The only thing being scared was good for was giving up. When Emmet said it, Sidnye hadn’t realized how right he was.

She’d been afraid before. She was numb now.

Numb was better.

* * *

It’s one thing to talk about your world falling apart, as you’re hit with headaches and dreams that let you see things happen before they happen. It’s another thing when your world falls apart for real, because your school is attacked by alien bugs and you have to escape in a starship after your dog that you thought was dead saves your life.

It’s easy to feel the fear that comes from being dragged away from everything that used to be part of your life. It’s easy to feel angry when you’re told you’re not going back to that life, but no one will tell you why.

It’s easy to feel the fear and the anger turn to something so much worse when you realize that everything you thought you understood about your life is a lie…

* * *

EXCERPT

“I know who I am!” As Sidnye screamed, the shadow turned her voice to a pulse of thunder. McCune backed up to the wall, outlined in the glow from the bank of monitors behind him.

“No, Sidnye. You don’t know.”

The seriousness that edged his voice went way beyond anything Sidnye had ever heard before. She closed her eyes because she didn’t want to look at him, but when she did, the shadow flared in the darkness like lightning against grey sky.

“You need to learn who you are,” McCune said. “That’s what everything that’s happened is about…”

“Then tell me.”

Behind the shadow that wrapped him, McCune’s eyes showed the fear again. It was the same as Sidnye had seen on the farm. The same as when she thought the name the robot had said to her. It ran deep behind the grey of those eyes, turning them black where the shadow touched them. Sidnye could see her reflection there, her face dark, hair hanging lank. Her mouth was twisted with the anger and the shadow that scoured her.

“I can’t, Sidnye,” McCune said. “Please forgive me. Please try to understand…”