Page 37 of The First Spark (Dynasty of Fire #1)

Shards of glass rained down as the forcefield returned. Terrified screams rang in Kalie’s ears, but the bodies were falling too fast to keep up. A woman nearby shrieked and crumpled. Carmine liquid pooled at her temple.

Oh, gods , what had she done?

There wasn’t time to think about it. Lasers were flying.

Kalie’s heart leapt into her throat as she hit the ground. A million stabbing pains pierced her skin. A sharper, keener pain tore at her cheek, and she threw her arms up to shield her head. Blood trickled down her face. Shards of crystal littered the ground around her.

The crown glittered on its pedestal.

As lasers streaked across the platform, Kalie dodged a blast and slipped between two guards. Hitching up her gown, she sprinted past the throne?—

“Not another step.”

She froze a few feet from the pedestal with her hand outstretched. The barrel of Vale’s pulser pointed at her. Her stiff limbs were locked in place, but her eyes flicked to the crown.

“Stop. It’s over.”

Cries pierced the bright morning air. Clouds of smoke billowed past, and the acrid stench made nausea roil in her stomach. The cloying, metallic odor of blood was everywhere, as overpowering as the shrill screams and distant bellows of fear.

As Kalie’s arm fell to her side, her fingertips brushed against the pedestal.

Vale motioned for her to raise her hands.

“Why?” she whispered, trembling.

“Why?” Vale’s face twisted, but his pulser didn’t waver. “My daughter was ten when your father’s troops killed her. That’s why . And now—now, he’ll know how it feels.”

A choked sob ripped from Kalie’s throat.

There was a final moment where she saw everything. Red lasers rained down on the platform as airborne troops descended. Beyond them, blasts cut down the last of her guards. Tears blurred her vision, but she was sure she’d be able to make out Mylis anywhere. He wasn’t anywhere.

A soldier shoved Uncle Jerran to his knees.

The noxious odor of smoke and the sickening scent of blood caught up with her as she stood there, paralyzed, with muffled shouts ringing in her ears.

The guard raised his pulser and struck Uncle Jerran’s skull.

He hit the floor with a thud. Kalie gasped.

Time careened forward impossibly fast. As Vale’s finger tightened around the trigger, Kalie squeezed her eyes shut.

A thunderous boom made her eyes fly open.

Fire—the warplanes guarding the bridge spiraled out of the sky.

Shadow—a ship hovered above them.

Its ramp lowered. On it—Zane.

Vale had turned. So had Iliana.

Kalie was already running, even before Zane bellowed, “Go!”

She leapt over corpses, bounding towards the control box. She could lower the forcefield, then? —

A warplane’s red laser struck the stone in front of her. She stumbled. Something burned her side, and she cried out as she staggered towards the silver panel. Another flash. Pain scalded her thigh. Guards flew towards her, and warplanes fired on Zane.

Kalie leapt over a pile of glass. Faster. Faster .

As she slammed her fist down on the control box, the forcefield shimmered and dissolved.

Gasping, she spun towards Zane.

Her eyes landed on Mylis.

And the barrel of a pulser, pointing at her head.

“But…” Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. Tremors rocked her body as her gaze rose from the pulser to a navy blue sleeve, to messy brown hair, to stony eyes. “But… you… you were…”

Mylis shrugged. “Hedging my bets.”

Tears swam in her vision. Her lip wobbled as she desperately searched his face. This was not the man she knew. Mylis was—Mylis was good , and—and kind .

Wave after wave of hard air slammed into her, pushed from Zane’s flaming ship as warplanes chased him away.

Her knees nearly gave out.

“Always play the long game.” Mylis’s voice was cruel, and his lips twisted bitterly. “Your uncle taught me that.”

A mortelle reference. Kalie didn’t know whether to laugh hysterically or sob. He was pointing a pulser at her, and he made one of Uncle Jerran’s gods-damned mortelle references.

Mylis jerked his head towards Uncle Jerran’s prone form. “What’ll happen to him?”

“He’ll be tried and executed,” Iliana said, gliding towards them.

His face hardened. “Good.”

“Good?” Kalie sputtered. “ Good? He saved you!”

“And why did I need to be saved?” Mylis stomped towards her. His pulser shook in his hand, and she flinched away. “My childhood was a living hell. He only came for me when he needed a pawn, and the minute I was no longer useful to him, he left me in prison and walked away.”

Tears poured down Kalie’s face. “He always cared about you. ”

Mylis scoffed. “Your Majesty, I’m at your command.”

“So much like your father,” Iliana mused. The crown glittered atop her wild black hair, and fire raged in Kalie’s heart. “I’m sure you’d be delighted to pull the trigger…”

Kalie stopped breathing.

Zane’s ship was a distant shadow. No one was coming.

“But I have no desire to become my uncle.” With an outstretched hand, Iliana stepped towards her. Mylis’s hand twitched on the pulser. “I meant what I said. You could be my heir, Kalista. I’ve always wanted a daughter.”

“Go to hell.”

The creases on Iliana’s ghostly face deepened. “So much fire for a throne you don’t even want. Is it not your dream to travel the stars? Do you not wish to be free of this court? I’m the key that’ll set you free—and return something you lost.”

Chills crept through Kalie.

“You lost something very important to you. A piece of you, if you will. Something I have the power to return.”

“Enough riddles,” Kalie spat, shaking. “What are you talking about?”

“Does the name?—”

Screaming.

She whipped towards the noise, but a flash of light blinded her. On instinct, she hit the ground. Gasping, she blinked spots from her vision. Billowing clouds of smoke stung her eyes and burned her nose.

Zane’s ship was back.

“Come on!” he roared.

Lunging to her feet, she ran. Blasts streaked after her.

Kalie picked up speed as the ship lifted away. She vaulted over a body, but she didn’t stop to look. She couldn’t. Shadows were descending from the sky. Warplanes. She barreled towards the ledge and jumped.

Her heart stopped as her feet lifted off the ground.

A shrill scream tore from her mouth. She flailed helplessly, crashing through the air.

A hand caught her wrist .

She looked up.

Strain contorted Zane’s features. His arms were stretched as far as they’d go; one clung to a metal pole, one gripped her wrist. A forcefield fizzled to life around the boarding ramp, pummeled by bright lasers.

Zane’s mouth formed words, but she couldn’t hear them.

They rose higher. Her sweaty wrist slid from Zane’s grip. A vicious hurricane whipped around them, slamming her against the ramp’s metal edge. Kalie screamed as her ribs cracked.

Azura, Mother above, please.

Zane screamed soundlessly. His grip reached the heel of her hand. Any second, she was going to fall.

So she swung.

Her fingertips barely grazed the edge of the ramp, but she had it.

Kalie gasped for air. The stench of gasoline knocked into her like a brick wall. She spluttered, and the metal slipped from her fingertips. Scrabbling for purchase, she dug her fingers into a groove between the metal plates. Then she pulled.

Her fingers were crushed between the plates, but she hauled herself up.

Zane’s grip on her other wrist tightened.

She strained her muscles as he tugged on her arm, dragging her up, until she collapsed on the ramp.

The metal plates tipped upwards, folding into the hull.

She crashed onto the steel floor inside.

Zane landed on top of her, crushing the air out of her lungs.

The ramp clicked into place.

Violent blasts rocked the ship, but Zane was already racing into the cockpit.

Kalie rolled onto her back. Her chest heaved as she struggled for air. Every gasping breath brought an inferno of pain.

Alarms wailed. Thrusters sputtered.

She couldn’t stop yet.

Pushing herself up, she staggered into the cockpit.

“Holy Azura,” she breathed.

Radars wailed, and red screens flashed. The forcefields were down. Smoke gushed from a hole torn into the metal as Zane wrestled with the controls, swearing like a drunken sailor .

Dropping into the seat beside him, Kalie fumbled at the harness with half-numb fingers.

Warplanes streaked past them, leaving puffy white jet streams in their wake.

Zane let go of the sticks and squeezed the cannon’s trigger.

Direct hit. Without his hands on the controls, their ship veered down, down, down, through a shower of scrap.

He caught the sticks. Kalie’s stomach lurched as he pulled the ship up, pointing the nose towards the sky.

He let go and slid the controls to her.

“You fly,” Zane thundered, “or we die!”

Kalie’s pulse pounded in her ears as she stared at the vibrating control sticks. With a trigger in each hand, Zane fired the booming cannons. Warplanes exploded, but a blast slammed into the hull and they spiraled down.

She grabbed the sticks. She barely felt her arms, and the levers quivered in her grip, but she used all her strength and tugged. The forests below the viewport disappeared as the ship pulled up, revealing a bright sky peppered with lasers. Explosions erupted like fireworks.

She glanced at the flashing radar. Warplanes loomed behind them, explosions ahead of them.

“Where?” she cried, as another blast rocked the ship.

“Anywhere but here!”

Kalie gasped for air. There was nowhere to go, no one to trust.

As they shot into the sky, her eyes landed on a metal ring floating beyond the clouds.

She pulled the sticks towards herself until the nose of the ship pointed high into the sky, then she shoved them forward.

They shot into the air at a near-vertical tilt.

Gravity pressed against her, peeling back her lips and keeping her pinned to the backrest. Cannons boomed, and warplane artillery shrieked. Zane bellowed curses. Smoke and fire danced through the sky, wind screamed, and blast after blast battered the ship’s thick metal walls.