The Dark Sky Collection: The Dark Sky Collection

by Amy Braun

  The invisible fingers pulled out of my mind. I nearly collapsed with relief. Davin kept me upright, my arms stiff with pain as he tried to twist them out of their sockets. My brain hammered against my skull, growing painfully as it tried to burst from my skull. I gasped, sucking in heavy breaths.

  “You knew,” the Vesper said.

  I looked up at him, finally getting my breathing under control.

  “You knew she was alive.”

  Oh no. Why, why had I been thinking about my mother? Why had I let him in? What had I been thinking?

  I couldn’t even deny it. The Vesper had seen the true memory, one I couldn’t fabricate even if I tried. So I remained silent.

  “You had her plans in your hand, and you gave them away.”

  I lifted my chin, giving him my most defiant stare.

  The Vesper’s lips curled in outrage, pinching his thinly wrinkled face and revealing sharp, pointed teeth.

  “I thought you were smarter than this, Claire. You must pay for your betrayal.”

  Davin tugged me closer to his chest. Even with my back to him, I could see the cruel smile on his face.

  “Davin, create a force of our strongest, most brutal Hellions. Have them hunt down Sawyer Kendric and his crew, and eliminate all of them.”

  “No!” I cried, twisting to break out of Davin’s hold. It was too firm.

  “The only one you are to leave alive is Deanna Abernathy. You will bring her to me, as unharmed as possible. I do not care the methods you use to execute the rest.”

  “No! They have nothing to do this. I was the one who betrayed you. Don’t hurt them.”

  The Vesper’s red and black eyes expressed no emotion. His rage was controlled, even upon learning what I intended to do.

  “This is part of your punishment, Claire. The ones you love are your weakness. We bargained on the assurance that I would not harm them so long as you built a Palisade for me. But you have not done so. Instead, you have expended your time and sought to bring about my destruction. You have broken the deal you orchestrated. It is only suiting that your half of the bargain suffers for your indiscretion.”

  The Vesper began to turn and walk away. I looked at Riley for help, but he was already following his master. Hopelessness crashed into me like a punch.

  “About time, you ask me,” Davin grumbled. “I hope my little brother found a big crew. I’ve got a lot of ideas I can’t wait to try out on them. Who knows,” he leaned in close to my ear, “maybe I’ll let you watch when I get to Sawyer, his two friends, and that sweet baby sister of yours.”

  I’m not a violent person. I can get angry, but I control it. I can focus on pushing any animosity away to think about more pressing issues. I never let it get to me.

  Not until now.

  I snapped my head back, my skull catching Davin straight in the face. He wasn’t expecting it, and barked in pain when I crushed his nose. I didn’t even feel the pain I caused myself. His grip loosened, and I charged the Vesper with a scream.

  I was inches from him when he whirled around and grabbed me by the throat.

  I skidded to a halt, clawing at his arm with one hand and swinging my fist with the other. He lifted me off the ground like I weighed nothing, crushing my neck in his icy, bony hand. I gagged pathetically, my lungs burning for air.

  “Is this where you think you belong, Claire? Above me? Do you truly think you can outsmart me, after all I have created?” He narrowed his blood-black gaze. “Let me remind you of where you belong.”

  The Vesper launched me across the hall. I soared past Davin, the black walls blurring as I fell to the floor. I landed with a bone-jarring thud. My shoulder bounced off the floor, the impact not softened by the carpet. I rolled a couple times, ending up on my back. I breathed in ragged gasps, wincing at the pain in my back, head, and throat. I turned onto my side, grimacing, hoping nothing was broken.

  “You will take her back to her workstation when I am done, Davin.”

  I looked up and saw the Vesper standing over me with Riley at his side and Davin lurking over his shoulder. I tried to move, but the Vesper was too quick.

  His hand shot down and curled around the back of my neck. His claws poked into my skin as he dragged me to my feet. I stumbled and tried to roll out of his grip, but the claws sliced me. I winced as he tightened his hold.

  “Do not move, Claire,” warned the monster. “I do not want to miss a drop.”

  I don’t know why my eyes went to Riley. Why I expected any help from him. They simply did, a silent pleading for him to fight and stop what was about to happen to me. I couldn’t help him if he didn’t do the same for me.

  But it didn’t matter. The Vesper’s fangs plunged into my throat in a sharp, ruthless strike. He clutched my neck so tight he was almost strangling me.

  But not so tight that I couldn’t scream.

  Chapter 13

  Sawyer

  We reached Deanna Abernathy’s hiding spot in Sage Grove the next day. I let Nash take the helm for the entire journey in an attempt to sleep. I didn’t get nearly as much as I should have, spending half the time tossing and turning, and trying not to be distracted by thoughts of Claire. It didn’t do much to stop my dreams– and nightmares– of her.

  Sage Grove used to be the main province for lumber and wood products throughout Aon. They were one of Westraven’s most prominent trade allies, offering us most of the wood the architects used to construct many of the cheaper houses and furnishings in our city. In exchange, we built them a massive lumber mill, forestry machines, and strong houses to endure the harsh rainstorms and freezing winters.

  The main forest was still there, but it was a ghost of what it used to be.

  Much like the broken forest we’d seen in Satbury, the trees were black skeletons stuck in a cracked, burned ground. We could see the patches where the trees were cut down for industry, rows of flat brown circles spanning for miles. I wondered if Beck’s people were still finding uses for lumber.

  A patch of the forest had been completely cleared for a handful of freestanding metal buildings and apartments, likely where the lumber workers spent their off-hours. The village was the size of Satbury, only about a dozen buildings and four sets of apartment complexes that stood three stories high. As we descended, I noticed that the buildings were in rough shape. Ceilings were pockmarked from bombs and cannon shot. Siding was scratched, dented, or peeled away to reveal the weather-rusted support beams and rebar beneath. One building was flattened completely, nothing more than a pile of warped sheet metal that was likely too heavy to move.

  Across from the main village was a lumber mill made of the same metal as the rest of the buildings, only this one was much taller and longer. The back end was raised like a church belfry, adding two extra stories to the four-story structure. Twin smoke stacks loomed beside the belfry, though they emitted nothing. Hewn tree trunks lay on the far right in a messy pile, half hiding the conveyer belt that had been smashed away from the building. On the back end was a water tower that held a tank with a missing lid.

  Stacked in front of the mill facing the town was a wall of logging machines. Skidders, backhoes, harvesters, loaders, and transport skiffs were pressed end to end to create a strange kind of protection for the mill. I would have laughed at how silly the makeshift wall looked– and how easy those machines would be to climb over– if I didn’t think that Deanna Abernathy was smarter than that. If she were anything like her daughter, that wall of machines would be laced with Pitfalls and traps, ensuring no one would get through unless they knew exactly what they were doing.

  “So all your people are here?” Gemma asked Beck.

  “I hope so,” he replied nervously. His dark eyes were fixed on the lumber mill.

  “How did they move out so fast?” inquired Nash.

  “Same way you moved around Westraven,” the soldier answered. “We shot down Hellion skiffs and kept them. Deanna used some for transport, then stripped others for parts.” His expression tur
ned wistful. “It’s amazing what she can do. We couldn’t always find the materials she wanted for her devices, but she made do with whatever we found.”

  I started easing the Dauntless to rest on a cleared patch of forest. I shouted at the landing crew to prepare to cast anchors.

  “How many generators do you have?” I asked, settling the ship down for landing. I killed the engines and locked the wheel.

  “About a dozen,” Beck told me. I stared at him with wide eyes. I’d never heard of anyone using so many in one place.

  The solider shrugged. “Deanna sleeps for five hours a night. She takes three twenty minute breaks to eat and rest. She spends the remainder of her time working. She never stops creating.” A small smile curved Beck’s lips. “If I didn’t know her, I would say she was a machine herself.”

  That was less surprising. This was Deanna Abernathy we were talking about. The woman recruited specifically for the Discovery mission by Westraven’s top officials. Who built the Palisade that cracked through the sky, and was later used as the weapon that nearly killed all of the Hellions.

  The woman who did everything in her power to save the world she helped to ruin, including abandoning her daughters for a decade.

  I shouldn’t have been as judgmental as I was. I didn’t know anything about Claire and Abby’s mother, or what she’d been through, or the reason she made the choices she did. Maybe it was my own bitter family history that made it hard for me to understand why any woman would never seek to find her only children, shouldering one of them with a responsibility so heavy it was a wonder her legs didn’t break every time she walked.

  I wonder what Claire would say to her mother if they were ever reunited. I wasn’t sure there would be many happy tears or hugs.

  When we landed in the middle of the village, I sought out Abby. The little girl was happy to get some fresh air, though she was shy around the new crewmembers. Many of the older women doted on her, most of them probably being mothers who lost their own precious little girls in The Storm.

  “Hey, Stargazer,” I said with a grin when I found her. “Ready for an adventure?”

  Abby jumped off the crate she’d been sitting on and rush to my side. She grabbed my hand with a beaming smile on her face.

  “It might not be wise to bring a child here,” Beck advised.

  I looked at him. “You said you know Deanna.”

  Beck’s jaw tightened. He nodded.

  “Do you think she would be happy if she missed the opportunity to be reunited with one of her daughters?”

  Beck squinted, then glanced at Abby. She tucked herself behind me, but I put my hand on her shoulder.

  “It’s okay, Abby. Beck isn’t going to take you anywhere you don’t want to go.” I gave him a dangerous look. “He isn’t even going to try.”

  The soldier’s eyes widened the longer he looked at Abby. He hadn’t seen much of her on the ship, and now the similarities were starting to sink in.

  I looked at Arthur, who appeared at my side to take instructions. “Tell the crew to stay here and rest. Watches are the same– rotations of ten men, changing every two hours. Tell them to be alert for Hellions, and anyone else. I don’t think we’ll be very long, but I don’t want them to do anything to draw attention. They can train with swords, but not guns. And make sure Bryan and Gerard stay away from the cannons.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  While he turned and started barking the orders, I led Abby, Nash, and Gemma to the edge of the ship. Only the five of us were going, though I made sure to load my pistol and sharpen my cutlass. Gemma was carrying extra pistols and knives. Even Nash was carrying a blade in addition to his brass knuckles.

  Gemma hopped onto the railing, crouching like a cat perched on a windowsill. She smiled playfully at Abby.

  “Ready to race, Abby?”

  “You’re gonna win,” the little girl said. “You’re faster than me.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that,” Nash said, gently gripping her by the middle and lifting her onto the ledge. He held onto her hand so he could steady her. “I think you can beat her.”

  “Hey,” protested Gemma with a mock frown. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”

  Nash grinned as they helped Abby into a harness. “Gem, you’re the light of my life. But you can’t win all the time.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Traitor.”

  Nash laughed and continued to help Abby, who was looking much more at ease now that she had someone who believed in her.

  “Why are you really bringing her, Sawyer?”

  I glanced at Beck. I told him my answer, but he wasn’t convinced.

  Smart man.

  “Because after the stunt you pulled, I trust you even less than I did when I met you. I need to know if I’m meeting the real Deanna Abernathy, and Abby will be able to help with that.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “How? She’s ten years old. She would have been a baby during The Storm. She wouldn’t remember her mother.”

  “No. But I have a feeling her mother would recognize her.”

  Leaving him with that thought, I walked across the ship and watched Gemma and Nash gently lower Abby down the netting. I hauled myself up and started my own climb. Abby was descending the fastest, but Gemma was close behind. I caught up to them quickly, with Beck trailing after me. Nash would be the last down, once we could be sure that Abby was safe on the ground.

  Claire’s sister made it down first, declaring victory against the “unbeatable” Gemma. The rigger exaggerated her defeat, demanding a future rematch. The whole scene made Abby laugh and smile, warning my heart for the first time since Satbury.

  Abby was out of her harness when I dropped the last few feet. The second I stood up, she was by my side, holding my hand. While we waited for Beck and Nash, I glanced around the village. It seemed larger now that I was on the ground, the buildings towering over my head with desecrated trees overshadowing them. The air was dry and smelled like tinder. The soil under my boots was cracked and sparsely decorated with dying grass.

  I turned around and traced my eyes over the machinery-wall. The metal exteriors were painted with orange rust, the paint chipped and flaking off. Glass windows that weren’t cracked were fogged or covered with dust. The gears and hydraulics were caked with mud and grime. Rubber ties were punctured or slashed, making any kind of movement impossible.

  There were no Pitfalls that I could see, but these machines were nearly triple my height and tightly packed together. Stepping closer, I noticed they weren’t just parked close. They were literally welded together with scrap metal, making it impossible to squeeze through. Climbing underneath wasn’t an option either, since leftover logs had been jammed under the undercarriage of each vehicle.

  I had to give credit where it was due: the wall was ludicrously crude, and inherently effective.

  I raised my eyes to look at the lumber mill, visible over the wide transport skiff. The belfry was clearly visible, the windows on both extra stories open and void of glass. I squinted, feeling as though I was being watched from those gaping windows. I could only see blackness beyond the frame, but that didn’t mean something wasn’t lurking in the shadows. I gripped Abby’s hand tightly and drew her behind me.