Page 8 of The First Spark
An explosion thundered, tearing her out of the trance.
“I’m not leaving.”
Escape pods drifted around the ruined frigate. Red lasers pummeled them, and the gray capsules splintered into pieces.
This wasn’t real. This was a dream. She’d fallen asleep in her suite, and she was going to wake up any second. Kalie pinched her arm.
Her skin stung. It wasn’t a dream.
“Your Highness!”
The bridge officer ran up to Ariah, panting. “We just received a transmission from Dali.”
Kalie’s heart pounded in her ears, drowning out the shouts surrounding her. The officer’s face was too bleak. His eyes were empty. That terrifying click replayed again, and Kalie’s throat sealed shut. She wanted to turn away, to hide, to flee. If she didn’t ask, if she didn’t speak, she’d never have to face the truth.
Tears pricked her eyes. She sucked in a shallow breath.
“Aunt Calida?”
His throat bobbed, and pressure built on Kalie’s chest.
He shook his head.
All the voices, the cries of the soldiers, the jolting of the ship, fell out of focus and were replaced by a ringing so loud that Kalie’s legs went out. Her shins slammed into the cold metal floor. Tears burned her cheeks as she clutched at her hair.
Aunt Calida, who’d held her and rocked her as a baby, who’d bandaged her skinned up knees, who’d rubbed her back and listened to her cry after vicious arguments with Mother. Aunt Calida, who had been alive only minutes ago, who would’ve been standing on the podium with Lexie during Marcus’s speech…
Aunt Calida, dead.
Ariah’s voice cracked. “And Lexie?”
With her heart in her throat, she dared to look up.
The bridge officer shook his head.
“No!” Kalie howled. She lunged to her feet and grabbed his uniform, shaking him. “No! You’re lying! She’s alive! I’d know if she was?—”
She released his uniform, choking on a sob, and crumpled to the floor. Lexie. Beautiful, precious,innocentlittle Lexie. Her cousin, her sister. The girl with the widest smile and the kindest heart, who wrote stories about dragons and princessas.
But her little cousin would never find out what she thought of her latest story. She’d rushed her off the call, and now she was dead.
“Marcus?” Ariah whispered.
Kalie didn’t need to look up. He was dead too.
They were all dead.
“They said it was a bombing?—”
The ship lurched, throwing her across the floor. Her chin smashed into steel, ramming her teeth into her tongue. The coppery tang of blood seeped into her mouth as pain shot through her skull, into her bones. Her tears fell harder, faster. She slammed her palm against the metal floor.
Hands gripped her shoulders. Ariah’s face was inches from hers, and tears glistened on her cheeks.
“We need to get out of here.”
Kalie shook her head. Her family was dead. Carik could destroy this fleet, too. What did it matter? Aunt Calida and Lexie had joined Uncle Jacyn in Azura’s heavens, and she’d follow them. She rolled onto her stomach and stared at the carnage beyond the viewport. Her frigates were gone. Red lasers shrieked towards her flagship.
Come and get me. I’m all yours.
