Seventeen damn years of training camps and sweating and studying and never having friends and all for what? I didn’t know how to do anything but parrot company propaganda and dodge semi-incapacitated prisoners. “What’s she doing?” I demanded, leaning around the booth and trying to spot evidence of Mia’s passage. She might be invisible, but she still existed.
“Mia’s a thief from long ago. She’ll be fine.”
I glanced at Alexei. “How’d you spot the bounty hunters, anyway?”
“It was fairly simple once they captured us.”
I blinked. “They . . . captured you? How?”
“By sticking a gun in our backs and dragging us into a control room. Then they stuck more guns in our faces and demanded to know where you were.”
“How’d you escape?”
He grinned. “I set the control room on fire.”
Yup. That would do it. I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of Alexei using his pyrokinetics in an enclosed environment like a space station, but there wasn’t much to say now that it was done. Obsidian was still here. I’d call that a win. “I don’t suppose Mia got to keep her gun?” Never thought I’d be rooting for that.
“Unfortunately, no. It is now the proud possession of some bounty hunter with an ugly mask.” Suddenly, Alexei’s face paled. He caught my elbow and jerked me back. “That ugly mask.”
I shrugged free of him to lean around the corner, more carefully this time. A sleek figure in black strode through the market, the crowds parting as he passed. Something about his presence made even the burliest criminals dart aside. As he drew closer, I realized he wore a silvery mask drawn over his face, reminding me of a villain from Robo Mecha Dream Girl 5.
I looked closer. “Son of a bitch,” I said out loud. It was a villain from Robo Mecha Dream Girl 5. A perfect reproduction of the mask worn by the Silver Oni, and not a cheap Halloween copy, either. “Where did he get it?”
“What?” Alexei stared at me like I’d lost my mind.
“Alexei, that mask is a freaking collector’s item. I wanted one last year and they were selling for five thousand credits on—”
“Are you kidding right now?” he demanded, incredulity lacing his voice.
I swallowed my annoyance. Somehow seeing that mask, the mask that should have been mine, on a bounty hunter’s face was simply the last straw. We had to do something. I stalked him with my gaze, ignoring Alexei tugging at my elbow. There was a familiarity to his movements, like a panther prowling his territory. Robo Mecha Dream Girl 5 had been the place I retreated for so long that seeing the Silver Oni stomping around like he owned the place rattled me more than I cared to admit.
Mia popped up between us, and we both cursed louder than we’d intended. “Hush,” she said, waving a tablet. “Now. Let’s see what we’re dealing with.”
I cast a nervous glance around, watching the Silver Oni vanish into the crowds opposite us. Our hiding place wasn’t particularly secure. “How many hunters are we talking about here? Should we find someplace safer?”
“This will only take a minute.” Alexei took the tablet from Mia and thumbed something with practiced ease. I arched an eyebrow. Exactly how involved had Alexei been with his family’s criminal endeavors before his arrest? Within a few seconds, he had a projection on the wall. I recognized my face immediately, along with Cage’s, Rune’s, Alexei’s, Jasper’s, and Mia’s. Imani and Reed were conspicuously absent, maybe because their powers were less destructive, maybe because they’d made less of a scene on Mars.
“Are those the specific contracts?” I asked.
“Yes. It’s a capture order, if you’re wondering. Not a kill. There’s also a blanket order for any other survivors of Sanctuary, but we’re the ones named.” Alexei snapped the holo shut before I could get a closer look at the specifics.
That was probably for the best. We needed to get somewhere safe. “Let’s find
Cage.”
“I’m not worried about Cage’s ability to outrun anyone stupid enough to chase him,” Mia replied dryly. “I’m a lot more concerned about Rune, Reed, and Imani. None of them has a power that’s going to help them if Jasper isn’t—”
“Shh,” Alexei cautioned suddenly. He caught us by the shoulders and pulled us into the shadows.
I let him tug me back but craned my neck to peer over the stall. In front of the woman serving soup, who seemed to take no notice of us whatsoever, a man and a woman in black clothes were conferring, sidearms in their hands. Anywhere else in the galaxy, that would have brought security down on them in seconds, but on Obsidian, no one even looked twice.
I edged closer, trying to hear their conversation. They seemed to be arguing, the woman gesticulating wildly while the man shook his head in frustration.
“Kenzie,” Alexei hissed.
I shoved his hand away. “We need to know what they’re planning,” I whispered, moving in a fast half crouch toward the booth. But my focus was on Alexei, and I stumbled over a loose panel in the floor. For a second my arms pinwheeled and I almost caught myself, but then I plunged forward and crashed into the makeshift wooden stall with a resounding thud that echoed over the market noise.
For a moment everything froze. Then Alexei seized me and physically hauled me against him and Mia. I risked a glance at the stall. Both hunters moved in our direction, eyes narrowed in suspicion. Alexei scowled and raised his hand, sparks leaping.
“No!” I snapped. He absolutely could not start slinging flames in the middle of a crowded marketplace filled with flammable materials.
Of course, letting ourselves get arrested wasn’t a great choice either.
Mia cursed and threw her arms around both of us, catching me off guard. She wasn’t exactly the affectionate type. She shimmered and vanished . . .
And so did we.
I blinked at the spot where Alexei had stood a moment ago. A glance at my own arm revealed nothing, although when I tensed my muscles, everything felt normal. I didn’t dare move more than that, for fear of disrupting Mia’s concentration.
We stayed frozen and silent as the bounty hunters rounded the stall. Our eyes locked, and for a second I was sure they saw us. Then the woman threw her hands up. “They’ve got to be here somewhere.”
The man shrugged, holstering his weapon. “It’s a closed station, Priya. They can’t get off without clearance. Obsidian’s cooperating. We’ll run ’em down. Let’s go find the others.”
The woman, Priya, hesitated, staring right at me. My heart seized in my chest. She couldn’t see me, I knew she couldn’t see me, but it felt like she was about to step forward and shove that gun in my face.
After a moment, though, she tucked it into her holster and followed her partner into the crowd.
Mia’s and Alexei’s arms relaxed under my hands. A moment later, all three of us flickered into view, Alexei’s face a mirror of my own astonishment. “So that’s three,” he said. “Exactly how powerful are you now?”
Mia shrugged, averting her gaze. “I guess we’ll find out when we need to.”
Great, another thing to worry about, on top of the bounty hunters chasing us, the aliens possibly coming to kill everyone for venting their friends into space, the weird guy who lived in the vents tracking my comms . . . the list went on and on. You’d think that after escaping a station full of murderous aliens, things would get easier, not the other way around.
Then again, if your life is easy, you’re probably not running from space monsters. So there was that. Fall down seven times, get up eight, I reminded myself. Except I thought I’d probably stumbled at least a dozen. “Okay,” I said, my mind racing, searching for something to grab on to. “I take your point about Rune needing us more than Cage, but he might be in the marketplace right now.” And so is the Silver Oni. Even though I knew I should avoid him at all costs, something drew me toward that mask. Longing for my past life, maybe, but it felt like something more. Shouldn’t we at least look for him? “Where is Rune, anyway?”
“Probably in the docking ring,” said Alexei. “Kenzie, you can contact Jasper, can’t you?”
“Not unless it’s an absolute emergency. Liam figures my dad is watching for my signal to activate. If he’s in touch with those hunters, they’ll know our exact location if I use my comm.”
“That’s problematic,” Mia agreed grimly. “You two stay here. I’ll do a fast sweep for Cage. If I don’t see him, we’ll head to the docking ring.”
Before we could argue, Mia disappeared. I sighed in exasperation. “Yup,” said Alexei.
I fixed him with a glare. “She’s not the only one with secrets,” I said, dropping my voice to a whisper in case she was still in hearing range. “Why didn’t you tell Mia your uncle wanted her dead?”
Alexei sighed. “It’s not a secret, just not something I want to advertise. Mia already knows my uncle blames her for my family’s deaths. And since I have no intention of giving Grigori what he wants, why worry her?”
I opened my mouth to ask more questions, but at that moment the tablet in Alexei’s hands vibrated. We stared at it. “Is it the hunters?” I asked. “Maybe they realized Mia lifted their device.”
“No.” He frowned, perplexed. “It’s a general call. Targeting the whole station. It keeps cutting out and repeating.”
“Don’t answer. It could be a trap to get us to pick up. I’m sure they can track their own devices.”
Alexei shrugged. “I live dangerously,” he said, and before I could stop him, he activated the link. “Allo?” he said.
“Alexei!” Rune shouted. “Finally!”
“Rune, you’re broadcasting to the entire—”
“I know!” Her voice became shrill, tinged with hysteria. “It was tell everyone or tell no one. They have comms locked down, and I couldn’t access anything but whole-station comms. Come quick! We’re in—”
Her voice cut off with a burst of static.
TWENTY-THREE
ALEXEI WAS ALREADY ON HIS feet. “Find Mia,” he snapped.
Mia popped into view a few feet away. “Right here. What’s going on?”
“Rune just contacted me. She didn’t say much before the signal cut out.”
Mia swore creatively and at some length. “I knew it! What did I tell you?”
“Yes, that’s very helpful.” Alexei stormed into the crowd, catching our elbows to pull us along with him, apparently not at all concerned about the bounty hunters as he dragged us into the marketplace. I stumbled after him, my gaze fixed on the crowd, watching for a flash of silver.
Mia glared at him and shook loose. “Did Rune give you any idea where she was?”
“The comms cut out too quickly. Probably good, because wherever she is, the whole station heard her.”
I tugged free of Alexei and found myself running to keep up. “I guess we start in the docking ring, assuming you know where that is.”
“I do.”
“How many bounty hunters are there?” I asked as the three of us pushed our way through the crowds. I caught a glimpse of the men I’d elbowed earlier, thankfully on the other side of the market, and pulled my hood more closely around my face. Still no sign of the Silver Oni, or of his two partners.
“Five I’ve seen,” said Mia.
“Teams of four or five are standard,” I confirmed.
“But I didn’t see any of them in the market while I searched for Cage, who I didn’t find, obviously. I think they’ve withdrawn.”
Great. We were probably going to walk into a situation where as many as five trained bounty hunters, armed bounty hunters, held Rune captive. I didn’t think it was pushing things to guess they had Imani, Reed, and Jasper as well. And we had what to fight them? Fire, which would hurt our friends as badly as anyone else. I could speak to them in different languages, which was awesomely useless. Mia, though . . . could she slip in, vanquish them, and sneak out again? “No one knows you can share your invisib
ility. It’s not listed in your file,” I thought out loud as we emerged from the marketplace, unmolested. “That might work to our advantage.”
“Maybe.” Mia set her face in determination. We took the stairs at a run, Alexei’s bulk clearing a path through the crowds. We drew a lot of unnecessary attention, but did it really matter at this point? I wished we could get a message to Cage. I wished Mia had found him in the marketplace. His speed would definitely come in handy in this situation, and I knew how he’d react once he realized Rune was in danger and he wasn’t here to protect her. I’d simply have to stand in as best I could.
Mia vanished at will. Cage moved at the speed of light. Alexei made fire. Jasper dismantled buildings. Back home, I’d always been top of my class, working myself into exhaustion to master every skill. Here, no matter what I did or how hard I tried, I was never anything but a burden. The realization struck me with the force of a physical blow. Maybe the best thing I could do was surrender myself and give my friends a chance to escape.
With that unpleasant thought in mind, I followed Alexei to the very bottom of the stairs and into the docking ring. This must have been an addition to Obsidian after the criminal element took over, because it definitely didn’t resemble any Omnistellar design I’d ever seen. We emerged through what I thought would be the emergency airlock on Sanctuary into a large, donut-shaped area reminiscent of the alien ship. Doors spaced at intervals along the walls marked berthed ships. We’d seen it before for all of twelve seconds. Now I took a good look and confirmed my first instinct. This was a hasty but well-built affair, tacked on sometime after the criminals seized Obsidian.
For now, all seemed quiet. People milled about, working and talking and laughing. No one shouted or screamed. “Bounty hunters can’t be popular on Obsidian,” I said nervously. “Maybe we can convince someone to help us.”
“They aren’t, but my uncle also has an unofficial agreement with Omnistellar,” Alexei replied grimly. “Remember, this station is illegal salvage. It’s technically Omnistellar’s property. They ignore the fact that a gang of criminals has taken over their prison and turned it into a hub of illegal commerce, so if they demand the return of a few particularly dangerous criminals, Obsidian isn’t going to do much about it.” He hesitated. “That’s the people running the place, of course. Individuals might feel differently.”
