Page 10 of The First Spark
Her guards stormed ahead of her, and another body landed at herfeet. Flashes of red light filled the hangar. Captain Reg roared as he crumpled, clutching his side.
Ariah tugged her away from the battle, away from her troops, towards the pods on the far wall.
Black armor. Red lasers. Smoke burned her nostrils as an explosion boomed. A ship went up in flames. Screams rang out everywhere, echoing in her ears. Oh, gods, had Lexie screamed like that? A bombing, they’d said…
“Kal!”
She stumbled aside as Ariah spun and fired. Soldiers in black armor stormed towards them.
Tears streamed down Kalie’s cheeks as she raised her chin and stared at the charging forces. If this was the end, she would not be afraid. She would not falter, would not run. She was a descendant of Queen Azura, and when those blasts hit her and her soul slipped away, she and Ariah would appear before the goddess together. In these last moments, she’d be strong.
Ariah fired once, twice, three times. Each shot felled a legionnaire.
Then Ariah pushed her away, which made no sense. Together. They would face this together.
“Go!”
The cry jolted her back to reality.
It wasn’t over yet. If she could get to an escape pod, Ariah would be right behind her. She could save both of them. Shewouldsave both of them.
So she ran.
Pulsers shrieked in Kalie’s ears as she sprinted for the pods, not daring to pause even as explosions boomed behind her. She pounded on the codebox. A hatch slid open, and she leapt inside, glancing over her shoulder.
Ariah looked back. Time froze between them as their gazes held, and an eternity passed in that moment—an eternity of laughter and love. Muted pulser shots sounded in the distance. They were so close. Any second, Ariah would be in the pod with her.
The spell snapped, and time careened forward at an impossible speed.
A barrage of red bolts raced towards Ariah.
The blasts tore through her chest.
As Ariah crumpled to the floor, Kalie screamed.
No, that couldn’t have happened, surely it didn’t—no, no, no?—
The pulsers turned on her.
Everything in her burned to go to Ariah—she’d save her or die alongside her—but she had no weapons, and the red bolts were streaking towards her.
She braced herself, staring into the barrel of a distant pulser. Beyond the approaching horde lay Ariah’s broken body, and she only regretted that she couldn’t be there to hold Ariah’s hand when they shot her down. They would be together. Crib to crypt. Just a few more seconds, and she’d be standing at her side…
The hatch slid shut.
Her eyes flew wide as the pod jolted away. Her hand—her stupid, cowardly hand—hovered above the detach button. Kalie sank to her knees and screamed, slamming her fists against the sealed metal hatch. She wanted to go back, to join Ariah.
But though she screamed and screamed, and pounded her fists against the panel until blood ran down her knuckles, Ariah was gone.
Ravaris IV, Sector 5
Decemmensis-7, 817 cycles A.F.C.
Kalie blinked awake.The pod’s metal walls swam into focus, blinding under the harsh light of the planet’s triple suns. She squeezed her eyes shut. Her skin felt like it was on fire as the humid jungle’s vicious heat surged through the pod’s cracked viewport. Something was whining. A low whine. She blinked, but she didn’t move. She couldn’t move if she tried. It wasn’t the news feed on the dashboard—that was still crackling, playing the same rhythm of garbled voices that it’d played for the past… hours? Days?
Thinking, again. She closed her eyes. Shut off her mind.
The whine tapered into silence.
