Page 62 of The First Spark (Dynasty of Fire #1)

Trying to make sense of the sounds, the smells—frantic shouts, shrieking alarms and flashing red auras, the rank stench of piss and fear, thunderous footsteps that made the steel floor vibrate in tune with his thumping heart…

Zane couldn’t take it. It was like daggers piercing his mind, blades shredding his heart, there and here and it was all happening again.

An ambush. Sleek black destroyers or Oppallese rebels, it didn’t matter.

They were surrounded, and hopelessly outnumbered, and Mylis?—

Kalie retched, and Zane’s grip tightened on her hair. Mangled images flashed through his mind. Mylis’s blackened, bloodshot eyes. His matted mop of hair. Blood caked onto his lips. His screams— Mordir , those screams—as he thrashed in agony.

Zane’s hand shook as he rubbed Kalie’s back.

Akron’s holo barked at Nadar, whose sister, an Aquisian queen, had called moments ago with the panicked message that Carik had attacked Aquis.

He’d attacked their other allies, too. Poltrun had abandoned Akron and sent his fleets to fight for his homeworld.

Arrosa’s fleet had retreated from Dejur, leaving Carik’s reinforcements with an open stargate to Dali.

“How many fleets are there?” Raging alarms and shouts muted Kalie’s faint whisper. “Five? Six?”

“Seven,” Zane mumbled. She gave a strangled sob.

“Sir, we’ve lost the Mercury !”

Splintering debris exploded outwards where an Aquisian destroyer had been, and a Federation frigate plowed through the escape pods.

Bone-deep chills shot through Zane. Screams rang in his ears, but whether it was the cries of the dying troops over the comms or the ghosts of Oppalli, it was impossible to tell.

Nadar barked orders at his cruisers. Three of them burst into debris.

Ryker’s projection turned away in horror as the other Dalian destroyer, the Scimitar , exploded in a cloud of shrapnel.

The frigates and corvettes didn’t stand a chance.

Someone shouted that the warplanes tasked with destroying the capital’s cannons had been destroyed.

Kalie clutched her head in her hands.

As Zane slid an arm around her, he breathed in deeply, trying to commit this moment to memory. The pungent reek of bile, fear, and body odor clung to the air. Clutching her arm, he pulled her trembling body against his and rested his chin atop her limp hair.

He’d known it would come to this. To save Kalie, he had to try.

“We can’t hold them off forever.” Nadar’s blue scales paled to the color of ice. “Sooner or later, I need to send them terms for surrender.”

Zane’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re staying?”

“I don’t have a choice, do I? They blocked the stargate.”

“It’s your call, Kal, but my men are ready to go down with this ship,” Ryker said, as he gazed at them. There was no jealousy on her ex’s face, just grim understanding.

Tears glittered in Kalie’s haunted eyes. She kept staring at the spot where the image of her friend had been.

“Kalie.” Zane rubbed her arm. “You need to decide. Are we surrendering, or?—? ”

“It’s seven fleets against four,” Ryker snapped. “Hardly a reason to surrender!”

“Sir, we lost another cruiser!”

Nadar swiped his hand across his scaly forehead. “Divert full power to the shields, and send our warplanes to take out their flagship’s cannons. We’ll fight for as long as we can.”

“Yes, sir, right away!”

Their lasers dwindled as a faint blue forcefield flickered to life around the bridge. The red beams shooting towards the viewport dissolved as they struck the shield, but the pressure on Zane’s chest didn’t lighten. Any way he looked at it, it was a death sentence for him.

But there was one option where Kalie and Mira made it out alive, and that was worth it.

He tried to pull back, but Kalie’s hand closed around his. Letting out a shaky breath, he twined their fingers together. Just another moment. Then he’d go.

“I have a cybermod,” Mira said. “We could send someone else down as Hannover.”

“It won’t work. They’ll scan her chip.”

Mira looked down at her ring. “I don’t have a chip.”

“Everyone in the Federation has a chip! It’s the law!”

“Not me,” Mira mumbled, averting her eyes.

Zane shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Kalie does have a chip, and they’ll scan for it.”

“Damn.” Nadar slumped into his chair. “I don’t know what else we can do.”

“I do.” Zane tugged his hand from Kalie’s and rose. His legs wobbled beneath him, but there was no other choice. “Send a message to Lexington. Tell her?—”

Kalie lurched to her feet, and Zane’s mouth snapped shut.

Glistening tears rolled down her pale cheeks, but she squared her shoulders. Zane couldn’t help but stand straighter, breathe easier, because that—that was a leader. She was a leader. For a desperate moment, he let himself hope that she saw what he didn’t. Some way out, some miraculous rescue .

“I’ll be right back. Bathroom.”

Zane deflated like he’d been punched.

Absolutely not .

Her gemod double’s broken body flashed through his mind, and her swollen face swam before Kalie’s. “No.” He barely got the word past his clenched teeth. “You’re not turning yourself in.”

“I didn’t say I’m doing that, did I?” Kalie’s voice was high and shaky, but she stood tall, thrusting her chin out. “I just need a minute.”

Zane caught her wrist. She tried to jerk away, but his fingers tightened.

A knot swelled in his throat as he met her blazing eyes. “Stay here. I’ll chal?—”

“No,” she breathed, “you will not .”

“Better me than you.”

“Sir, there’s a hull breach! Level two!”

Kalie’s shoulders convulsed like she was gagging, and she clapped a hand to her mouth. Cringing, she bent forward, and Zane let go of her wrist?—

Then she bolted.

“Kal—dammit!”

Zane lunged after her, but Mira’s fingers brushed his arm and he stopped. “I’ve got her,” she said, striding after Kalie.

He faltered mid-step, sighed, and let Mira go. Maybe she would be able to talk some sense into Kalie.

But that was the last time he would ever see her.

Zane opened his mouth to call Mira back, but she sprinted through the doors. A heavy weight pressed on his chest. He had to be gone by the time Kalie returned, or he would never have a chance. There would be no goodbyes for either of them. It would be cleaner that way, less tears all around.

But there hadn’t been any goodbyes with Lysa, either, and that had made everything a hundred times worse.

The Federation’s glowing red lasers streaked towards their destroyer. The weakening forcefield rippled, the ship lurched, and a cloud of smoke replaced a line of cannons. As Nadar stumbled, Zane caught his scaled arm.

Blasts struck the Federation’s warplanes, but it was a futile effort.

This was not at all how the battle was supposed to go.

They should’ve been sending in the troop transports to storm the capital by now.

The county militias raised by Kalie’s allies had probably been butchered without their backup.

“You said you have a plan, Wells. Now’s the time.”

Zane rubbed his sweaty palms together. “Yeah. There’s a duel. An ancient rite. A claimant for the throne can issue a challenge.”

Ryker’s eyes narrowed. “You aren’t talking about Fallé di Azura?”

“I am.”

“You’d need Kal to put forth the challenge, and she’ll never allow it?—”

“I know. I’ll…” Cursing her stubborn refusals, Zane ran a hand through his hair. “I’m quick on my feet. I’ll think of something, tell them Kalie sent me.”

“That’s the worst plan I’ve ever heard,” Ryker muttered. “You’d never get the Speaker’s approval without Kalie, and even if you did, you’d be gambling with her life. Do you even know how to duel?”

Thunderous explosions boomed, and Zane wobbled as a jarring impact rocked the floor under his feet. Ryker’s projection flickered. As alarms wailed, the lights shorted out.

“Sir, the shields aren’t holding!”

Zane gestured at the bridge. “I have to try. We’re out of options.”

“You’re both missing the obvious.” Nadar’s chin dropped. “You can duel for the throne, get her crown, but that won’t stop Carik’s attack. Either way, my fleets are doomed.”

Static crackled across Ryker’s holo. “Dammit! Our cannons are shot!”

“We’re going down!” a woman screamed over the comms. “Evacuate! Evacuate !”

Zane nearly choked. An Aquisian destroyer folded in on itself, crumbling outwards from its broken center. Silver pods rained from the wreckage, but red lasers shattered them. Tar-black shadows zipped past the shrapnel, towards their ship .

His heart stopped.

“All warplanes, fall back!” Nadar roared, backpedaling towards his command chair. “We need backup now! Mors, divert all power to the forcefields, everything you’ve got!”

The bridge plunged into darkness. Zane held his breath as the warplanes zoomed closer, unleashing a round of crackling blasts. They were the fastest damn planes he’d ever seen. Aquisian cannons pummeled the planes as they swooped in, but there were too many in the swarm.

Mordir, he was going to die—and Mira and Kalie, and?—

Power surged into the translucent forcefield.

The red blasts struck a crackling web of blue energy.

Zane’s shoulders slumped as his breath rushed out of him.

The planes kept coming, pounding the shields with lasers, moving so fast that they would surely collide with the forcefield—then they peeled off, veering around.

But they would come back.

Zane fumbled for his comm. He had to warn Mira.

“Sir, we’re receiving a message from Etov!”

Nadar flicked a webbed hand, and Empress Hannover’s silken voice crackled through the speakers. “This message is to Lotus One. The phoenix has risen, and its wings flap for you. Delay as long as you can.” She paused, then murmured, “ Amaia’te .”

Zane’s brows shot up. That word was one of the few things he remembered about Dad—a grinning man with brown hair sitting by his bed at night, murmuring, “Amaia’te.” In the old Dalian language Sauvena, it meant I love you .

“What was that about?” Nadar asked.