The Dark Sky Collection: The Dark Sky Collection

by Amy Braun

  “They must,” I insisted. “The Behemoth has to use two different sources of power. Fuel and electricity. Those gears on the side of the ship are powered by electricity. The gears spin when they’re charged, kind of like rotors. Air must be gathered from them as they spin, and turned into some kind of electric current that keeps the ship afloat. It’s a cycle. The Behemoth might be different from Aon ships, but it can’t be too different to understand than the ones we use.”

  Gemma frowned skeptically. I ignored the part of my mind that shared that uncertainty.

  “I don’t have anything to lose by trying,” I reminded her. That, at least, was the truth.

  She shrugged. “Don’t be so sure. None of us would be happy if you got killed.”

  Her candidness didn’t surprise me, but her honesty and concern did. I was starting to believe that everything I knew about marauders was wrong. For all my assumptions, this trio had been fairly loyal. Friendly, even. Would that have changed if the Hellions had never attacked? Memories of the carnage Davin Kendric wrought flashed before my eyes, and I wasn’t sure of anything.

  “Can I trust Sawyer?”

  I whispered the question I hadn’t meant to ask. But I had to cast aside all doubt. Sawyer had secrets and a conflicting nature. The marauders claimed to have hunted and killed Hellions aboveground, but were they simply boasting? There were too few survivors up here, all of whom I knew better than to rely on. I could get no confirmation of any stories the marauders spun for me.

  Now we would be facing Hellions in a matter of hours. Together we might be able to take them by surprise, but if Sawyer abandoned me to save his friends, neither Abby nor I would survive.

  Gemma grew silent and serious, two traits I never expected from her. The brunette marauder looked over her shoulder to where her lover and her captain were standing. After a moment, she turned back to me.

  “I betrayed them once,” she confessed.

  I stared at her with shock, my silence giving her the chance to continue. Gemma folded her arms over her chest and leaned against the crate, looking at the ground as if hiding her old shame.

  “Long story short, I worked for someone else before I met Nash and Sawyer. He was kind of like Garnet, and the only father I really knew. I went on a job and was told to recruit them into our gang. If they refused… well, they wouldn’t have walked away. Fletcher was very protective of his family,” she said bitterly.

  “He promised me freedom, so I did what he said. I played the lost damsel, got to know them, let Nash fall for me, and then I brought them into a trap.”

  Gemma stared at her boots. The guilt on her shoulders was almost tangible.

  “By then I knew them both well enough to understand they would never give in. I couldn’t leave them to that, so I went back.” She chuckled grimly. “Needless to say, Fletcher was less than pleased.”

  Gemma didn’t have to tell me she had suffered brutally from this Fletcher person. The bleakness in her voice said it all.

  “Nash and Sawyer found me. They could have left me to die, but Sawyer chose to bring me onto his crew. He looked past what I did and gave me a new life.” Her dark eyes lifted to mine. “I trust him with everything I am. So can you.”

  Gemma gave me a quick nod and walked to where her crewmates were returning with bundles of Hellion gear.

  My gaze drifted to Sawyer as he slipped into the black jumpsuit and pulled it up to his shoulders. I thought about the story he told me of his brother, how he attacked Garnet to get revenge for me, and the way he froze when he saw the large Hellion.

  While Gemma’s story gave me more confidence, it was still a risk. But it was my only choice. I would stop assuming the worst and follow Sawyer’s lead. It was the only chance I had to save my sister.

  ***

  I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen the sun. It always remained hidden behind the clouds and choking smoke from the Behemoth. The sky was a lifeless, diseased grey with charcoal clouds dissipating across its expanse.

  The marauders fitted me with a spare jumpsuit, so now all of us looked like the very monsters we were setting out to destroy.

  It wasn’t just facing the Hellions that had me on edge, or the panic about how I would find Abby. I hadn’t been in the air for a decade. When we stole the skiff from the Junkyard, we hovered above the ground and weaved through the streets until we reached the ports. This was different. Now we were climbing the clouds, offering the Hellions a direct challenge.

  I shifted back and forth in the skiff, and not just because I was nervous. Each seat on the skiff was hard and uncomfortable. Jagged edges of unfinished metal threatened to slice us if we moved the wrong way. There were dark splotches of dried blood on the floor and the pointed tip at the front. Being on it felt like being on the floor of a slaughterhouse. It made me feel a little sick, but it was a gamble that paid off. If any Hellions below saw us, they probably assumed we were flying back to the Behemoth with fresh victims.

  Slowly raising my head, I stared at the expansive ship over us. Now that we were in the daylight, I could see the dark ship with more clarity as it drowned us in its huge shadow. I should have been more terrified, yet truthfully I was amazed. The airship was a marvelous, if twisted creation. I could see all the detail and careful construction. Every gear had a purpose, the entire machine needing the smaller pieces to work the larger ones. Behind the large spinning gears were a series of smaller cogs and pistons, the hydraulics working overtime to keep the electricity flowing around the gear. The bright red flashes darted and slipped through the maze of pipes and sprockets, punching into the back of the massive spinning gear and filling it with life. I wondered about the red lightning. I’d never seen anything like it before. It had to be some kind of Hellion technology, and the engineer in me wanted to know what it was, how it worked.

  The sister and survivor in me wanted to see the entire ship burn.

  While Nash and Gemma huddled together in front of me, Sawyer was piloting the skiff with expert skill. I wondered where he’d practiced, because he maneuvered this skiff through the clouds as easily as he had over the streets. His skill at the helm had to be natural.

  He glided us higher, moving quickly but not fast enough to draw attention. Luck turned in our favor, because the other skiffs were missing from the Behemoth’s docks, probably on raiding missions. We would be the only ones making berth under the monster ship, but we would have to move quickly through the ship before the real Hellions came back. I wanted to think that luck would remain on our side, but I had no idea what we would find once we entered the hideous airship. It couldn’t be completely empty of Hellions.

  My heart was racing again as we sailed closer. I was practically twitching in my seat. How many levels would the Behemoth have? Would all their prisoners be held in the same place? What about the mysterious Vesper? Would that be inside? And what exactly was it?

  “You need to relax.”

  Sawyer’s voice made me jump from my thoughts, as if to prove his point. I glared at him over my shoulder.

  “I’m fine,” I muttered.

  “And you’re a terrible liar.”

  I glared at him again, then turned and wrapped my arms around my knees. I wouldn’t prove Sawyer’s point, even if it were true. I couldn’t remember being more scared than I was now. There were too many variables, too many things that could go horribly wrong. I could get three people killed, followed by myself, and then Abby. We could all be slaughtered in a heartbeat by the Hellions. More likely, they would keep us alive, torture us to death as the blood was drained from our bodies–

  I nearly jumped again when Sawyer sat down in front of me, probably switching on the autopilot function that all skiffs– even Hellion ones– seemed to have. Like the rest of us, he left his Hellion mask off for now. The air wasn’t very thin up here, and the masks just served to unnerve us and make it harder to breathe.

  Sawyer leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and looking at me with sharp, tawny
eyes. I looked at the floor of the skiff, right into a pool of dried blood. It wasn’t an improvement.

  “I’d also say that you’re scared,” he added.

  I fiddled with the leather cuff of my jumpsuit. The entire uniform was small and constricted around my chest.

  “You’re not?” I whispered.

  He shrugged, like the idea of dying could never bother him. “Right now? No. When we get up there,” Sawyer turned his head to the Behemoth, the ship we would be invading in minutes, “I probably will be. But right now I’m working on anger. If I have that, I won’t need to worry about fear. It’ll be a weapon on its own.”

  He said it idly, like his weapon wouldn’t be a blade that turned on himself as much as his enemies.

  “Don’t,” I said abruptly.

  Sawyer turned his gaze from the Behemoth to me. “Don’t what?”

  “Don’t use anger as an excuse to get yourself killed,” I clarified. “If we can get through this without confronting any Hellions, we need to do so. You can have your revenge the easy way, or the hard way.”

  Sawyer smirked mischievously. “Maybe I want the hard way.”

  I shook my head. “No you don’t.”

  “What makes you so sure?”

  “Openly taking on the Hellions in the Behemoth is suicide, and you want to live. You never would have made me repair the Dauntless if you didn’t.”

  Sawyer’s smile faded, but wasn’t replaced by resentment. Instead, an expression of surprise and concern filled his golden eyes. He seemed shocked that I cared. In truth, I was shocked too. I knew what I was to him, and wasn’t entirely sure that I could call him a friend.

  Yet he still mattered to me. There was something about him, a deep emotion I couldn’t identify that desired to be free. To be closer to Sawyer.

  Knowing what a huge mistake that would be, I turned away from the marauder. Even though my back was to him, I felt Sawyer’s gaze linger as though he expected me to face him again. When I didn’t, Sawyer got to his feet and walked back to the helm. I exhaled, and the air felt heavy as it left my chest.

  I pushed Sawyer from my thoughts and looked at the Behemoth again. We were so close now that the massive airship took up every inch of my vision. I could see the rust and weather stains on its exterior, which looked hastily and carelessly put together, though closer inspection and memories of fire in the sky told me that the Hellion ship was constructed of extremely tough metals. Yet I could see dents and scratches from cannon fire. The Behemoth’s hide wasn’t as strong as we imagined it would be.

  I lowered my gaze from the main ship to the docking bay where the skiffs rested. Each narrow dock was surrounded by thick metal walls and would lock the skiff tightly once it was set in place. Erected in the middle of the docking bay was a narrow shaft that connected to the top of the Behemoth. That had to be what the Hellions used to get into the main ship.

  “Damn it,” Sawyer cursed sharply. I broke my gaze from the Behemoth and looked at the marauder captain. He was staring into the distance.

  At the four black dots drawing closer to the Behemoth’s loading dock. The raiding skiffs, returning from a hunt.

  “Nash, Gemma, get us ready to dock,” Sawyer commanded.

  The two marauders at the front of the skiff lurched up and moved purposefully as they uncoiled the harpoon guns from the compartment under their seats, which were borrowed from the Dauntless Wanderer. We didn’t know how the skiff would attach to the docking bay of the Behemoth, and the marauders had no problem damaging Hellion property.

  Gemma dropped her rucksack, filled with three dozen magnetic explosives, next to my boot. I frowned and inched my foot away from it. I was told they could only detonate after they were timed, but that didn’t mean I wanted to be near them.

  They retrieved the harpoons and began loading them into the guns. The sound of the Behemoth’s crunching gears and screeching wheels stabbed into my ears. Instinct kicked in, and I hunched down. I didn’t want to be anywhere near this abomination. I looked over my shoulder. I could see the spikes of the Hellion skiffs now. They were closing in. I wanted to be back on the ground, running from danger instead of approaching it.

  But Abby’s in there. She needs you.

  The thought stirred a little more courage into me. I pulled my eyes away from the Behemoth and looked at Gemma and Nash. Sawyer turned the skiff so it was directly facing an open dock. Once we were straightened, Sawyer left the helm and walked to his friends.

  Nash and Gemma didn’t need instructions. They lifted the harpoon guns and fired at the same time. A thick metal spear with a heavy rope at the end shot out of each barrel toward the docking bay. It stabbed into the metal with an angry screech and snapped the rope taut. They dropped the harpoon guns and began to pull the ropes. Sawyer was helping Nash adjust a knot in the rope, and Gemma was staring at them impatiently. I got up from my seat and grabbed the rope behind her. I shrugged at her and she grinned.

  I glanced over my shoulder again. The skiffs were only fifty feet away now, splitting off to go into their own docks. They could see us now.

  “Sawyer–”

  “I know, Firecracker. Give me a minute.”

  I seriously doubted we had a minute to spare, but I chose not to waste my breath and focused on helping them.

  We pulled the rope when Sawyer gave the command. Our combined strength hauled the skiff into its dock until it loudly snapped into place. Once it was secure, I looked at the black walls beside the skiff. Each side had a watertight door with a large hand wheel that was too heavy for us to open–

  Screech! Screech! Screech! Screech!

  I jumped near out of my skin when I heard the sound of metal grinding against metal. I spun around and watched as the four other skiffs were shooting harpoons into their docking bays and trying to pull themselves in. If they secured themselves to the dock, they would jump the walls and surround us. The Hellions snapped and snarled beyond their masks. Each skiff had two of them on it, one to pull the rope and the other to taunt us. Eight Hellions against the four of us. The odds were beyond terrible.

  Yet the marauders didn’t run. They stood in place, Gemma and Sawyer drawing their flintlocks while Nash stood beside them and balled his fists.

  The impact of the bullets struck the Hellions on the two outermost skiffs, though the shots didn’t kill them. But it did cause three of them to stagger, and topple over the side of the skiffs.

  Somehow I doubted that Hellions could survive a three hundred foot plummet to the ground.

  The other five Hellions scrambled and leaped for the marauders. The lone Hellion remaining on the farthest left skiff misjudged the jump and plunged from view. One of the closer Hellions leaped and would have made it, if Sawyer hadn’t stepped up and kicked the sailing monster in the chest. It buckled from the kick and tumbled to its death.

  The three remaining Hellions were almost docked. One of them gave up on completion and launched itself onto the edge of our docking bay. It charged the marauders. Nash rushed forward and grabbed it around the waist. With a roar, he threw the Hellion over the ledge.

  The last two Hellions docked as Nash made his throw. These ones were more cautious, keeping away from the edge of the docking bay. They barreled toward the marauders, howling with hunger and rage.

  I opened my mouth to scream a warning, but Sawyer, Gemma and Nash were already running to meet them.

  Nash grabbed one Hellion by the arm and held it back. Gemma appeared at his side and fired a single shot through the Hellion’s skull. Sawyer drew his cutlass and swung it at the last Hellion. It jumped back and hissed, avoiding the blade.

  But the attack had been a feint. Sawyer’s right arm lifted, the barrel of his flintlock aimed at the monster’s skull. The gun barked once, and the Hellion dropped dead, a single hole smoking through the front of its mask.