by Amy Braun
Wood crunched behind me. I started and whirled around, staring at the Hellion perched on the crate over my head. I gave the tank another sharp tug. The Hellion roared and leaped for me. I felt the tank slide from its restraints. I swung it around, putting all my body’s strength into the strike. I was lucky it was about the size of my torso, and wasn’t full.
The tank smashed into the Hellion’s jaw with a terrible crack. I saw the joint pop out of its socket, dislocated by the blow. Shards of pointed teeth blew out of the monster’s mouth. It dropped onto the floor with a loud smack.
Without thinking, I smashed the tank into the Hellion’s skull. I felt a pang of guilt since it was helpless and in pain, though I knew it wouldn’t have hesitated to cause me harm.
The tank now settled on the ground, I unscrewed the valve. Gasoline began leaking out of the tank in a steady, gulping flow. The sharp stench pierced my nostrils. I jogged forward, my eyes scanning the tables for something flammable to use.
I spotted a welding torch under a pile of tools. I scrambled for it, hearing the aggravated, rasping screams of the Hellions sprinting toward my back.
I pulled out another flashbang, untwisted the caps, and threw it at the rushing monsters. They were more cautious this time around, scattering when they saw the tube flying toward them and darting away from its brilliant light when it exploded. I grabbed the welding torch and turned back to the shimmering puddle of gasoline spreading over the floor. I knelt down and squeezed the trigger on the torch.
Flames clicked to life in the puddle, spreading until all of it was consumed.
With the gasoline so close the wooden crates, it wasn’t long before the flames ignited them.
The Hellions screamed at the flames, distracted by them. I sprang to my feet and took off at a dead run, reaching into my bag to grab the mask and slip it over my face. I stopped at the control panel that would open the bay door that led into the wild atmosphere of Hellnore. It was nothing more than a large red lever, but it was heavy. I had to jump and pull it down to make it release.
Heavy gears thunked and clicked lazily. I left the lever and darted for the skiff, taking a running leap and hauling myself inside. I ran for the helm, glancing up at the docking bay before I took control of the wheel.
The fire was much more impressive than I expected. Flames covered the entire left half of the bay, desecrating the crates and worktables. Small explosions erupted whenever the fire touched something flammable.
Beyond the clogging smoke, I could make out a pair of unfortunately familiar faces.
Standing at the door of the elevator were Davin and Riley. Their expressions were hot and cold variations of fury. I cringed at the sight of them.
Turning away, I found the control switches for the skiff’s wheel. This skiff was almost identical to the one Sawyer used, so figuring out how to operate it was easy. He’d shown me how to fly one before. By the time I had a handle on it, the bay doors were open. I pressed the ignition button. The skiff roared to life, spewing thick black exhaust fumes and smoke from the rudder. I pulled the goggles down over my eyes, pressed my foot down on the gas pedal, and careered into Hellnore’s wasteland.
Darkness enveloped me. Ashes lightly batted my exposed face and hands. The sound of a noisy wind came from everywhere, blowing my hair wildly. I breathed with the help of the respirator, the air tasting dry and hot. It was hard to see anything clearly.
Then it occurred to me that the Hellions had an advantage.
The fire allowed me to get out of the Dark Spire, but they still had skiffs they could send out to catch me. I would have trouble navigating the tunnel’s storm. They could increase its power with the storm-maker and kill me.
I needed more time.
Glancing back, seeing the smoke gushing out of the docking bay, entrance, I turned the skiff away from the clouds.
I banked around the Dark Spire, spotting the wild, violent terrain, with its flashing lightning and gushing volcano. Hoping I was making the right choice, I pressed harder on the gas pedal and headed for the mountains.
Chapter 15
Sawyer
I didn’t know if Deanna was impressed when she saw the Dauntless. I didn’t really care if she was, though I could only imagine what her thoughts were when she saw the crew. They didn’t know who she was, and I wasn’t going to tell them. All they needed to understand was that she was an exceptional engineer, and not to question further than that.
The Dauntless became a much more crowded vessel after Beck gathered every Sky Guard solider he could find.
There were more than I imagined. Between the apartments and those scouting in three forests, we had another hundred people with us. That wasn’t including the additional fifty soldiers he used as scouts sent on scavenging missions, who would be using their skiffs to meet us at the ports.
Every man and woman of the Sky Guard was armed with blades and firearms I’d never seen before– smoke-grey flintlocks, but with barrels twice as wide as my own. The chamber was set under the stock and made of a thick glass. Inside the case were a dozen bullets emitting a soft navy blue light.
When I asked about them, Deanna was happy to explain how the weapon worked.
“It’s an ultraviolet gun,” she said triumphantly. “The bullets are filled with a radiation that mimics the intensity of the sun.”
I raised my eyebrows. “How did you manage that?”
Her grin widened. “A few surviving chemists joined us. They’d been studying the Hellions from a distance and learned that because the Hellions live in a world without a sun, they suffer from a violently aggressive and acute form of photosensitivity. It makes them allergic to the sun. The scientists managed to create a radioactive liquid that mirrors the intensity of ultraviolet light––sunlight––and I compressed it into bullets.”
She took the gun from Beck, who refused to leave her side if he didn’t have to. Deanna continued to explain how the pistol worked, pointing at every component along the way.
“And what happens when the bullets hit?” I asked, eying the pistol.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Beck grin.
“One shot will turn one Hellion to cinders, no matter where you hit them.”
Oh yeah. I wanted this gun.
Deanna agreed to give one to every member of my crew, if I showed her the Palisade. It was the easiest trade I ever did, since I couldn’t do a damn thing with the machine. Claire could have, but it would have taken her longer. Not because she wasn’t skilled– she was the second best engineer I knew, with the very best standing right beside me– but because she didn’t know the Palisade as intimately as Deanna did.
Something I noticed the moment she walked into the storage room and looked at the machine.
Her footsteps slowed as she approached the lifeless device that we brought back to the Dauntless after Claire was forced to leave with our enemies. I’d seen what it could do. If Claire hadn’t blown a hole in the hull of the Meridian to release the electric charge it produced, I would have died from it.
Plus, I didn’t have the slightest damn idea how to fix it.
But Deanna did.
She reached out and touched the thick glass tube. She touched it like it would shatter under her hand. I watched her fingers trail over the filaments, down the other tube, and onto the control panels. She knelt down and examined each one. I imagined it was strange, seeing something she made almost ten years ago. The tool she’d used to change the world.
From the way she was worshiping it, the Palisade meant as much to her as her daughters.
But it shouldn’t, I thought with an unexpected twinge of anger. Claire and Abby matter more.
Deanna rose to her feet and turned to face me. “You said Claire overloaded it with a device?”
I nodded sharply. “She calls it the Volt.” I saw no point in masking my hatred of the creation that nearly killed her. That would still kill her if we didn’t do anything to help.
“Explain how it works
.”
I did, as best as I could. I’m sure Claire would have done a much better job with the technical details, but all I knew about the Volt was that it could hold a compressed electrical charge that would be a hundred times more powerful when released.
Deanna’s eyebrows raised, a small smile crossing her face. She was proud of her daughter.
“Yes,” she said, glancing at the Palisade. “I suppose that would do it. Nothing that can’t be fixed, though.”
Deanna’s smile faded in the following silence.
“I knew she would grow up smart,” the engineer said quietly. “I just didn’t imagine she would grow so reckless.”
I spoke before I could control myself. “You didn’t give her a choice.”
Deanna snapped her eyes onto me. Beck glared in my direction. But the cards were being laid on the table now. I wasn’t going to regret the hand I played.
“I told her to go to our neighbors. They were going to help her take care of Abby.”
“They shouldn’t have had to. They’re your daughters, not anyone else’s.”
Deanna’s eyes were ice cold. “Do not pretend you know anything about being a parent. You have no idea how distraught I was to leave my eight year old girl. You have no idea the pain it caused me to walk away from the baby I didn’t think I would ever meet. I lived ten years as a woman with a dead soul, going on and trying to restore the lives of the mothers who lost more than I did. I grieved for my girls every hour of every day. I missed the first years of Abigail’s life. If I ever see Claire again, I know she will never forgive me.”
Tears had been building in Deanna’s eyes since she started her speech. By the time she mentioned Claire’s name, they had spilled over.
“Not that I would expect you to know how a real family acts. Having a monster for a brother and a coward for a father must have influenced you as a boy. I’m not sure if that makes you better or worse than them.”
Maybe I deserved that. I pushed Deanna, after all. But I couldn’t help the sting of pain her words put in my heart. I was trying to be better than Davin and my father. I was better. I knew what it was like to love and lose a family member. Micah’s face haunted me every time I looked at the crumbled towers and caved in court buildings of Westraven’s Collegiate district. The one place in the city I refused to willingly go to, because I didn’t want to remember the bloodstains on the rubble that crushed him to death.
The worst part about remembering my little brother was knowing that no one else did.
Gemma and Nash were suddenly at my side. I didn’t realize they’d moved. And I certainly didn’t expect the intensity in their eyes. Deanna glanced at them cautiously. Beck stood close to her, his hands sliding to his belt. Neither of them appeared to be afraid of us, but they knew they were outnumbered. Beck was a trained soldier, but I didn’t know how much fight was in Deanna Abernathy.
Though if she were like her eldest daughter, she would have ferocity and spirit.
“We didn’t come here to accuse one another,” Nash grated out. “We’ve all screwed up. We’ve all lost people we loved. Right now, we have to focus on saving the people we have with us at this moment. You have to protect Abby, Deanna.”
Her throat bobbed at the mention of her little girl’s name. Her eyes glistened, and she blinked rapidly. Nash looked at me.
“You have to find a way to save Claire, Sawyer.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice. I would lose more than my mind if I lost Claire.
“Can you close the Breach or not?” Gemma asked, glaring sharply at Deanna.
The famed engineer regained her composure. She turned her head slightly, looking at the Palisade as if it had the answers she was desperate for. The pain on her face began to fade, motivation replacing it. Confidence.
She turned back to us and nodded. “Some of the Brigade have been trained as engineers. I’ll get them to help me lower the electrical output of the Palisade and connect it to the rotor blades of the Clearer– the device I’ll use to get you through the storms in the Breach.” She lowered her gaze. “This is such a long shot, and I worry about the amount of power it’s going to use, but… I just don’t see how we have any other choice. We need to close the Breach now.”
“You mean after we get Claire out,” I said. “Then we close the Breach.”
Deanna hesitated. “It depends. If the Palisade can still function after I use its energy with the Clearer…” Fear and grief clouded her eyes. “We have to close it as soon as we have the chance. No matter what the cost.”
She stunned me. I couldn’t believe she was serious. She’d gotten Abby back. Surely she wouldn’t give up hope for Claire now. Not when she knew where she was, or what was happening to her.
The tortured look in her eyes was countered by the hard, determined line of her mouth. Anger scorched through my chest.
“You would abandon her,” I gritted out. “You would abandon your own daughter again, this time to die?”
“I understand the Vesper,” she defended. “He’s not sitting back doing nothing. You say he has Claire making another Palisade for him. This one he will use as a weapon. He won’t stop until everything he sets his sights on is destroyed.”
I would expect no less from the Vesper, and Claire had experience creating devices with devastating power.
But one thing stood out clearer than anything else in my mind.
“We’re not leaving Claire,” I stated.
Deanna looked at me with tired eyes. “It’s not a decision I want to make. I pray it doesn’t come to that. But we have to be realistic. If it comes down to it and Claire makes a Palisade, we can’t allow her to use it.”
“Claire wouldn’t do that,” Gemma protested.
“I know. But the Hellions could force her. They would do things that would deny her any options.” Deanna looked down. “I love my daughter more than anything in the world. But we’re the only ones who know how to operate a Palisade. I would give myself up if I thought it would make any difference.”
“So why don’t you?” Gemma snapped. The fury in her voice matched the burn in my heart.
Beck shot Gemma a murderous look. I thought he might lash out at her, but he restrained himself. Barely.
Deanna turned her exhausted eyes on Gemma. “Do you think he would let both of us live? He would kill Claire just to make me suffer, then force me to work for him. If I refused, he would kill me and launch an attack on Aon anyway.” She paused, distance growing in her eyes. “I ruined his world. He wants to punish me as best as he knows how. If I give myself up, he will know I’m still alive.”
I suddenly feared that he already knew. He must have gone through Claire’s head, ripping at any thought he could get his claws in. If he knew Deanna was alive, he would force Claire to work all the faster.
I held back the urge to look up. An attack could come from the sky at any moment. For all we knew, the Palisade was ready to be fired upon us. The Vesper wouldn’t forgive Claire for trying to “escape.” He could have broken her, turned her into a puppet like Riley and forced her to finish the work. She wouldn’t even know what she was doing. As long as the Breach remained open, we were all just waiting for the final assault.
Suddenly, reluctantly, I could see the logic in Deanna’s thoughts. She was trying to save as many lives as she could by preparing for the worst. She was used to sacrificing those she loved for the greater good.
But I wasn’t entirely good.
And I wouldn’t give up on Claire.
“How long would it take you to finish the Palisade?” I asked. My voice sounded cold, empty. As if my soul had stepped out of my body and left a shell behind.