Midnight Sky (Dark Sky Book 2) (28 page)

“Get out of my sight,” ordered the young captain, leaving no room for argument.
 

Riley obeyed, hanging his head in shame and walking away. I was suspended by terror, unable to wash the images in my head. Riley attacking a woman that looked like me in front of a crowd of Hellions, cutting me with a tortured look on his face, smothering me when I didn’t stop screaming–

“Claire, look at me.”

I blinked, finding Sawyer in front of me. Concern reflected back at me in his tawny eyes.

“Claire, what happened? What did he say to you?”

Half of me wanted to break down. Throw myself in Sawyer’s arms and have him tell me it would be all right. I wanted him to make me believe I could do this.
 

The rest of me knew it was a lie.

“I need a minute,” was all I said.

Sawyer seemed reluctant to take my answer, but he backed up and let me pass. I wandered like a ghost, feeling out of contact with my body. I was moving, but my mind was gone. Somehow I got to the generator and my hands began working on their own accord. I heard questions–Nash wanting to know what he could do to help, Gemma asking what the tool she was holding did, Sawyer asking if I was all right–but I don’t remember my answers.
 

I lost track of time. I might have finished the preparations for the generator, might have even installed the Volt for it. I couldn’t remember.

In the background, I heard Gemma and Nash say they needed to find something to eat. Was I hungry? I must have been. I didn’t know. All I felt in my stomach was fear.

I think Sawyer told them to look for food, but to be back as soon as possible. He might have told them to take Riley, to keep him in sight and away from me. It was all a haze.

Then I was sitting in front of the Palisade, my hand hovering over the power lever, the generator humming softly beside me. It was time to test my work. To see if I really had done the impossible. I trembled, tried to push the lever up.

And I burst into tears. I couldn’t do it.

The risk was too great. If this failed, I wouldn’t have time to restart. Abby would be tortured to death. Sawyer, Nash, and Gemma would be torn apart. Riley would become lower than a slave to the Hellions. And Westraven, all those people who were just getting their lives back, who were more open and vulnerable than ever, would be butchered. Because I wanted to resist. Because I thought I could fight the monsters.
 

This was the exact same thinking my parents must have had before The Storm. Before the world was ruined.

Warm arms circled me. I jumped, then grabbed onto them, needing their security. Their safety. A strong chest was pressed to my back. The steady heartbeat behind me didn’t calm my nerves. The woodsy musk I adored only reminded me of what I could lose. I couldn’t bear it.

“I can’t,” I sobbed. “I can’t do this.”

“You can,” Sawyer whispered in my ear. “Look how far you’ve come, Firecracker. You made the Palisade–”

“It won’t work!” I burst. “Riley’s right, the Hellions are too strong. By the time I start it and it use its power, the Hellions will have killed you all. You’ll be trying to protect me, and you’ll die. I won’t be strong enough to hold them back, and if they take the machine from me…” I shuddered into fresh sobs.

Sawyer’s arms tightened around me.
 

“I was wrong about you,” he said after a moment.

His statement confused me, and I stopped crying long enough to listen.

“I thought you needed to be protected. I was scared for what would happen if you weren’t, and I held you back. But you proved me wrong, time and time again. You showed me how brave you are, how much pressure you can handle. You saved me.”
 

He buried his face in my hair.

“You’re the strong one, not me. I know you’ll find a way out of this. And when you do, I’ll stop running from you, if you want me to.”

I twisted in his arms, seeing the worry and concern on his face… and the yearning.
 

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed you away. I saw how you looked at me, felt it when you kissed me, and I didn’t let you in. I was an idiot, but that’s what love turns you into, doesn’t it?”

My heart, which had been racing a mile a minute, suddenly skipped a beat. The air seemed to be stolen from my lungs. Sawyer himself seemed surprised at his words, but he didn’t take them back. The wall was shattered, and there was no way he could build it up again.
 

“I love you, Claire,” he told me, making it real for both of us. “I tried not to, but I’ve never met anyone like you. I can’t help it. You’re–”

“Stop talking.”

He froze, and I kissed him.
 

It wasn’t a slow, sweet kiss. My lips burned on his. Sawyer gripped the nape of my neck and pulled me against his chest. I deepened the kiss, let his tongue explore mine, moaned when he gently bit my bottom lip.
 

Sawyer stood up, keeping me with him as his mouth remained on mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck, letting him move me to the back wall. This moment was ours, the only one we might ever have, and I wanted it to last.

His mouth moved to my jaw, tracing a line down my chin to my neck. Each kiss blazed with sweet fire. I ran my fingers through his soft hair, breathing heavily as he kissed my collarbone. My hands went under his jacket and dragged down his back. He shivered under my touch and kissed my lips again. Sawyer’s fingers lifted the hem of my shirt and skimmed up my sides. Then I was the one who shuddered.

He became my everything. All I could feel, smell, taste, touch, and see was Sawyer. I was drowning in his warmth, and I never wanted to surface. My heart felt too big for my chest, a sweet pain I never wanted to heal.
 

Pulling his lips from mine, he rested his forehead against mine and laid his hands on my hips. He was holding back, but so was I.
 

“This is our luck, isn’t it?” he whispered with a sad smile.
 

I laughed weakly, though my heart felt pinched. After everything that had happened, I wanted to freeze this moment. I didn’t care that we were inside a cold engineering bay behind a slapdash door made of crates and tables. I didn’t care about the Hellions waiting outside, impatient for their moment to strike. Right now, all I wanted was to be with Sawyer. Finally, after thinking he would never let me in.

But I thought about what he told me, before he said he loved me. The new life he wanted was the one I dreamed of. Ached for. This wasn’t the time for us. But I would find another way. I had to.

“We can wait,” I told him. “After…”

After we stop the Hellions. If we even can.
 

Sawyer dipped his head and kissed my cheeks. He kissed the tears I didn’t even realize I was crying.

“You can do this, Firecracker.”

I groaned. “There’s really nothing I can do to make you stop calling me that?”

He grinned wickedly. “There could be ways to convince me,” he teased. Sawyer pulled me to his chest. I folded into him, praying this wouldn’t be the last time he was in my arms.

“Thank you,” I whispered into his chest.
 

He stroked my hair and kissed the crown of my head. This was the closest to home I had felt in years.
 

All of it was shattered by a scream.

Chapter 16

Sawyer broke away from me, a rush of cold air filling the space he’d been. He grabbed the cutlass from his hip and pulled it free as he ran for the door. I followed him, not caring that I was unarmed. Just as I was about to go with him out the door, he turned and stopped me.

“Finish the Palisade,” he said.

I scowled. “You just said I don’t need to be protected.”

He held the back of my neck. “You don’t. I’ll draw them back here, and you can show them what a huge mistake they made.”

Sawyer grinned and kissed me quickly, passionately. Then he was gone. I was terrified of losing him, but I knew I couldn’t waste the time he’d given me. I turned to the generator and pushed its power button. It hummed to life instantly, so I ran back to the Palisade. I flipped the tiny silver switches, opening the connectors and funneling in the electricity. Lights flickered madly as the current flowed into the Volt. A dull
whomp
came from the dais, the sound of the Volt channeling the electricity into the tubes. I watched it snap and dance along the edges, drawing up like a rapidly growing tree. White light flashed before my eyes. The prongs on the top of the tubes buzzed. Bolts sparked along the filament as the electricity moved into the second tube. The
whomps
increased, pounding in time with my heart.

The Volt was working. Before I put it in the left dais, I had installed hydraulics that pumped a small hammer against the button. Whenever pressure was applied, the Volt sent out a burst of electricity. The more power created by the generator, the faster the hammer moved, and the more energy was channeled.

It was working. I could feel the static growing in the air, building as it waited for release.
 

All I had to do was wait for the others to return.

I stared at the door, barely able to hear anything beyond the hums, crackles, buzzes, and whomps.
 

No one came back. I swore the screams I heard were human, not Hellion.
 

Anticipation was killing me. Sawyer said he was going to bring them to me, but what if he couldn’t? What if he and the others were hurt?
 

I couldn’t wait. I had to move the Palisade into the hallway.

My mother’s journal said the machine was wheeled to the elevator, since it was too heavy to carry. I dropped to my knees and looked at the base. The daises were bolted to a platform I never noticed before. I scurried around the right dais, watching the electricity snap aggressively on the prongs, and saw a lever near the floor labeled “RELEASE.” I grabbed it and flipped it to the “ON” position. Hydraulics hissed and old gears clacked, lifting the Palisade off the ground. Sturdy wheels spun down and locked into place. I hurried around the platform, seeing a lever and a wheel that would let the platform roll forward. It must have run on a battery, and I could only hope there was enough energy in it for me to move the machine into the hallway.

Which led to another problem. I couldn’t unleash this much electricity in a metal ship without it killing everyone inside. The discharge would look for any kind of target, but I needed to concentrate on the Hellions alone. How was I going to do that?
 

Let the electricity escape somewhere away from everyone. Somewhere high.

Make a hole in the ceiling.

It was the first thing that came to my mind, and while it was risky, it could buy me the chance to save the others and get them out of the Palisade’s range.

As insane as it was, I didn’t have any other options.
 

Leaving the Palisade behind so its electric charge could continue to build, I pulled the blowtorch from inside the trunk and strapped it onto my back. The cans were only a couple feet tall and fit on my back. They were heavy, but not as heavy as they would be if they were full. With the tanks banging against my back, I ran out of the engineering bay. Screaming Hellions and rage-filled curses assaulted my ears. I kept running past the shouts, not looking at the battles so I couldn’t get distracted, and hoping none of the Hellions would notice me as I ran across the hall to the nearest ladder.

Luck wasn’t on my side.

The screeches rang so loudly in my ears that I winced, nearly dropping the blowtorch. I turned just as one of the Hellions leaped for me. I stepped back and raised the blowtorch, turned my head, and pulled its trigger.
 

The Hellion in front of me became encased in flames and screamed in agony. I smelled burning hair and scorched flesh. I released the trigger and looked at the monster. It thrashed and clawed at its face as the flames blistered its skin and singed its hair. The creature didn’t care that it was ripping chunks of flesh from its face. It was just trying to get the flames out.

While it was distracted, I ran for the ladder. I finally made it and began climbing up, my shoulder protesting as I pulled up the bulky tanks. Each step seemed to take forever, the tanks pulling down on my back and threatening to wrench me from the ladder. Another Hellion screamed below me, grabbing the metal rungs and trying to catch up to me. I kicked down, driving my foot into its face three times before it let go. I kept climbing, moving as fast as I could with the blowtorch weighing on me.
 

After making it up ten rungs, I needed to stop for a breath. My shoulders screamed in pain, threatening to dislocate if I moved any higher. Breathing heavily, I risked a glance over my shoulder to view what I missed when I was running across the hall.

It was worse than I thought.

There must have been two dozen Hellions holding a line in front of Davin, who shouted and pointed at me. They were fighting Sawyer, Nash, and Gemma one at a time, wearing them down. Sawyer was hacking and slashing with his sword and aiming his flintlock. He jumped when claws snagged into his back and tore his flesh. Nash pummeled and threw any Hellions that tried to swarm him. He staggered when they clamped their jaws on him for a quick taste. Gemma spun, stabbed, and kicked, trying to keep her distance. Hellions slapped and threw her onto the ground before pouncing on her. I couldn’t see Riley anywhere, but he must have been in just as much trouble. They were doing their best to keep the Hellions away from me.

My vision tunneled as I watched the Hellions scamper around my friends, searching for a vulnerable spot to attack. Every move they made put them in front of the engineering bay doors. If they slipped inside and found the Palisade, this would all be over. The Hellions would find a way to take it out of the
Capital Meridian
, and our one weapon would vanish forever.
 

And even if the Hellions were focused only on the flesh and blood crew fighting for their lives, how was I going to get back unnoticed to retrieve the Palisade myself? Hellions had already spotted me, and as strong as my crew was, they had to be feeling the onset of exhaustion by now. They couldn’t fight all day, and if one of the Hellions took advantage of an opening and seriously hurt them–or worse, killed them–the entire plan would fall apart. I knew my friends. Nash and Gemma would shatter if either of them were injured, and while Sawyer and Riley didn’t get along, they would fight to keep each other alive, for my sake.