Page 61 of The Other Omega

I squeezed my eyes shut again.

We are still dying!

The falling sensation changed beneath me, and I forced my eyes open. Even more ships had filled the sky around us, some racing past the windows while others exchanged fire farther out. I still couldn’t tell who belonged to whom.

“Vaelor reinforcements have arrived,” Samir said.

Thank God.

I looked towards the fathers’ table. Matthias was speaking to Cedric and someone through the hologram so quickly that I could barely separate one word from another, yet neither man’s face showed any of the relief flooding through me.

Samir crouched beside my chair and closed one hand around mine.

“Look at me, daughter.”

“We’re going to die.”

“We will not.”

I squeezed his hand as another shudder travelled through the ship. The sea was still rising towards us through the windows, close enough now that I could make out the white lines breaking across its surface.

Then something changed beneath my feet. The vibration returned, faint at first, then stronger.

The ship lurched so violently my stomach rolled, but instead of dropping again, the horizon slowly began to settle across the windows. I held on to Samir’s hand until the sea finally stopped getting closer and we levelled out.

“All hostile vessels have been eliminated,” Cedric said from across the lounge.

I barely heard him.

Vaelor ships surrounded us now, filling the sky beyond the windows while voices and holograms continued around me. I sat strapped into my chair, shaking, with Samir’s hand still wrapped around mine.

Earlier, I’d laughed when they told me Alaric had arranged an entire military escort just to get me safely to High Mountain.

I looked at the ships surrounding us.

Alaric, thank you.

Chapter 14

Elowen

The mountains didn’t seem to end. Peak after peak rose through the clouds, one after another until I couldn’t tell where one ended and the next began.

I’d never seen anything like it. It was like looking at a forest made of mountains.

“This looks like way more than fifty-six mountains.”

Matthias looked up from his pad and followed my gaze through the window.

“There are hundreds of mountains in the range, Elowen. Fifty-six are permanently settled. Collectively, they are known as the Fifty-Six.”

Hundreds. I looked outside again.

“So they looked at all of this and decided to live here?”

Matthias’s mouth twitched. “Their ancestors made that decision.”

“Were all the normal places taken?”