The Dark Sky Collection: The Dark Sky Collection

by Amy Braun

  “Claire,” he said, stepping closer.

  “Get away from me, Riley,” I warned, as viciously as I could.

  He stopped, a pained look crossing through his eyes.

  I hesitated.

  Was this Riley my friend, or a trick of the Vesper? I couldn’t tell.

  “Claire, it’s me. I swear.”

  “I don’t know that.”

  He took another step. “Yes. You do.”

  My heart crashed around my rib cage, threatening to break it apart. I wanted to believe I was looking at my friend, but how could I? How did I know he wasn’t trying to trick me and lure me back to the Dark Spire? I couldn’t trust him. I shouldn’t trust him…

  Why did I want to trust him?

  Riley was in front of me before I could stop him, close enough to reach out and touch me. Which he tried to do.

  “Claire…”

  I batted his hand away, swinging a punch at his face. It caught Riley straight in the jaw. He was thrown off balance. It brought me the chance to turn and run for the factory door. I didn’t care what was in there anymore. It couldn’t be any worse than whatever Riley was here for.

  I didn’t get more than three feet.

  His arms wrapped around my middle, capturing me against his chest. I kicked and screamed, the sound harsh through my respirator. Riley tightened his arms, trapping mine. I screamed again.

  “Claire, stop it–”

  “Let me go,” I screamed back.

  “You can’t go in there.”

  “Let me go!”

  “That’s where they make the Hellions!”

  The fight froze in me. I couldn’t do anything about my shaking.

  “What are you talking about?” I whispered out.

  Riley sighed, relaxing his hold on me slightly. It wasn’t a move he would make if he were under the Vesper’s compulsion. Nor would he tell me where the Hellions were… made.

  “Hellions aren’t born, Claire. They’re created. Like machines.”

  Sickness churned in my stomach. I swallowed the bile growing in my throat.

  “I don’t know how the Vesper was created,” he said. “I don’t think anyone will ever know. But he draws on them for strength. Each connection he makes deepens his powers. If he were to lose the factory…”

  He would be powerless. Easier to kill, because he would need to sustain on just his own life force alone. Like a human.

  Excitement and anxiety rolled through my head. But I didn’t let myself trust it. Not yet.

  “How did you find me?” I asked.

  Riley sighed into my hair. “I figured you would try and trick us. Davin and I were going to make sure you didn’t try to hide out here. The farther away I got from the Spire, the less control I felt the Vesper have. I sent Davin to bank around, saw you hide the skiff, then took out the Hellion I was with and waited here for you.”

  His grip relaxed, making it easy to escape his arms. I whirled to face him again, feeling more angry than scared this time.

  “What made you think I would come here?” I demanded.

  He smiled gently, an expression I hadn’t seen for far too long. “I never forgot how curious you were, Claire. Or how much I missed it.”

  I could hear the regret in his voice, see the sadness in his eyes. The Vesper couldn’t feel those things. Even if he were human, he wouldn’t have. He simply didn’t want to.

  But Riley… My friend was standing in front of me. A friend I couldn’t turn my back on.

  Even if I didn’t trust him completely.

  “Have you ever been inside this place?”

  Riley’s jaw tightened. He nodded.

  “So you can get in again?”

  He eyed me suspiciously. “I could, though it’s not a good idea.”

  “I wasn’t asking for good ideas,” I pointed out. “You said this place is a source of the Vesper's power. That means he’ll be vulnerable if I destroy it. He won’t have power, and he won’t have an army.”

  Riley’s eyebrows rose. “You want to destroy an entire building?” He took in my sharp stare, then shook his head. “Of course you do. You’re always blowing things up.”

  I frowned. “It’s not always on purpose.”

  Riley blinked slowly. I didn’t have a lot of evidence to defend the statement with.

  He looked over my head, tired blue eyes taking in the jagged black building behind me. “Will you let me help you?”

  I heard the pleading in his voice again, the human one that twisted my rationale and pulled at my sympathy. If Sawyer were here, he wouldn’t have given Riley a chance. He probably would have knocked him out, if he were feeling charitable.

  But Sawyer wasn’t here. I wouldn’t see him again if I didn’t use the help Riley was offering.

  “All right. You can come with me.” I narrowed my eyes. “But if you try to compel me, I will leave you behind.”

  I didn’t know if I actually would, but that would be my choice if I had to make it. Riley didn’t have to think otherwise.

  He nodded. “Okay. There are two guards inside. I’ll take them out and let you back in.”

  Riley reached behind his back and drew out a short sword. I winced. I didn’t even realize that he’d been carrying a weapon all this time. I’d never seen him use it on anyone, least of all me.

  “No,” I told him. “I’m going in first. They won’t expect me, and if the Vesper can get a hold of you inside the factory, I don’t want you to lead me into a trap.”

  Riley stiffened at that, but nodded reluctantly. I turned and started for the door again.

  Of course, nothing would save me if the Vesper regained his hold on Riley when we entered. I would be surrounded. But I was out of good options. If I didn’t shut down this factory, the Vesper would be at a better advantage than he was now. I had no idea what Sawyer was doing, if he managed to find my mother. I needed to buy him– and myself– more time.

  I pushed against the doors. They were heavy, but I had enough strength to push them a couple feet apart. I slipped through the crack and into the factory.

  The first things that hit me were the heat and the smell.

  A huge fire must have been raging somewhere nearby, possibly from a furnace that created those huge plumes from the smokestack. The smells of burning wood and oily grease slipped through my respirator and into my nose.

  Then the sights started locking into place. A wide, bleak foyer lit by two bulbous lamps that sat in a pair of caged braziers. Directly ahead of me was a twenty foot archway that led deeper into the factory.

  Standing in front of it were two Hellions wearing Sky Guard uniforms but no masks. They stared at me with red eyes for a single second before they charged.

  I brought up my fists, not sure if I could–

  Riley was a blur as he passed me. The Hellions skidded to a stop, but they were too late.

  Riley kicked the one on the right in the chest, knocking it away. He ducked the clawed strike from the Hellion on the left. He came back up with the sword, and cleaved the monster’s hand from its wrist. The Hellion’s head followed shortly after.

  The second Hellion rose behind Riley. My friend turned on his heel and shoved the sword through the monster’s collarbone. It made a disgusting, wet cough. Riley grabbed the pommel of the sword with both hands and pulled up. The blade cleaved the Hellion’s neck open, and kept going until its head was nearly in two pieces.

  Blood sprayed all over Riley. My stomach heaved.

  I gritted my teeth and fought the nausea, forcing myself to look at Riley when he faced me. Dark blood covered over half his face, a grisly camouflage paint that coated his neck. His blue eyes were sharp, wild, and deadly. I shrank back, worried that the Vesper would catch onto the violence and turn Riley against me.

  Torment raged over his face. I knew he was fighting the Vesper with all his worth. I didn’t dare speak, afraid of who I would actually be talking to.

  It took Riley a minute to regain his composure. I kne
w he was himself when he wiped the blood from his sword and face with his tunic.

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  I followed him as he stalked through the foyer. “Will there be more of them?” I asked.

  “Maybe,” he replied honestly. “But I’ll take care of them.”

  I didn’t press the issue when we stepped out from the archway and into the factory.

  The room we entered contained long metal tables covered with Sky Guard jumpsuits and boots sat on the right. On the left were more tables covered with sleek black helmets, each one adorned with bulging eye guards or needlepoints. Helmets were being created by automated, table-top machines with mechanical arms that worked with jerky motions. Gears rolled together on the machine’s joints while pistons and hydraulics fired hissing steam from the arms. Thick wires stuck out from the back of them, connecting to the largest furnace I had ever seen. Flames seemed to engulf the entire length of the walls, huge automated bellows pushing air into its reddish-orange depths, fueling it.

  I pushed the goggles off my eyes and pulled the respirator down from my mouth. The air was hot and dry, and had a metallic taste to it. I grimaced as my eyes scanned the factory’s forge.

  I couldn’t see any workers.

  “Where are the other Hellions?” I whispered to Riley’s back.

  He walked forward quickly, his head whipping left and right as he searched for threats. “I don’t know. I don’t want to wait and find out.”

  I agreed with him.

  We kept to the shadows, Riley weaving in and out of them like he was smoke itself. It unnerved me just how inhuman he seemed to be now. The Riley I’d known had been graceful, yes, but nothing like this.

  A thought occurred to me then. I’d noticed it, but hadn’t said anything because it didn’t seem important. Now I wasn’t so sure.

  “You’re not wearing a mask,” I whispered as Riley led me past the worktables to the far wall. I started to see the outline of a tall stone door with a circular lock embedded in it at the far end of the room.

  “I don’t need one,” he murmured back. He gave me a quick look over his shoulder, seeing the curiosity in my eyes. “I’m not human anymore, Claire. Not really. I’m alert and alive because the Vesper needs me to be, but I’m not me anymore.”

  I frowned at his back. “You sound like yourself. Like you used to.”

  Riley reached the door and sighed. His shoulders slumped. He turned and faced me. The sadness in his eyes crushed my heart.

  “Because of you, Claire. You brought me back from his hold. I remembered you in those moments I was free. I kind of fell in love with you for them.”

  My breath hitched in my throat. I cared about Riley. He was my friend. I would do almost anything for him.

  But I didn’t love him. Not the way he wanted me to.

  I opened my mouth to explain, stopping when Riley’s hand waved me off.

  “I know. You love Sawyer.” He smiled sadly. “Nobody could miss the way you look at him. The way he looks at you. Even when I was totally myself, I never had a chance with you. And that’s okay. We both just wanted to make you happy.” The sadness of his smile reached his eyes. “Sawyer will do a better job than I ever could.”

  Sawyer. My heart ached just thinking about him. Everything we’d been through, the trials and mistrust, the arguments and struggles, the pushing and pulling… I didn’t regret a moment of it. Sawyer could be infuriating, but only because he was guarded. He let me in, slowly but surely, trusting me and telling me secrets he never wanted to tell. He valued my opinion, believed in me, inspired me, protected me, looked at me like I was the center of his world.

  His touch was as tender as his kisses, as if I were something precious and was afraid to break me. But he didn’t think I was weak. He would stand behind me through anything, then leap forward to defend me if my life if it were put in danger.

  I knew he was searching for me. His words whispered through my mind. I’ll save you. I love you. Forcing him to let me go, to come back to the world that terrified me, had been a huge leap of faith.

  I knew in that moment that I would never love anyone else but Sawyer.

  “I’ll get you back to him, Claire,” Riley whispered, pulling me away from thoughts of the tawny eyes and roguish grin that stole my heart. Riley’s smile was gone, but it wasn’t replaced with jealousy. In its place was a serious expression, one I hadn’t seen on his face before.

  “But I need you to trust me completely. You need to remain calm through this.”

  I stared at him resolutely. “I can handle it.”

  Riley stared in my eyes, searching for my lie. What was he so afraid of?

  He sighed and turned to face the rough stone door that loomed ten feet over him. I barely heard him whisper, “I hope so.”

  Frowning at his assumption, I gazed over Riley’s shoulder, scowling at the sharp edges of the circular deadbolt, which looked to be a little bit bigger than a fist.

  Unperturbed, Riley closed his hand and pushed it into the lock. I was in shock at his actions, but it only truly registered for me when I saw his shoulders tighten and watched the blood pooling around his wrist.

  I stepped forward, shocked. “What are you doing?” I hissed, knowing better than to shout.

  “This part of the factory runs on blood,” he gritted out, turning his hand and cutting a deeper gash into his wrist.

  I stared in horror, knowing I had to make him stop before he cut an artery and bled to death in front of me.

  Just as I reached for his arm, Riley shoved his hand deeper into the lock. He grunted in pain, and then there was an echoing click. Riley pulled his hand back. Blood completely covered his left hand from wrist to fingertip, though his face was blank of pain.

  Ahead of us, more gears clicked from the hidden hinges. I turned my attention to the door, my heart hammering.

  The thick obsidian door shuffled open, a blast of cool air replacing the sickening heat of the production room. I inhaled sharply, the dry, icy temperature sliding down my throat and tightening my lungs. My skin prickled from the change in atmosphere.

  The smell coming from inside was familiar, yet not. It took me a moment to recognize it, but once I did, there was no mistaking it for anything else.

  I’d seen death before. More times than I cared to admit. I’d smelled fresh bodies and blood on the streets aboveground, smelled their sour rot in the sewers of the underground colonies. I knew the scent well enough to know that I would find it in here.

  But I wasn’t prepared.

  Riley entered the room, yet I stood there, transfixed, horrified at what I was seeing. “So many…” I breathed.

  Hundreds of black altars stretched before me in three perfect rows. Each one held a pale body dressed in tattered, bloody clothing. Men and women, aged sixteen to sixty, each one ravaged with claw marks and vicious bites. Beside each motionless body was a wire pole with a boxy black case hooked on the top. Resting at the far corner of the box was a glowing red light. A tube was connected to the bottom of the box next to the light, jutting into the necks of the poor victims. A steady stream of blood flowed from their necks into the box.