ANDROMA
SMOKE EVERYWHERE.
It was in her eyes, curling into her lungs.
The transport ship was in flames. The crash had happened so fast. One moment, they were soaring through the skies. The next, fire.
Pain.
A scream tore itself from her throat.
Now her ears rang. Her heart slammed against her ribs, and fear ripped through her. She had to get out. She couldn’t breathe.
“Help...me.”
Andi turned in her seat. Through the haze, she saw Kalee’s outstretched hand. Her body, turned at an awkward angle in the flickering firelight. Her friend was covered in blood. A piece of metal protruded from her stomach like a sword. With each breath Kalee took, it wobbled.
“Oh, Godstars,” Andi gasped. She reached out, tried to pull the metal from Kalee’s stomach. But the girl screamed, and Andi shrank away, hands trembling, her own vision growing dim. “Hang on, Kalee. Just hang on.”
Panic seized Andi as she tried to kick open the transport door. But it was stuck, dented in so far that it trapped her leg against the seat.
She couldn’t move.
“Help,” Kalee murmured again.
There were tears in her eyes, and a trickle of crimson slipped from her pale lips.
“I’ll get help,” Andi said. “Just hang on.” Shards of glass were embedded into her arms. Her skin was blistering in the heat before her eyes. She began to sob as she slammed the emergency button on the dash, but no light flickered on.
“Come on!” Andi screamed.
She slammed the button again, and again, but the ship was lifeless around them.
And no one was coming to save them.
Beside her, Kalee had fallen silent.
She wasn’t breathing. Her eyes closed. Her head lolled to the side.
“No,” Andi said. “Kalee, wake up!” Pain tore her chest open. She coughed again, the smoke and the heat unbearable. “You have to wake up!”
She tried to wriggle herself away, but pain exploded from her leg, from her wrists. She was trapped.
She knew, suddenly, that she was going to die.
The front of the crumpled ship was nearly an inferno now. In seconds, the flames would reach them.
“Kalee!” Andi said. “Please don’t do this. Please don’t leave me.”
The girl had stopped moving. Blood trickled from her stomach like a crimson river, slowing now. As if she’d run out.
“No! You’ll be okay, you’ll be okay,” Andi sobbed, trying again to pull herself from the seat. Her leg wouldn’t move; the door wouldn’t free her.
Please, she begged. Please, no.
Andi had done this to her. Oh, Godstars, she’d done this. The crash was her fault.
She was Kalee’s Spectre, sworn to protect her with her life.
And now Kalee was...
Andi’s head swam as she looked at her charge, the friend who was as close as a sister.
Kalee was dead.
Andi sobbed, her entire body trembling as her mind screamed, You killed her, you killed her, you killed her.
The fires raged, and Andi felt torn from her body as the transport door suddenly groaned and fell away.
Cool night air washed in.
“I’m so sorry,” Andi sobbed as she looked at her friend. Kalee almost looked peaceful, as if she were only sleeping.
Andi couldn’t leave her. How could she leave her?
She had never felt as alone as she did in this very moment.
The fire swept into the small space, so close now. The metal shard in Kalee’s stomach had gone straight through her, pinned her body to the seat. Andi couldn’t free her, couldn’t drag her from her grave.
Fear swept over Andi like a poison, caused her to tear herself away from the transport as the flames raged.
She crawled away from the inferno, coughing smoke from her lungs, her eyes burning so badly she could scarcely see.
She blinked through her tears, fighting the darkness as it threatened to overcome her. This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t real.
Kalee couldn’t be dead.
Andi looked back for a final glimpse of her friend.
The last thing she saw was Kalee’s eyes, bright blue as the moon, opening wide to stare at her.
Alive, Andi’s mind screamed. She’s alive.
Andi reached for the girl, desperate to save her.
The transport exploded in a final blast of raging, furious light, catapulting Andi backward.
As Kalee burned, tendrils of black slipped into Andi’s mind and stole her away.