Page 182 of The First Spark
Shivers crawled up Kalie’s spine.
“Goodbye.”
“No, wait?—”
The transmission had already clicked out. The blinking white light in the comm’s rim faded. Kalie jabbed the callback button, smoothing her unruly hair and staring into the miniature camera lens. The comm rang and rang, but Mira didn’t answer.
Frowning, Kalie pulled up Cybel’s contact card.
“Look, Your Majesty!” a Dalian cried, pointing at the sky.
Kalie’s muscles went taut. Pocketing her comm, she rose to her feet and strode towards the window. The lamp’s glare dimmed the visibility in the distant sky, and she had to squint to make out theshapes looming beyond the atmosphere. As her vision adjusted, her jaw dropped.
One by one, a collection of battleships appeared in the sky and unleashed their lasers on Carik’s crumbling fleets.
Dali, Sector 4
Undecemmensis-23, 817 cycles A.F.C.
Blinking back tears,Kalie dipped a bloodstained rag into a bowl of pungent liquid. Minty okul salve swirled with bloody water as she wrung the cloth out. If not for the machine beeping above Ariah’s unmoving body—a reminder that she was here, she was alive—the gore plastered to her infected wounds would’ve been overwhelming proof that she was dead.
As she gripped Ariah’s bandaged hand, Kalie blotted at her swollen face. Beads of water swept through patches of crusted blood, loosening it from her infected skin.
The cloth snagged a vicious scab slicing through her right eye, and blood dribbled from the wound. Flinching, Kalie pressed the cloth to the gash to stem the flow.
“There are nurses who can do that, you know.”
She whipped around, and her elbow slammed into the bowl of rosy water, knocking it from the nightstand. She caught the bowl and steadied it, but water splashed onto the floor.
Dressed in his Skyforce blues, Julian leaned against the doorframe. His fingers curled into fists as he scanned Ariah’s body. Behind him, Haeden clutched a bouquet of flowers like a lifeline.
“Her… her leg,” Haeden stammered, stepping past Julian. “Her… Kal, what happened to her leg?”
Kalie’s heart sank. “Gangrene. They had to amputate during surgery. They’re still trying to figure out how far the infection spread.”
“And… and her face.” Dropping the flowers on a chair, Haeden stumbled around the bed and reached out, as if to smooth Ariah’s hair back.
Her hair was gone. Jagged wounds sliced through her skull.
“If they had her in surgery, why didn’t they fix her? Make themfix her. You’re the Duchissa now, order them to?—”
“They have to give her body time to rest before they start on the other injuries.” Kalie ducked her head, avoiding the sight of burned skin and bloody scabs. “They used the regenerator to stop the internal bleeding, and they already pushed it further than they should’ve by amputating her leg. It’ll be hours until her organs can take the regenerator’s strain again.”
“But what did they do?” Haeden breathed, seizing Ariah’s other hand.
Kalie’s throat closed up.
Only Ariah would be able to answer that question, if she woke up.
“I can’t believe Carik returned her,” Julian said. “Especially since she’s your… well, your…”
The truth they’d guarded for so long hung in the air between them. The scandal had blazed through half of Dali’s news networks in the hours after Ariah’s return.
Kalie swallowed thickly.
Haeden, wrapped up in staring at Ariah, didn’t seem to hear Julian. But Julian’s sharp gaze hovered on her, waiting for the explanation she’d deprived them of for so long. It would have to come later, though. The truth was too tangled. Just thinking the wordsgemod doublefilled her with bitter, poisonous guilt.
“Carik handed her over to Iliana’s envoys before Zane challenged.He tried to call them back after he heard what was happening, but the envoys ignored him and brought her home anyway.”
