by Caryn Lix
That, more than anything, made my decision. I didn’t trust Liam. Not for a second. But he sure as hell wasn’t working with the aliens. “You’re actually going to stand with us?” I demanded.
He laughed shortly. “Hell, no. If I see one of those things, I’m running like hell.”
Well, that at least read honestly. “Then why should we take you along?”
“Because at least until I run, you get another gun. If we’re closed in, you’d better believe I’ll do whatever it takes to get us out of there. And for me, it’s try to escape with you or hide in here until the zemdyut find me or I starve to death.” My stomach rumbled loudly at the mention of food, and he gestured to a nearby shelf. “Help yourselves. It’s not enough to last much longer anyway.”
Barely daring to hope, I lunged for the cupboard to find an assortment of protein bars and bottled water. I handed them to the others and tore into a bar myself, still crouched on the floor beside the cupboard. It was chalky and overly sweet, but it tasted amazing at that moment. The offer of food went a long way toward making me trust Liam. Of course, I would probably have trusted Priya by this point if she’d handed me a candy bar.
Something at the rear of the cupboard caught my eye. I reached out and examined it. “Liam. Are these . . . ?”
“Stay-awake pills,” he said. “Uppers. Barely even illegal.”
I hesitated, meeting Cage’s eyes over my shoulder. He gestured, and I passed them over. “We’ve used these before,” he said, examining the bottle and showing it to Rune. “There didn’t seem to be any long-lasting effects.”
“No, but they made us jumpy,” Rune pointed out. “Given the current situation . . .”
I shrugged. “Can we take them?” I asked Liam.
“I’m not planning on coming back here.”
I nodded at his weaponry, the cutlass and the musket. “Do those actually work?”
“Naturally.” He sniffed, apparently deeply offended, and drew the musket to give me a closer look. It was a high-powered laser rifle, one probably costing hundreds of thousands of credits, cleverly designed to look like an antique. I had no idea why anyone would do something like that to a perfectly good rifle.
“Okay, once and for all,” said Rune. “Why does it look like that? And why do you, for that matter?”
Liam grinned, back to his cocky self. “When I first came here, I flipped through some books without understanding how historical they were,” he explained. “By the time I realized the pirate look was outdated, I’d decided I liked it.”
Of course he had. I sighed. “Can Cage take your cutlass?”
Cage blinked. “I’ve never used a sword, Kenzie.”
“No, but with your speed, that could be a pretty deadly weapon in your hands, even against the aliens.” And with mine, I reminded myself. But I still wasn’t sure how to trigger my new abilities. For Cage, his speed was second nature. For me, it only seemed to appear when I panicked. And if I lost control with that blade in my hand . . . I squared my shoulders. No more accidents.
Slowly he nodded, accepting my logic, and Liam passed him the cutlass without argument. Cage tested the edge with his thumb, wincing as he drew a drop of blood. “Why’d you do that?” Liam demanded.
Cage shrugged, sucking on the wound. “It’s what they do in the movies.”
Somehow that struck me as incredibly funny, and I had to purse my lips against another hysterical bout of laughter. “Okay,” I managed. “We rescue our friends, find a way off Obsidian, and avoid getting killed by aliens. Anything else?”
“That’s not enough?” Liam asked dryly. “My advice, forget your friends. You can’t take on the zemdyut and Legion.”
“We’re not abandoning them,” said Rune sharply.
Cage laid a soothing hand on her shoulder. “Of course we’re not.” He gestured to Liam. “You can stay here, if you want. We’ll come back for you.”
He laughed scornfully, apparently attributing the same lack of honor to us that he’d displayed. “No thanks. I’ll tag along. Safety in numbers and all that.” He hesitated. “But let’s be clear. Once the zemdyut show up, it’s everyone for themselves. Don’t expect me to sacrifice myself to save you.”
“I appreciate the honesty.” I shoved a few more protein bars into my pockets and stared at the wall. “I wonder if I can open a door anywhere on the station,” I said slowly. With a glance over my shoulder at Liam, I added, “Or if you can.”
“I told you on my ship. I seem to have burnt out my powers getting here. Or maybe it’s a mental block. I don’t know. I’ve tried using them since and nothing happened.” He looked very young and tired all of a sudden and scrubbed his fingers over his face. “You have the same power as me?”
“I didn’t,” I said. “Not until recently. Our powers seem to be changing.”
He shrugged. “Yeah, the same thing happened on my planet.”
“What?” All three of us spun on him.
“How?” Rune demanded, at the same time that I said, “Explain.” We drew forward, fists taut at our sides, our shoulders squared, and faced him down.
Liam seemed taken aback. “How much do you know? Did you figure out where your powers originated?”
I nodded. “Alien genetic manipulation to prep us for harvest, yeah. We’ve got all that.”
“So prolonged exposure to the aliens mutates and shifts those powers. We discovered it ourselves after the first few attacks. It doesn’t happen to everyone, and the closer you are in proximity to zemdyut, the stronger the effects. Since you lot spent a bunch of time in their alien goop, hanging out on their ship, I’m not surprised your powers are changing.”
I frowned. Liam seemed very well informed, and I couldn’t remember how much of our story we’d shared with him. But like he said, he knew everything that happened on Obsidian. And he’d shed some light on our situation. “Then the aliens cause the increase in powers?” I asked. “How? And why?”
He shrugged. “I’m not a scientist. I don’t know the details. My . . .” He hesitated, his face going strangely pale, highlighting the slight differences, the hints of not-quite-human around his eyes. “My mother studied them. I never listened much. All I wanted to know was how to kill them, how to evade them. She said they emit a low-level radiation that interacts with the powers we already possess. The gunk they soak their victims in amplifies it. She said it wasn’t so much that the aliens gave us powers as it was that the aliens were the powers.”
I reeled. “Are you saying the aliens have powers too?”
“I don’t know. They never needed them, not on my planet, at least.”
I closed my eyes, coming to terms with this new information. At least I knew what was happening to me. Hopefully it wasn’t the first step in transforming into an alien myself. “How did your powers change?”
“Honestly, I didn’t stick around long enough to find out. But I’m guessing the change is what powered me across the universe.” He swallowed hard. “I haven’t used my powers since, though. I . . . I can’t. Maybe I exhausted them, or maybe I . . . anyway. If you want to get us out of here, you’re going to have to open the door.” He flashed me a grin. “So where are you taking us?”
“Our original plan was to hit the command deck and get better weapons,” Rune offered.
Cage stood up, tucking a protein bar wrapper into his pocket. “Rune? Liam? Any chance you can use the computers to find out where Legion is holding its prisoners?”
Liam shook his head, but Rune closed her eyes. Her lashes fluttered like she was in REM sleep. “Rune?” I asked hesitantly.
She slumped, and Cage caught her, panic written across his face. “Rune. Rune!”
Oh, what now? Terror surged in my chest. If something happened to Rune, too . . . But then she opened her eyes and smiled weakly. “I’m okay. I was just checking to see if I could do it.”
“Do what?”
“Access the computer without ever having been in direct contact.”
; “And?”
“I can.” She gave herself a shake. “It was pretty exhausting, and I’d rather not do it too often, but it’s good to know it works. Legion is on the command deck, arguing with Grigori Danshov. I don’t know what about. I only got glimpses.” She gave us a tired smile. “The good news is, they have all the others with them. Everyone looks okay.”
We exchanged unhappy glances. “Well,” I said, “guess that’s where we’re going.”
THIRTY-FOUR
I GAWKED AT THE PILLS Cage shook into my hand. “You’re sure these won’t hurt me?” I demanded. My parents and Omnistellar had drilled me on the dangers of drug use from a very young age. I rarely took so much as a painkiller, and here I was staring at a fistful of illegal uppers.
Sorry. Barely illegal uppers.
In answer, he popped two pills into his own mouth and swallowed them with half a bottle of water. He leaned against the wall as if bracing himself, eyes closed. A moment later his eyes popped open, his pupils dilated slightly, and he grinned, blinking rapidly. “There we go,” he said, and spread his arms. “See? No problem.”
Except for the slight tremor in his fingers. I glanced at Rune and she went through the same routine, offering me a reassuring smile. “Prolonged use can be addictive,” she said, “but it’s not like street drugs, where one dose can kill you. It’ll just wake you up. Promise.”
Well, it wasn’t like I had much choice. The fastest way to the command level was to use my power, and I was too tired to try it again without help. I stared at the pills. They were small and white and completely nonthreatening, and yet somehow the sight of them sent anxiety ramping through my brain.
Cage stepped in front of me, filling my vision, so close he swallowed the oxygen from my lungs. “I promise you’ll be okay,” he said, cupping my face in his hand and letting me examine him closely. “I wouldn’t give you anything that would hurt you.”
I tilted my face into his hand, appreciating the reassurance, knowing I was being ridiculous. I wished I had time to talk with him. I hadn’t been ready to understand, to forgive, before. Now I thought I could, but now we didn’t have the time, or the privacy.
Before I could think any harder, I popped the pills into my mouth, swallowed, and waited.
It didn’t take long. For a few seconds nothing happened, and then a rush of energy shot through me, not unpleasant, exactly, but not fun, either. It was a jolt on the edge of pain. I straightened, alertness flowing through my body as my exhaustion faded, and a smile ghosted over my lips. I felt like I could do anything: run a mile or open a portal or even take on the alien creatures. “Oh,” I gasped.
Cage’s touch against my face suddenly burned, pinpricks of energy that made me want to yank free of him but also to pull him closer. He grinned. “There we go. You ready?”
“I’m ready,” I said, and for once I meant it. He leaned toward me, and for a moment I was sure he would kiss me, or I would kiss him. But Rune shuffled her feet impatiently behind him, and Liam coughed, and Cage released me and stepped away.
Not knowing the station made it hard to picture the command level, and Liam’s explanations did nothing to help. At last I simply imagined Sanctuary. As soon as I did, the entire layout leaped into my mind with such crystal clarity it almost brought a tear to my eye. I knew Sanctuary was, in many ways, an awful place, imprisoning anomalies for no reason other than their existence, Omnistellar’s crown jewel in a collection of lies. But it was still my home, still the last place I’d lived with my family before everything fell apart. Maybe the pills were working on my emotions. I didn’t want to think about that too hard.
Focus. Get us out of here. Where could I take us safely? Obsidian’s layout wasn’t exactly the same as Sanctuary’s, but the general design was similar, and I bet some places were exactly the same—like the med bay. Med bays hadn’t changed in decades. I visualized Sanctuary’s med bay in excruciating detail and extended my mind.
At the last second a frantic fear seized me. What if, instead of taking us to Obsidian’s med bay, I opened a door to the hollow where Sanctuary’s actual med bay used to be? I pulled, pushed, stumbled over my own adrenaline, and eventually just swore and yanked on the door. The pills both stoked and dulled my fears. They were probably to blame for the sudden terror, but they also made me throw caution to the wind. A flash of light indicated a portal. I opened my eyes, for the first time maintaining it long enough to study it: nothing but a flare of light in the wall, about the size of a door. I glanced at Cage, nodded, and stepped through.
We stumbled into an empty med facility. At first it looked exactly like Sanctuary’s, and again I found myself disoriented. After all, the last time I’d stood in that med bay, Cage had ripped a chip out of my arm, I’d learned the bizarre history of my own abilities, and a horde of aliens had torn Rita to shreds. As usual when I thought of Rita, suppressed tears stung my eyelids. Rita was the one person I mourned without any other mixed-up emotions. She hadn’t lied to me or betrayed me, and she’d deserved more than death at alien hands.
But quickly I noticed tiny differences. For one, this facility was larger; for another, it wasn’t as modern, not as well equipped. The machinery was old, but in excellent repair. Some of the beds were stitched where they’d torn. “There must be medical staff on duty,” I murmured. “You’d think there’d be injuries from the aliens.”
Liam sniffed. “The zemdyut don’t injure. They assimilate, and they destroy.”
Cage and Liam carried weapons, so they took positions on either side of the door while Rune and I hovered in the background. It made sense for Cage to have the cutlass. It was my idea, after all. And I could hardly demand that Liam hand over his gun. I still wasn’t sure I wanted a gun. The relief of knowing I hadn’t killed Matt didn’t change the fact that my shot had gone astray. I should have killed him. I thought now I could probably pick up a lethal weapon if I had to, as long as I didn’t fire it anywhere with a chance to hit a person. But that didn’t make me feel any better about the possibility.
Of course, I wasn’t sure I was thrilled with Liam having the gun, either. He’d already admitted he’d throw us into space to save himself, and I suspected there was more to his story, more he wasn’t telling us. But taking the gun by force would create a problem, so there we were.
Still, I wasn’t quite willing to play the damsel in distress, so I located two scalpels in a nearby supply locker and passed one to Rune. She nodded her thanks. The scalpels probably didn’t serve much purpose, but anything made me feel a bit better.
Cage beckoned, and we crept into the deserted corridors: Cage, Rune, and me, Liam bringing up the rear. “Where is everyone?” I whispered. “I thought they evacuated here.”
Rune shook her head. “Do you want me to initiate a scan for life signs?”
“No,” said Cage. “We don’t have time, and we can’t risk alerting anyone monitoring the system. We’re almost at Grigori’s apartment. Let’s just go there, take those bastards by surprise, and hopefully get our friends.”
By surprise . . . “Hang on a second,” I said. I closed my eyes, focusing on that moment back on the hunter ship when my arm had shimmered into view and I’d reached out to Mia. I expended all of my mental energy, imagining us vanishing, disappearing.
A moment passed. “Um, Kenz,” said Cage gently, “what are you doing?”
I gasped and opened my eyes, reeling with the effort. “Trying to make us invisible. Did it work?”
“Not even a little bit,” said Liam dryly.
Did that mean I couldn’t use powers if the people who possessed them weren’t nearby? But wait, that didn’t make sense. I frowned. The first two times I’d used the portal-opening ability had been on the hunter ship. And Liam should have been squirreled away in his hole. Unless he’d been closer? I opened my mouth to ask.
At that second, a horrifying scream split the air.
Not a human scream.
One we’d heard before.
My kne
es gave way and I collapsed to the floor, jamming my fist into my mouth to keep from screaming myself. I’d known they were here, but the shriek was so close, so intense, that it brought back every single memory from Sanctuary, all of the fear and terror and horror, my mother’s lifeless body, Rita, the gun bucking as I pulled the trigger. I stared at my hands and found blood suddenly coating them, black and alien, seeping into my skin . . .
Then Cage had me, turning my body, not making a sound as he pulled me against him, his arms tight. “Breathe,” he whispered, his voice barely discernible.
The world swam. I focused on Cage, the solidity of his chest against my shoulder, the warmth of his breath against my ear. Staring at the tattoo on his neck, I forced my vision to settle. My heart still raced, my stomach flip-flopping. I risked a glance behind me. Rune clamped her hands over her mouth, leaving her face nothing but wide eyes, and Liam’s entire body looked like he’d been hit with a stun blast.
But they’d kept their feet. The only one on the floor shaking like an infant was me. What the hell was wrong with me? I’d faced these things before. I’d beaten them!
Barely. And at the cost of so many lives.
I closed my eyes, clenching my hands into fists. Pills. It had to be the pills. I found my heartbeat and forced it to slow, and then I opened my eyes and nodded at Cage.
Pills. It was only the pills causing this mind-disintegrating terror. And thank God I had them to blame.
Liam drew his gun and Cage his cutlass, and the four of us advanced to the corner. They can’t see you, I reminded myself. It was so tempting to tell myself to stay back, to let the people with the weapons go first. But if I started doing that, I might never stop. I pressed myself against the wall, clenched my teeth to stay silent, and leaned around the corner.
A tail whipped across the floor as an alien stalked toward the curve in the corridor, its claws clicking almost imperceptibly. It hesitated, sniffing the air, and gave another of those piercing cries.
