Page 36 of The First Spark (Dynasty of Fire #1)

Standing in the shadow of the Cathedral’s golden doors was a woman with hair the color of a raven’s wings.

Her gaunt skin stretched tightly across her emaciated figure.

She looked like one of the starving citizens from Sector Eight, except for her stunning ensemble: a long white gown, like Kalie’s, under an ermine cloak with distinctive, scandalous gold embroidery.

She was wearing Grandmother Madeleine’s coronation dress.

Kalie’s grip on the Testament tightened as the woman jutted her chin out.

“I’m afraid I must object to these proceedings.”

The clamor from the crowd rocked through Kalie. Her lips parted, but she couldn’t speak.

Up above, in the Cathedral’s gilded balconies, most of her nobles wore expressions of bewilderment. Most, but not all. A small smile curved at Hewlett’s lips.

Gathering all her courage, Kalie rose to her feet. “Who are you?”

Pressing a hand to her heart, the woman strode into the light. “Who am I?” Her voice was hoarse and scratchy, as if she hadn’t spoken in a long time. “Oh, my dear, I’m disappointed. Perhaps Uncle Jerran would care to enlighten you?”

Uncle Jerran looked like he’d seen a ghost. His mouth moved feebly, but nothing came out.

Kalie dug her fingers into the Testament’s worn cover. Uncle Jerran was never speechless.

“Pelala got your tongue, Jerran?”

The woman glided closer. Mylis and a few other guards dropped back and took protective stances in front of Kalie, but the rest of her guards didn’t move.

She gnawed on her lip. Why weren’t they moving?

Mylis’s hand drifted to his pulser, and the black-haired woman raised her hands.

“Call off your little guard dogs, Princessa. I want this to be a civil affair.” A bitter smile twisted her sunken features. “After all, we’re family.”

She spat the word like a curse, and shivers shot up Kalie’s spine.

“I don’t know you.”

“We have our dear uncle to thank for that, don’t we?” The woman glared at Uncle Jerran, who paled. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, my niece.”

Kalie’s breath caught. The world spun around her, making her head pound.

No. No, that was impossible.

Cries of confusion and astonishment swept through the nobles on the balconies above, drowned out by a roar from the crowd below. The commotion that dominated Advisorium meetings played out on the upper levels of the Cathedral as nobles shouted and pointed.

Kalie managed to choke out, “I don’t know you.”

“Allow me to introduce myself, then.” The woman spun towards the crowd. “My name is Iliana Lexington.”

Mylis stiffened.

“Remove her at once!” Uncle Jerran bellowed, but the racket spreading through the crowd drowned him out.

The guards in front of her exchanged worried looks. A few others dropped back to join them, but the rest of her guards, including Captain Vale, stayed where they were. Captain Reg would’ve gone for his weapon, but Vale was a veteran too. Surely, he knew what he was doing.

“Now, Jerran, let me finish,” Iliana drawled. “Since it’s clear you never informed my niece of my existence, I think she’s owed an explanation.”

Kalie clenched her teeth. “If an explanation is needed, it can wait until I’m crowned. Vale, remove her from the platform.”

No one moved.

“I said, remove her now.”

Iliana lifted her chin. The guards pulled out their pulsers, and relief washed over Kalie.

Then the guards turned.

Kalie’s eyes flew wide, and she stumbled back, blinking rapidly. The Testament slipped from her hands. Holy Mother Azura, she had to be seeing this wrong…

The pulsers were pointing at her.

Kalie could scarcely breathe. She’d been betrayed.

Mylis’s hand shot to his pulser, but the barrels turned on him. He raised his hands.

Iliana tilted her head. “I’m afraid what I have to say simply cannot wait. You have two options, Princessa,” she said, in a voice pitched low enough that the camera drones wouldn’t detect it, “either you let me speak, or your guards will open fire.”

Kalie’s heart thumped. She didn’t have a choice. Only seven guards stood between her and the traitors. Uncle Jerran was exposed in the middle of the platform, along with the priestesses. They would be gunned down, then the traitors would kill her too.

Why wasn’t anyone doing anything? Backup should’ve arrived by now.

But if the Captain of her Guard was in on this, there was no telling how much damage he could’ve done.

Her eyes shot to the cameras on the Cathedral’s walls, and her heart plummeted. There were no red lights beside the lenses. They weren’t active. Beyond the shimmering blue forcefield, none of the news drones were anywhere to be found .

Either no one knew, or no one was coming.

Kalie flattened her shaking hands against her gown. “I’ll hear this woman out.”

“I’m glad you see reason.” Iliana strode to the edge of the platform, flanked by Kalie’s guards. When she spoke, her voice was amplified like the High Priestess’s.

“My fellow Dalians, I’m sure you’re confused as to why I’m here. As I’ve said, my name is Iliana Lexington. My father was a commoner. No one special, until his marriage. But my mother…” Iliana ran her hand over her cloak’s fur border. Her throat bobbed. “My mother was Duchissa Madeleine.”

The words washed over Kalie, but they hardly registered until the crowd below erupted. She stood frozen, with her pulse thundering in her ears.

No, no, no . She glanced at Uncle Jerran, silently pleading for him to deny it. His face was white as chalk.

Kalie’s legs trembled. “My grandmother had two daughters—Duchissa Calida and my mother. You’re lying.”

She wasn’t. Uncle Jerran’s face was proof.

“Before her parents forced her to marry that Renish prince, my mother fell madly in love. She eloped and conceived a child?—”

“There was no elopement?—”

A guard jabbed a pulser into Uncle Jerran’s back. He fell silent.

“As I was saying, she eloped with my father, but she trusted the wrong man with her secret.” Iliana’s sunken eyes shifted to Uncle Jerran.

“Her parents arranged for my father to disappear. I don’t think anyone knew they’d been married except my uncle.

I was regarded as illegitimate, so my birth was a quiet one.

I was adopted out, and my mother’s first marriage never saw the light of day. ”

The voices of the crowd surged.

Sweat dripped down Kalie’s face. It was no secret that Grandmother Madeleine had many affairs, but she’d never heard of another marriage, and certainly not another child.

“My uncle came to visit me occasionally. I didn’t know what he’d done, and I fell into the trap of trusting him. I idolized him. ”

Kalie swallowed. She wasn’t the only one to idolize Uncle Jerran. They all had. Madeleine, Aunt Calida and Mother, her and Mylis.

Uncle Jerran’s face was so, so pale.

“When the civil war began, I stayed out of it. Towards the end, my mother summoned me. She broke down and told me the whole story. She was going to make me her heir.” Iliana glowered at Uncle Jerran.

“Within the week, I received a message from my uncle, asking to meet. I was conflicted. I was to be named Heredem, and he was supporting the girl born with that title. But I was young and naive. Not much older than you, Kalista. My trust was misplaced.”

“Enough,” Uncle Jerran spat. The furor from the balconies and the tumult of the crowd below drowned him out.

Mylis shifted in front of Kalie. She inched closer to him, breathing in his sandalwood cologne. It didn’t calm her racing pulse.

“I went. My uncle was there, but so were his men. I was overpowered quickly.” Tears seeped from Iliana’s closed eyes.

“They threw a hood over my head, tied my hands behind my back. I tried to resist, but they were too strong… I remember screaming for my mother to save me… then I woke up in a dark cell, completely alone.”

Kalie pressed her hand to her mouth.

As Uncle Jerran’s face flushed a livid shade of red, a murmur rippled through the crowd. On the balcony, the nobles gazed at Iliana with sympathy.

Mylis’s grip tightened on his pulser.

“It was many months,” Iliana mumbled, “until I found out I was on Titan. By then, I knew no one was coming. I was told my mother took her own life weeks after I was captured. The guard’s exact words were, ‘the bitch has finally offed herself.’”

“Enough!” Uncle Jerran roared, marching towards her. “You will leave, now, and never show your face here again. Lies! All lies!”

Kalie shivered. Judging by his initial reaction, they weren’t lies at all.

Iliana raised her nose high in the air, cold and imperious. Her resemblance to Mother was uncanny. “The day has passed when I listened to you, Uncle Jerran. I made that mistake once. It’ll never happen again. ”

Kalie’s lip wobbled as Uncle Jerran limped towards her. His face was drawn, his posture stooped.

Mylis stepped away, taking his hand off his pulser.

The birds had stopped chirping. The nobles had stopped shouting, and the crowd below had gone utterly silent.

Rays of golden sunlight crept over them, but Kalie couldn’t tear her gaze from Uncle Jerran long enough to see where they’d landed.

She already knew they’d fallen on the emaciated woman standing behind her.

Her aunt, whom he’d betrayed.

“Is it true?”

His throat bobbed. “Not entirely. Kalista, I…” He reached for her, and she flinched away. “Please, there’s more to the story?—”

“I can’t believe it,” Kalie breathed.

The people imprisoned on the Dalian moon Titan were those so wicked they would never see the light of day. The prisoners faced the worst abuses imaginable, and Uncle Jerran had sent his innocent niece to rot there.

A niece who’d been her age.

She took a step away from him, and hurt flashed in his eyes. “Kalista, she’s dangerous. Your mother?—”

“I’m sure this will come as a blow, dear,” Iliana crooned. “I once looked up to him the way you do, and I’m sure he’s manipulated you the way he manipulated my sisters and I. But I’m afraid I cannot recognize your rule. My bloodright is stronger than yours.”

Kalie stopped breathing. She wanted the crown.

Ten steps separated them, but her aunt’s voice seemed far away. “I’m my mother’s firstborn, and unlike you and your mother, I’m a full-blooded Dalian. If you turn the crown over to me, I’ll name you my heir. I’m past the age to have my own.”

“A trap,” Uncle Jerran babbled, “Kain… Caira almost died…”

Kalie trembled. All eyes were on her.

“And…” Her voice rasped against her sandpaper throat. “If I refuse?”

“Then I will take what is mine.” Iliana tipped her head towards the traitorous guards. “You should accept my offer, Kalista. It is far more generous than the alternative. ”

Kalie swallowed painfully. She was cornered. Her guards were working for Iliana, and the forcefield was active; no one could get in or out. Vale had insisted on the forcefield. He’d insisted on not bringing in the Skyforce. He must’ve planned to betray her all along.

She was trapped.

By doing this publicly, Iliana had ensured her story couldn’t be covered up.

Her options were simple: surrender the crown and live, or fight for it and die.

The sapphire crown sparkled on its pedestal. It promised the power to create change. It was Aunt Calida’s legacy. Her legacy. She was meant to wear it, not some vengeful stranger.

Iliana’s eyes narrowed. “I won’t wait forever.”

“Listen to me.” Uncle Jerran’s clammy hand gripped hers. Kalie tried to jerk away, but he held tight . “You can’t trust her, Calida made that mistake?—”

One of Iliana’s men aimed his pulser at Uncle Jerran’s skull. “Not another word.”

Kalie’s heart thumped as she looked from the crown, to Uncle Jerran, to Mylis. They were all she had left. Aunt Calida, Lexie, and Ariah were gone. Ariah had died so she could claim the crown and make things right. To give it up wouldn’t just betray her, it would betray them all.

She took a ragged breath. Released it.

“I refuse to surrender my crown.”

Taking a step back, Iliana bowed her head. “So be it.”

Ancient glass windows shattered, the forcefield flickered, and an army of men on jetpacks broke through, opening fire.