Someone hauled her away from Mother. She thrashed in their grip and planted her feet, but the strong hands kept tugging her along. Kalie twisted around. Panic and strain creased Zane’s pale face as he hauled her away. His mouth was moving, but she turned to Mother.
Get to the assembly point, Mother said. Scarlet splotches bloomed across her dress.Rally the fleets and fight for Dali. We’ll hold them here.
Kalie shook her head. They were her family. She couldn’t leave them.
Black specks shot through the orange sky, trailed by puffy streams of smoke. Red bolts rained down like flashes of lightning. The figures grew closer—legionnaires with jetpacks.
Zane tugged on her shoulder.
Sweat beaded on Mother’s brow, but her features shone with determination.
Go, she mouthed.May Azura bless you.
Zane pulled her away, and Kalie stumbled after him.
Vibrations shot through the floor as legionnaires slammed into the marble tile. Red bolts raced across the room. Father’s Praetors unleashed a deadly barrage of blasts, and bodies fell, too fast to keep up with. Acrid smoke burned Kalie’s nose. Crimson splattered against the crumbling walls.
She ran.
Zane flung open the doors, and she barreled through, pumping her legs as fast as they would carry her. Leaping over fallen rubble, she ducked into a hallway. Blurs of tar-black armor charged towards them, unleashing a rainstorm of red lasers. She lunged out of the way and sprinted down a smoke-filled corridor.
She wasn’t running away from them, she was running towards them. It became her mantra as she charged down the endlessly long hallways, tailed by volleys of red beams.
She would fly straight for the pocket of dead space where their fleets were assembling and meet Carik head-on. She would fight, as Mother asked.
Kalie’s heartbeat thrashed in her ears as she threw open the doors to the hangar bay.
Technicians scattered in her wake. Praetors lunged to their feet, whipping out pulsers. Blasts shot past her, but she didn’t stop running. She couldn’t stop running.
Her legs ached as she spun around a supply cart and sprinted up the ramp of a silver shuttle. Her lungs burned, and she gasped for air. Bursting into the cockpit, she slid into the empty pilot’s chair and flicked the levers to start the engines. Thrusters rumbled under the metal floor.
As she punched a button to open the bay doors, thick iron hatches slid apart, revealing the burning sky beyond.
She glanced over her shoulder. Any second, Zane would be storming into the ship’s cargo bay.
But he wasn’t there.
A blast slammed into the hull of her shuttle, throwing her into the dashboard. The excruciating impact jolted through her ribs. Salty sweat dribbled onto her tongue, mingling with metallic blood.
Zane still wasn’t there.
She leapt to her feet and barreled through the ship’s cargo hold, staggering to a halt at the top of the ramp. Red lasers lit up the smoke-filled hangar. Shrapnel fell from the ceiling, and raging fires tore through rows of supply racks. Bodies littered the floor.
No Zane.
Kalie’s heart leapt into her throat as she scanned the carnage. No,no, he had to be alive. He was here, somewhere. He had to be.
Holy Mother Azura, please.
There—in the midst of the chaos, Zane hobbled towards the ship, but as crimson stains crept across his clothes, he collapsed.
Kalie thrashed through the hangar. A red laser snarled towards her, and she spun out of the way. Vibrations rumbled under her feet. The ringing in her ears dulled a shrill explosion as she leapt over a body, then dove behind a tool chest.
Terror twisted Zane’s face as she slid to her knees beside him. His voice broke through the veil of ringing. “Go! Run!”
A pair of legionnaires charged towards her with their pulsers raised.
Kalie rammed her foot into a wobbling supply cart. It hurled towards them.
