Page 103 of The First Spark
Mother had been right, too. A title didn’t earn her respect. And as Mother had warned her, she’d learned that lesson the hard way.
Kalie straightened up, flinching as pain lanced through her ribs. Moving forward, she would do better.Bebetter.
And then there was Iliana’s ultimatum.
“Something I have the power to return… does the name…”
What had she been talking about? Maybe Zane was right and she was a raving madwoman, but Iliana didn’t seem like a fool. Her lips had been moving when the blast went off. If only Zane would’ve come a second later…
A shriek pierced through the ship.
Kalie leapt to her feet. Her heart thundered as she slid the door open and charged into the cargo bay.
She stopped short.
Zane thrashed against the blanket. “No!” he cried, thumping his fist against the mattress. “No, no,please?—”
Kalie’s mouth hung open.
“Lys!” he roared, and the blanket went flying. He kept fighting, as if his life depended on it—or someone else’s. “Lys!”
His voice broke, and Kalie snapped out of her daze. Duckingunder a flying fist, she sat on the edge of the bunk and touched his arm. “Hey, wake up?—”
Zane’s leg slammed into the metal wall. Roaring, he flung his arm at her. The blow would’ve knocked Kalie flat on her back if she hadn’t leapt away. Gasping, she retreated to the far wall. Her pulse thudded in her ears. His eyes were closed, but the rage on his face… the rage andloss…
This wasn’t a normal nightmare.
“Wake up.” Kalie’s voice shook. She didn’t dare approach him again. “It’s just a dream.”
He didn’t seem to hear her. “No… Lys,no…” Zane was crying now. “Love you…”
Kalie went still. Her heart twisted, as if someone had closed a fist around it and squeezed.
He started moaning. Pleading.
An ache burned in her throat. She tried to go to him, but her heart pummeled her ribs, and her feet stuck to the floor. This was Zane, who’d helped her at her lowest. She owed him. But he looked feral, still kicking and thrashing, still swinging his arm. One blow could knock her out cold. In the state he was in, he might actually kill her.
There was a piece of metal flinging around on his bare chest, strung around his neck with a chain of silver beads.
A military tag.
Her eyes lingered on his sculpted chest, his abs and corded muscles, but she swallowed and wrenched her gaze away. Light seeped in from the screens in the cockpit. If she squinted, the figures etched into the metal tag stopped swimming long enough for her to read:
Hale
Lysa M.
Kalie’s mouth fell open. Oh, holy gods. The tag flipped over as he writhed against the sheets, but she’d seen enough. If he wore her military tag and he’d left Oppalli without her…
“Coward,”she’d spat.“Greedy, self-absorbed coward.”
Their voices echoed in her head, spinning like a cyclone as the pieces fell into place. Kalie sagged against the wall. Her wide eyes were frozen on that piece of gleaming metal.
“Something happened to make you this way. Someone happened.”
“Not Mira.”
“Because they’re alldead,and I was sick of fighting a losing battle.”
