Page 137 of The First Spark
“She’s really there?”
With a final glance at the closed doors, Kalie took a seat next to Father. Unease prickled at the back of her neck. There was no time to dwell on Selene—all eyes had turned to her.
They’d decided on a show of Hannoverian unity. No more hiding in an obscure room, routing her signal halfway across the Federation. No more deception. Today, her family would appear as one.
“Good morning.” The microphone in front of Kalie amplified her voice to a booming level. “Thank you all for being here. My apologiesfor the cryptic message; I couldn’t trust the comms. We have a situation.”
Her voice was far calmer than it ever should’ve been under the circumstances, but her heart raced, and beads of sweat pricked her forehead.
“A Federation fleet will take Dali in four days.”
“A fleet is coming here?” cried Julian’s father. “Our militias can’t possibly hold them!”
“I know. We need to move up the attack, strike before it gets there. It’ll take our forces a day to move into position, so I propose we launch the day after tomorrow.”
“Twodays?” Poltrun spluttered, gawking at her. “You promised us until the end of the month! My fleets are still mobilizing, it takes time!”
“We don’t have time!” Kalie’s chest heaved as she breathed rapidly, trying to quell the flush rising to her face and the knots twisting in her stomach. “We only have four days to stop Carik. I’ll contact my friends in the Skyforce and ask them to stand with us, but we need to move now?—”
A stunning flash of light burst through the room, and then she was flying, knocked back as if someone had slammed into her. The coppery tang of blood filled her mouth, welling in her throat. Grit stung her skin. Her lungs burned, and pain pulsed through her. Sharp, bone-deep pain—she’d crashed into something. She whimpered.
Silence. Perfect silence.
An earth-shattering thunderclap blasted through the air. Someone roared her name. Screams rang out, along with a tinkle that might’ve been shattering glass. High-pitched ringing drowned it out.
Blinking rapidly, Kalie tried to rise. A heavy weight pinned her down. She raised her head. The lightless room warped around her in a dizzying blur of shadows and motion. Vibrations rattled the cool marble floor.
A lump lay motionless a few feet away, half-shielded by rubble from a crumbling pillar. Ash stung Kalie’s eyes. She blinked it away. The lump came into focus—a man with pale blue hair, impaled by a shard of glass.
Gasping, Kalie looked up. A burning scrap of a crimson cloth floated past the window.
But the windows weren’t there. The wall wasn’t there.
Beyond it, a great orange plume rose into the sky.
A bomb.
Abomb?
Kalie choked on a sob. A flash of burgundy barreled towards her, and the blurred figure slid into a crouch, materializing into Mother. The weight on her back vanished. Mother’s lips moved, far too fast to keep up, but the sound didn’t reach Kalie’s ears.
Hands hauled her upright. Zane’s hands. He stood over her.
A hot palm cupped her cheek, jolting her gaze to Mother.
Her lips moved, and Kalie read the shapes.Go, get to the hangar.
“I’m not running,” she said. The ringing drowned her out.
Mother’s wild eyes flitted over her shoulder. A trail of blood streaked down her forehead. Her lips moved again:Get her out of here.
Shadows loomed in the sky above her, monstrous shapes that blotted out the sunlight. Kalie blinked. The ceiling was gone. And those shapes…
Her blood ran cold. Onyx vessels, each the size of a city. Destroyers.
They’d come for Etov.
That… that was impossible, they were supposed to be going for Dali…
