“I won’t kill you.” Kalie didn’t take her finger off the trigger. “You’re going to free my friends. Then you’ll stand trial for your crimes.”
All color leached from Iliana’s face. “I won’t go back to prison.”
Kalie pursed her lips.
“I won’t,” Iliana whispered. Blood seeped from her wounded calf as she stumbled through shards of glass and clay. “Iwon’t.”
Kalie jerked her pulser. “Stop moving.”
“Guards! Help me!”
The shadowy hallways were silent. Only the two of them existed in the world. Their harsh, rapid breaths danced between them as beads of blood writhed across the marble tiles, twisting together between pieces of dusty rubble.
As Kalie reached for her comm to call for backup, Iliana’s gaze flicked from her to the shattered window. Shivers ran up Kalie’s spine. Iliana straightened up, her jaw jutting, her lips pursed, her muscles taut.
“Don’t—”
Iliana ran.
Kalie fired.
The blast collided with Iliana in a blur of red and black and white, just as her feet left the ground. As if in slow motion, Iliana soared into the air. Shards of glass tinkled against the tile floor. She sailed through the window. Then her body dropped out of sight, and her shrill shriek pierced the night sky.
Kalie’s mouth fell open. She sprinted to the window, braced a hand against either side to halt her momentum, and leaned into the gaping void.
Like a graceless dancer following a poorly designed ballet, Iliana tipped into the dark abyss and twirled downwards. Her white skirt billowed around her as she spun and tumbled, head over foot, plunging deeper until she was a speck of white in the darkness that engulfed her. The speck vanished, and Iliana’s haunting scream fell silent.
Panting, Kalie stumbled back.
Nausea wove knots through her stomach. She closed her eyes and pressed her bloody hand to her face, but the sickening image of Iliana’s fall was imprinted on the back of her eyelids.
“Your Majesty!”
Kalie swung her pulser around. A bloody band of Dalians and Aquisians stood at the corner of the hallway, surveying the carnage.
“Your Majesty, we need to get you out here.”
As Kalie shook her head, the world spun around her. Slowly, her racing pulse subsided, and the pain surged back. Fiery agony pulsed through her eyes and nose, her sliced cheek stung, and jolts shot through the bruises marking her spine. She could feel the gash in Zane’s stomach as if it was her own, and that bone-chilling anguish was the worst of all.
“Zane won. I’m not running.”
“Commodore Ryker ordered us to evacuate until the Emperor’s fleets secure the planet.”
“The Emperor?” Kalie gasped, spinning towards the window. She thrust her head and shoulders through the shattered pane, craning her neck towards the sky.
Her knees nearly gave out. Distant burgundy ships blotted out the stars.
Father had come.
The voices of Nadar and Julian’s soldiers thrummed behind her.
Father had come.
Dali would be saved.
But her allies wouldn’t. They needed reinforcements.
Kalie stepped away from the jagged glass and turned to the weary soldiers. “We have to get to the communications center. I need to putout a broadcast, and my comm won’t have a strong enough signal. Will you come with me?”
