by Amy Braun
“Don’t worry, Claire. Garnet will forgive the power outage when we come back with you. He’ll have you fixing it in no time.” His eyes shimmered with savagery. “As soon as you’re fixed, of course. That could take a little longer.”
I opened my mouth to scream, but Tyson’s sudden strike to my temple blacked out my world.
Chapter 9
Drip. Drip. Drip.
I wanted to ignore whatever was splashing on my head as well as the pain in my shoulders and head. If I ignored it, then I wouldn’t have to wake up. I wouldn’t have to remember being attacked by Garnet’s thugs. I wouldn’t remember Gemma and Nash being beaten. I wouldn’t remember Sawyer calling my name, or the horrified look on his face before the control house door closed him away from me.
I wouldn’t remember the subtle blast of the explosive that killed all three marauders.
I wouldn’t have to acknowledge that I had lost my one and only chance of saving my sister.
The pain of it all ripped into my heart like a saw through a tree. Slow and raw, shredding my chest, cutting deeper and deeper until I was certain to collapse. I wasn’t sure if the next wetness I felt on my face was from the dripping water on it, or from my own tears.
“Wake up, Clairy,” a familiar, unwanted voice sang.
I didn’t move. My arms felt like they were about to be torn from their sockets and my head felt three sizes too big, but I didn’t open my eyes. What would be the point? I couldn’t escape this.
Meaty fingers in rough gloves grasped my jaw and pulled my chin forward. I snapped my eyes open on reflex, looking directly at a fat, red face and ravenous olive green eyes. Garnet was only containing his rage because he wanted to shout at me before he shattered me. I couldn’t find the will to care.
“There,” he cooed, squeezing my face hard enough to bruise. “I knew you were awake. A busy, backstabbing bitch like you probably doesn’t need much sleep.”
Garnet shoved me away and stepped back, giving me a glimpse at my surroundings. The dripping water came from the drainpipe over my head. I was hanging from it by two thin metal chains, my feet barely touching the bottom of the tunnel. Malik and Tyson stood behind Garnet, but I could sense at least two more guards at my back.
All of the tunnels looked the same, so it was impossible for me to tell where we were in relation to the colony. But it couldn’t be far. Garnet never traveled away from his home unless the need was absolutely dire. Or he wanted to deal with trouble directly.
My utility belt and messenger bag rested beyond Malik. They were still in sight and almost everything seemed to be in place, but they may as well have been on the Behemoth. I was already heartbroken, so I turned my gaze away from my tools and looked at the one thing that was missing from my kit.
The electron-cell, sitting comfortably in Garnet’s heavily gloved hands.
He hefted it when he saw me looking at it. “Thought you could steal from me, didn’t you Clairy? Did it make you feel tougher than me? Better than all of us in the colony you abandoned?”
Garnet shoved his gloved hand back, never breaking eye contact with me. Malik pulled out a slim black wire with a white circle on the end from his pocket and placed it in Garnet’s hands. Fear rose in me as I watched him set up the electrode to the electron cell. I tried to pull up on the chains to get away, but the sharp, sudden pain in my strained muscles stopped me.
“Want to know the great thing about these electron-cells?” Garnet commented, putting his hand back again so Tyson could put a remote dial into it. Garnet stopped in front of me, using his free hand to unbutton the top of my shirt.
“The juice never runs out. I could keep the dial on full blast all day, and the electricity would last for every second of it. No pauses, no hiccups.”
Garnet traced the electrode along my chest, right between my breasts. He nudged them with his fingers on purpose.
“Just a constant, endless flow.”
I twisted my torso, trying to escape his pawing hands. It didn’t work, and only made Garnet more aggressive. He slapped the electrode onto my exposed chest, a few inches under my collarbone. Instead of groping me, Garnet stepped back. He smirked maliciously and held up the dial for me to see. My heart thrashed in my ribcage, pushing itself harder as Garnet slowly turned the dial up.
Fast, stinging electricity channeled through my chest, working its way through the rest of my body. I grimaced and bit back a scream, even though it felt like a thousand angry ants were nipping their pincers into my flesh. It hurt, but Garnet was toying with me. The dial hadn’t even been turned up an eighth of the way.
“You never could accept what I offered you, could you, Clairy?” accused Garnet. “No, you always thought things could be better. As if resources are as endless now as they were when you were a child.” He glared angrily. “It may shock you to know that we’ve been finding the scraps. Those marauders you were so keen on helping? They steal the rest from us. We’re lucky to have killed the ones that we did.”
I looked away, wishing that Gemma, Nash, and Sawyer’s terrified, pain-filled faces weren’t flashing through my mind.
“But no, you wanted us to improve it all ourselves, thinking it was possible with the limits we have.” Garnet snorted. “Guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Deanna was the same way.”
Hearing my mother’s name brought my head up, but I couldn’t speak.
“I was there the day The Storm began, and I watched them fail us.” Garnet shook his head, starting to pace back and forth. “All they had to do was fix the shields, keep the Hellions from shooting us down. But no, Deanna had other ideas. She wanted to try and close the Breach.”
I stared wide-eyed at him. No one had ever thought to close the Breach, for one simple reason that Garnet quickly reminded me of.
“Closing the Breach. That dumb bitch thought it could be done. When we got back to the ground, she told me she had a plan, hidden in the damn ship she failed to save. Joel hung on her every word, told me that Deanna had found a way to make it work. I tried to tell them not to think about wasting their time on the impossible. I even told them to think about you and your sister. Deanna was pregnant, but that didn’t stop her from trying to work on this non-existent Breach closing machine.”
As Garnet explained my mother’s secret, my mother’s last words rang through my head.
I have to buy us all time. One day you’ll use that key, and you’ll save us all.
“That bitch even thought you could do it,” Garnet continued, drawing me out of my memory. His olive green eyes bored into mine, piercing me with the anger unhidden in them. “Thought you were a prodigy. You’re good, Clairy. But you’re far from a savior.”
Garnet began turning the dial, sending sharp stings through my chest again. He kept turning the dial, making every stab sink deeper. It was no longer ants biting into me. The pain was like hornets jabbing me with their stingers, igniting my nerves with a vicious throbbing agony. I clenched my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut, holding back the scream building in my throat. Every inch of my body shuddered angrily, and I was shaking in the air, the chains rattling on my aching wrists. I could feel sweat dripping down my temples as the pain amplified, the electrode on my chest practically branding itself into my skin.
The agony stopped so abruptly that I gasped, lurching forward on the chains and sending a fresh wave of pain through my arms. Garnet had shut off the dial, but my body was still trembling as it tried to deal with the lingering hurt. I couldn’t stop the whimper that escaped my lips, and cursed myself for it.
“How many people have you left behind, Clairy? How many times have you abandoned others to save yourself? That’s what Deanna did.”
“I’m not her,” I murmured.
Blistering needles stabbed through my chest, turning into liquid fire as electricity coursed through my veins. I couldn’t hold back my scream this time. Every cell seemed to explode and snap against my bones. My heart twitched and jerked in my chest, trying to rip away from its v
alves and escape the torture it was trapped in. The pain scorched inside me, so hot I thought I would incinerate right there. Even my eyes seemed to burn.
I didn’t know what Garnet had turned the dial to, but I knew I couldn’t stand it much longer.
I lost track of time, consumed by the pain that stabbed through me. My strength evaporated when it was over, but my body remembered the agony that continued to shiver through me. I choked back a sob, coughing on it when it lodged in my raw throat.
I didn’t realize Garnet was in front of me until his hand snared the skeleton key dangling from my neck. He pulled it forward, dragging me with it and straining my arms even more. Given all the torture they’d just endured, I was amazed I could feel them at all.
“Then how to do you explain this?” he hissed.
“I can’t,” I admitted. “I can’t, because I don’t know what it is.”
“Yes, you do. Deanna wouldn’t have given this away for no reason. I saw her wearing it, so it means something to her. Tell me what it is, Clairy. Tell me, and I’ll stop this.”
He let me go then twisted the dial quickly and sharply, a fresh jolt of pain bursting through me. I cried out against it, my body not ready for more pain so soon.
“Tell me, Clairy.”
Tears slipped past my eyes. I hated them as much as I hated my helplessness. How could I even lie to him? Garnet was obviously familiar with the key in ways I wasn’t. What was I supposed to tell him to save myself?
“I’m waiting.”
I closed my eyes and shook my head. “Garnet, I’m sorry, I–”
A fresh wave of agony crippled me, stronger than before. I screamed, but I couldn’t hear the sound against the sharp, snapping shocks crashing inside my skull. The electricity shredded through my chest, cutting into my heart and speeding it up erratically. Blood turned to lava in my veins, cracking my bones and igniting my nerves. I felt it rip up and down my spine, vicious tremors wracking my body until I thought I would tear out of my own skin.
I hardly felt it when the pain stopped, but I could hear Garnet shouting.
“I don’t care what it is! Go check it out!”
My head was lolling against my chest, but I forced it up and looked past Garnet. Malik and Tyson were hesitating, but beckoned the two thugs behind me and stomped away to follow Garnet’s orders, leaving me alone with the furious Electrician. That was when I heard the dull scraping noise, almost like something metal being dragged over stone. I had no idea what it was. I could barely concentrate on what was happening to me.
Garnet’s hand shot over my shoulder, knotting in my hair and jerking my head close to his. I hissed, because the aggressive tugs weren’t helping the ache in my head.
“This is your last chance, Clairy,” warned Garnet. “Tell me what the key does. Whatever Deanna made it for has to be valuable. I can use it to better the lives of my colony. Your sacrifice will save them.”
I stared at him, all but feeling the color drain from my face. Garnet chuckled. I thought I heard angry shouts and grunts echoing down the hall, but I wasn’t paying attention to what was happening. Garnet’s attention was solely on me, his fingers eager on the remote dial.
“Come now, Clairy. You know that I can’t let this little rebellion of yours go unpunished. But I promise to leave you intact.” His eyes slithered up and down my body. “You have other uses.”
He let go of my hair and took a step back, making another show of the dial.
“Last chance. Tell me what the key does.”
I stared at Garnet helplessly as the sounds of the distant struggle faded. There was nothing I could say that would convince him I was telling the truth. He wanted me to suffer. He wanted me broken and submissive. He wanted whatever defiant spark he could find in me to be snuffed out like a candle in the rain. I sighed, then drew up my last breath to tell Garnet what I really thought of him. If he was going to break my spirit, I would give him a piece of my mind.
Then I saw a shape form behind him, and forgot my insult. I blinked, certain that I was seeing things. But every time I opened my eyes, they were still there. Garnet scowled, confused about why I wasn’t paying attention to him. He turned around, and Sawyer punched him so hard I thought he shattered every bone in his face.
Garnet collapsed, and the marauder I thought to be dead stood over him, fists bloodied and balled. He looked dirty and bruised, but he was alive, with Gemma and Nash running out of the shadows behind him.
I had never seen anyone look as angry as Sawyer did at that moment. He bent down and grabbed Garnet by the collar of his shirt, lifted him off the ground, and began beating the life from him. I watched in horror as Sawyer pummeled Garnet without restraint, barely noticing Nash come up to me to unchain me from the pipe while Gemma held my waist and tore the electrode from my chest. When Nash loosened the chains, my arms flopped forward. I cried out at the sharp pins and needles feeling as blood flow returned to my limbs. I clung to Nash, who was trying to steady me with Gemma’s help. My legs felt heavier than usual and it was hard to stand. Once I regained my bearings, I lifted my head to where Sawyer was still thrashing Garnet.
I winced at each punch, seeing the blood covering Garnet’s face. Sawyer was angry, but this was too much. He looked savage, a beast loosed from his cage.
“Sawyer,” I croaked. I coughed, hoping to lodge the rasp from my throat. It hurt, but I needed to stop him from killing Garnet. “Sawyer!”
His fist halted in midair, dripping blood from it as he looked up at me. I could see the edges of his anger, the struggle for control. He wanted to hit Garnet until there was nothing left of him, but that couldn’t happen. As much as I loathed him, Garnet was the best living Electrician in Westraven. I didn’t know enough about electricity to channel it to the colony that needed it to keep surviving.
“Don’t,” I whispered. I used up the rest of my voice to call to him, and now I could hardly speak.
Sawyer’s face remained tight, but he relaxed and dropped Garnet onto the ground. He straightened and walked toward me. Though I could barely stand on my own, Nash backed away when Sawyer stopped in front of me and cupped my face in his hands.
I focused on his fiery gold eyes, trying not to think that the hands touching me were covered in blood. Given how gently he was holding me, it was hard to remember that he might have killed with these hands. Though once the thought embedded into my mind, it was impossible to forget.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
I nodded, gently clasping Sawyer’s wrists and drawing them away from my face. I felt warm blood smear from his skin to mine, but I convinced myself not to look down.
“I’m fine,” I breathed out. “How did you survive?”
“That escape hatch you told Sawyer about,” Gemma said, getting me to look over my shoulder. She grinned. “Worked like a charm. Soon as those grimy bastards threw us in, Sawyer was practically shoving us down that hatch. We only just made it.”
“Then we started looking for you,” added Nash. “It took a while, but the tunnels were empty and once we heard the voices echoing, all we had to do was follow them.”
I slumped with relief. I had never been so grateful that someone had tripped over a secret entrance in my whole life.
Sawyer pulled from my hands and stepped back. “We need to leave,” he grumbled.
I nodded and took a step forward. My feet felt like they were coated in lead. Taking a step caused my legs to spasm with pain. My limbs were cramped, my pelvis pinched and knotted. I closed my eyes and breathed, trying to get my body to co-operate.
A slim hand clasped mine. I opened my eyes and looked at Gemma. She gave me a sympathetic smile. “Sorry, Claire. But you’re gonna have to keep up with me.”
Gemma slung her arm under my shoulder. She was surprisingly strong despite her lean size.
Sawyer moved briskly down the tunnel, stepping over Garnet like he couldn’t see him. I looked at the battered man as I passed and winced. It was difficult to distinguish hi
s face from the pulped red mess Sawyer had left behind. Garnet’s face was red, bloated and swollen, like he was burning from inside out. The skin under his swollen eyes, lips, and nose were all split. If it weren’t for the slow rise and fall of his chest, I wouldn’t think he was alive at all.
I looked at Sawyer’s back, struggling against the nervousness grating against my common sense. The brutality he’d just displayed contradicted his nature again. At first I thought I was dealing with a stubborn pirate who valued the lives of his crew. Other times he was reckless and forthright. Then he was gentle and compassionate. Now this… Sawyer was a mess of torment and emotions I couldn’t begin to comprehend.
But to survive in this world, you couldn’t be one type of person any more. You had to be a little of everything.
I pried myself free of Gemma to gather my belt and strap it to my waist. My movements were stiff and my fingers tingled from the renewed blood flow in them. I picked up my messenger bag, then hesitated to take the electron-cell. It still had the electrode’s wire connecting it to the dial. In my eyes, it was still the instrument of my torture. I didn’t want to touch it, but after all we’d suffered to get it, there was no chance I could leave it behind now.