The Dark Sky Collection: The Dark Sky Collection

by Amy Braun

  “I don’t want to lose you,” I barely heard her say. “I almost didn’t make it after Joel died, and now…”

  Beck had sighed and hugged her tighter, though his touch slowed down. “It won’t be like that, Deanna. I’m going to come back.”

  Beck’s gaze was fixed on Deanna as she worked at the Clearer’s gearbox. He wasn’t watching the electro-static rotor blades begin to spin. He was watching her step back and shove her hand through her hair and keep it from her eyes, wondering if he was going to keep his word and come back to her.

  I made a similar promise to Abby, just before I left her in the farming district with some of the elderly and young children, when she tried to come with me…

  “I don’t want to stay here,” she cried. “The Dauntless is my home!”

  I smiled, my heart swelling with pride, warmed to know how much my ship meant to the little girl. In the past few months, Abby had become a sister to me. She wasn’t a replacement for Micah– nothing would ever replace his wild brown curls and wondrous hazel eyes– but she was someone I could take care of. She was a responsibility I wanted to have.

  “I’ll look after it, I promise. You’ll be on it again in no time.”

  “But you don’t know that. You’re going to fight the monsters. You’re going to get hurt.” Abby’s brilliant green eyes welled with tears. “You could die and never come back.”

  The girl burst into fresh tears. I stopped smiling.

  I knelt in front of Abby and put my hands on her shoulders. They trembled under my hands as she cried.

  “Stargazer, listen to me.”

  Abby didn’t look up.

  “Abigail.”

  She sniffled once and tentatively raised her head. Hope was illuminated on her eyes while despair lined her cheeks.

  I wiped away the tears. “Everything will be all right. I’m still going to keep my promise. I’m going to bring your sister back.”

  Even if I failed at everything else, I wouldn’t fail that.

  Abby’s eyes blazed with the hope of seeing Claire again, but the pain was quick to return.

  “But what about you? Claire will be so sad if you get hurt. She doesn’t want you to die.”

  A heavy weight expanded through my chest. Reality, slamming into me with the force of a punch. For a little girl, Abby was too wise.

  The odds weren’t in my favor. We were going into enemy territory. Our element of surprise wouldn’t last long. We had no idea how many Hellions were past the Breach, or if their firepower would outmatch our own. The Vesper wouldn’t hold back against us.

  Then there were the enemies that would make a beeline straight for me.

  Riley. Davin. The Vesper.

  All of them wanted a piece of me– blood, skin, and bone. I had been a thorn in Riley’s side since day one. Davin wanted to torture me to death. The Vesper… I don’t know what the Vesper saw me as. But if he didn’t want me out of the way for his own personal goals, he wanted to use me to bait Claire. To force her to do whatever he wanted. He’d been inside her head. He knew how we felt about each other.

  He knew that she loved me as much as I loved her.

  Claire’s words echoed through my mind.

  I trust you, Sawyer… I love you.

  I would never let the Vesper break her. If I had to die to save Claire from him, then I would die. She would mourn, but she would be alive with her sister and her mother. They would help her heal. It would be worth the sacrifice.

  I smirked at Abby. “I’m not so easy to kill, Stargazer…”

  Lying to Abby hadn’t been easy for me. I wanted her to be wrong, more than anything in the world. But the truth was that this was probably a one-way journey. I would definitely get hurt. I would probably die.

  How many people were going to lose their lives before I did?

  The rotor blades of the Clearer spun faster and faster. The Palisade was activated, sparks dancing in its thick glass tubes.

  “This is the only…” I said aloud, though not meaning to. Nash and Gemma looked at me. Beck stared directly into the Breach. “This is the only way, right? I’m not making the mistake… someone else… would have made?”

  I nearly said Robertson. The name of my father, who wouldn’t have hesitated at the possibility of losing his crew and ship. Who wouldn’t have been afraid.

  My first crewmates looked at me. They were hiding it well, but I could tell they were nervous, too. I don’t know if they planned to start a family one day, but they were putting that chance on the line for this mission. The kicker of it all was knowing that I wouldn’t be able to change their minds, even if I wanted to.

  “No,” Nash answered, firmly. Resolutely. He wouldn’t leave if I told him to stay behind and guard the ship. Neither would Gemma. In fact, she would go a step further than Nash. Gemma would punch me.

  “This isn’t a mistake, Sawyer,” my friend told me. “This is what has to be done. Nobody else will do it. And if nobody else does it, everyone dies.”

  I looked at the deck of the Dauntless, the familiar brown floorboards I knew so well. I trailed my fingers along the railing, memorizing its feel in case I never got the chance again.

  “I’m not being selfish?” I hated the way my voice sounded. Boyish and weak. Terrified.

  Gemma snorted her laugh. “Of course you are.” I cut her a scathing look. It went right over her head. It even made her smile, an expression that was softer than her words. “But you’re being selfish for the right reasons. You’re bringing your family an honor it’s never had before.”

  And here I thought I was redeeming it. But there was nothing to redeem. I wasn’t a cold, heartless commander like my father. I wasn’t a bloodthirsty psychopath who thrived on the torture and pain of others like my brother. I didn’t have to redeem a name that was broken. I just had to make my own legacy. Something I could be proud of and stand up for.

  Something that was well and truly mine.

  The marauder in me couldn’t help but grin.

  I wasn’t feeling as hopeless as I had when I left Abby. I was feeling stronger. Braver. Arrogant, really. I wasn’t going to complain. I was going to find a way to get my friends and the crew out of this alive. I would repay the Hellions tenfold for what they’d done to us. They would know and understand fear before I cut them down.

  I could deny those ruthless thoughts came from my family’s blood. But I couldn’t deny the strength they gave me. The hope that I would come through this alive and whole with my crew behind me.

  And a beautiful, blonde engineer at my side.

  I stared at the sickly, gaping mouth of the Breach, growing like the disease it was. I gripped the railing tighter.

  Hang on, Claire. I’m coming.

  I looked at Nash and Gemma, who hadn’t moved from my side. Whatever expression I was wearing made them relax. They believed in me. They always had, and always would.

  But they weren’t the only ones who would be risking their lives with me.

  Turning again, I looked at the crew milling around the deck. Motion was everywhere, not a single person able to remain still. Anxiety was getting to them. Fear. Everyone remembered what happened the last time a vessel crossed the Breach. The intense destruction that came with it.

  That wasn’t going to happen again. We were the last resistance. Either we would win, or we would be destroyed.

  “Beck,” I said.

  The muscular soldier grunted, still watching Deanna. The skiff drifted closer to the Breach. The rotors on the Clearer spun rapidly, sparks jumping off their blades as they collected electric energy from the tunnel. The tinged blue lightning of the Palisade pulsed like an adrenalized heartbeat. I could feel the intensity of the wind as it was pulled from the tunnel into Aon’s skies. The purple lightning spat angrily at the mouth of the Breach, but Deanna’s machine was working.

  “You any good at making speeches?”

  Beck looked at me like I asked him if he preferred to wear long or short skirts.
r />   “Not my best skill.”

  I frowned. Figured as much.

  “Mine either,” I admitted. “Oh well.”

  I turned from my commanders and walked to the railing in front of the helm, overlooking the deck. I placed my fingers at the corners of my mouth and whistled sharply.

  Every head turned away from the mechanical display and focused on me. I looked at all of them, seeing each face in turn.

  At first, I didn’t know what to say. I’d seen my father give his Wanderer Clan fierce speeches about glory and power and treasure, but I’d never given one. I couldn’t offer them treasure or glory. But I knew what everyone wanted.

  “You know who my father was,” I said. “Who my brother was. You probably don’t know that I had another brother. Micah. The Hellions killed him.” I pointed to a man standing on the far right of the crowd. “Who did you lose?”

  All eyes went to the man I singled out. He shifted on his feet, uncomfortable. Then his gaze grew distant and he looked away.

  Then he said, “My wife. Jenna.”

  Sad expressions were cast his way. Some men shifted on their feet and balled their fists in rage.

  I pointed to a woman on the left. She was dressed in a Sky Guard uniform. “You?”

  I saw her swallow, then speak in a curt voice. “My children. Three of them.”

  She didn’t give their names. I wasn’t going to ask for them.

  I pointed to others. Heard names I didn’t recognize from faces I didn’t know. Watched brothers and sisters in arms share grief. Saw and felt growing rage. No voice went unheard. Lightning and wind railed in the background.

  When everyone finished speaking the name or title of a loved one lost, the air was rippling with tension. The tipping point had been reached.

  Perfect.

  “I’ve killed Hellions for my little brother,” I said over the growing voices. “Some of you haven’t done so. Others have. But it’s not enough. As long as the Hellions still live, they’ll continue to torture us. They’ll keep taking our loved ones away. We’ll never be safe unless we stop them.”

  I pointed to the massive black tear staining a sky I could hardly remember being clear.

  “They’re out there, building a weapon to destroy us. They have a machine that creates these damn grey clouds.” I dropped my hand. “Maybe they’ll spare some children. Keep them alive for as long as possible as blood mules.”

  Angry shouts and curses came from the crowd, a chorus for the energy bursting in the sky above them. My own rage simmered to a boil as I remembered what Abby had gone through during her imprisonment on the Behemoth. The dozens of needles sticking from her tiny body, draining her blood away. The hundred other victims that shared her fate.

  It took more effort than I wanted to admit to stay calm, composed, and in control. Especially since all I really wanted was to go through the Breach and find a fight.

  Taking a deep breath, I looked at the crowd as they started to roar.

  “We’re not going in there to be good people,” I shouted over them. “We’re going to be ugly. Messy. Bloody. We’re going to be monsters. But we’re not going to kill just for revenge. We’re going to stop the Hellions because we want hope. We want a future without pain or heartache. A future where we can rebuild what we lost, where we know what it’s like to be safe again. A future where we never have to look at the sky and think it’s hiding creatures that will kill us.”

  The crowd was screaming now. I’d given them hope, a reason to fight. I’d shown them that what they wanted was in reach. They just had to fight for it.

  And I knew they would.

  “Think about those people you lost. Burn their faces into your minds.” My blood hammered as I ingrained my own memories.

  Micah buried under rubble. Abby’s terrified screams in the night. Claire’s heartbroken face as she gave herself up to keep us alive.

  I hadn’t lost as much as the people rallying below me. But if I did lose, I would pay dearly. I loved this new family of mine. I was ready to kill for them.

  “Burn them into your minds,” I repeated, my voice growing hoarse, “and show the Hellions just how wrong they were to take them from you.”

  The crew exploded into furious cheers. Fists, swords, and knives pumped in the air, held aloft by angry arms. My own hands were shaking with adrenaline, the need for a fight. I started pointing to different areas of the ship and barking commands.

  I looked up. Spotted Deanna standing at the stern of her skiff. Saw her wave encouragingly.

  It was time.

  “Full sails. All ahead bow. Set up ammunition. Put masks on. Man the guns and take positions. Fire on my command only.”

  The crew bustled across the deck, each man and woman racing to his or her duty. The more experienced Sky Guards saw that the recruits didn’t stumble. I stepped back, wondering if this was how my father felt when he gave his orders to the Wanderers, if he felt this kind of pride and anticipation.

  I thought about it for a single moment, before I realized that I no longer cared what my father would have thought. I wasn’t doing this to honor the memory of a man who didn’t spare an ounce of love toward any of his sons.

  I was doing this for the men and women down there who did love their sons.

  Nash, Gemma, and Beck were looking at me with varied degrees of amusement and respect. Beck was the first one to comment.

  “Good speech. Nice and brutal.”

  I shrugged, giving him a dangerous smile. “We’re going through a portal between dimensions to slaughter the monsters that slaughtered almost all of us. Not to make a peace treaty.”

  Beck nodded grimly. He had been here ten years ago, when the Discovery was made. He had seen firsthand the destruction wrought by the Hellions. He knew there would be no reconciliation. Either we would kill all of them, or they would kill all of us.

  I stopped by the helm and gripped the spokes.

  “Get us ready, Beck.”

  The soldier nodded and stalked down the stairs to the main deck. He was shouting orders before he was even half way down.

  Gemma and Nash took their place at my side, their hands still woven together tightly.

  “He was right,” Nash said. “You did just make us sound like a bunch of exterminators.”

  In a sense, we were. But it was the only way. If even one Hellion was left alive, there was a possibility that they would restart what the Vesper created. Nobody knew how the Hellions were made, let alone how the Vesper was spawned. It was harsh and it was brutal, but it was war.

  We didn’t have a choice.

  “Guess that’s what we are,” I said as I pushed the wheel down slightly, taking us upward to the cavernous mouth of the Breach. The lightning had faded and the wind had quieted, but I knew that we were far from safety now.

  “But so are they.”

  Nash didn’t have an argument for that.

  Chapter 18

  Claire

  Panic and fear cut through me like a knife. I backed up against the cold, hard wall of the factory, then balled my fists and raised them. Not because I thought I stood a chance against Riley, who’d been skilled in combat even before he borrowed some of the Vesper’s powers, but because I wanted him to know I wasn’t going back with him without a fight.