Midnight Sky (Dark Sky Book 2) (13 page)

Riley glowered at Sawyer. “You were just complaining about how you don’t think I can look out for her. You think it will be easier in the Barren?”

“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here,” I snapped. Riley turned his angry stare on me. Sawyer just seemed tired.

“This is my mission, and in case you forgot,” I pulled the skeleton key out from under my shirt collar, “I’m the only engineer you have. You’d get to the machine, have no idea how to operate or fix it, and be forced to come back. Assuming the other marauders don’t find you and trap you first. And did you forget about Davin? If he were to take any one of you, do you think I’d sit back and let him?”

No one argued with me. Riley’s concern betrayed his discontent.

“I’m going,” I stated. “If we have any chance of getting ahead of the Hellions and the Vesper, you need me there.”

I locked eyes with Sawyer, daring him to contradict me. There was stiffness in his tawny eyes, but he soon turned his bright gaze over my shoulder to Gemma.
 

“Make sure the skiff is fueled. Help Nash stock it with as many weapons as we can spare. Then check the alarms and locks and make sure the hangar will be secure when we’re gone. First thing in the morning, we leave.”
 

“What’s your plan once we get there?” Gemma suddenly asked. Her dark eyes blazed with growing challenge.

Sawyer watched her cautiously. “We’ll decide on one when we get to the outside of the Barren. It will depend if there are guards outside or not.”

I could at least appreciate his honesty, but it was the wrong thing to say to Gemma.
 

“So you’re just going to have us play it by ear in a place where other marauders could kill us, where they
will
kill Nash if they find out he’s there?”

Her lover sighed. “Gem–”

If she heard the plea in his voice, she ignored it. She stabbed a finger at Sawyer’s chest. “There’s another way to find the
Meridian
, and you know it.”

“Enlighten me,” challenged Sawyer.

Gemma lowered her hand, balling it into a fist. “Take the
Dauntless
to the Barren.”

Silence collapsed over our heads. We barely breathed, watching Sawyer, unsure about how he would react. His temper sparked behind his eyes.

“No.”

“Why not? The only times you’ve taken her out of the ports is for a short flight to make sure she still flies, and even then it’s just at night or when there’s some kind of fog. You’re scared to bring her out in daylight where everyone can see her.” Gemma suddenly lowered her voice. “Are you so afraid of being seen on the
Dauntless–
”

Sawyer was nose to nose with her in an instant. She backed up, and for a moment I was terrified he might try to hit her. Subconsciously, I knew he would never do that–and if he did, Nash would smash him into the floor–but the last time I’d seen Sawyer this angry, he’d punched Riley.
 

“Fuel the skiff. Stock our weapons. Check the alarms and locks.” His voice was an icy lake. Flat and dead and bitterly cold.
 

Gemma hesitated, then raised her chin. “No. Not until we have another plan.”

A muscle in Sawyer’s jaw twitched. He was barely controlling himself from doing or saying something that he would regret. Gemma was brave for standing up to her captain, but I worried that she’d finally pushed him too far.

I don’t know what would have happened next if Nash hadn’t sighed and placed his big dark hands on her shoulders.

“I agree with him, Gem.”

She whirled around. “What? How could you?”

His sad dark eyes drifted over her face. I saw how deeply it hurt him to disappoint her. “I know them. The moment they see the
Dauntless
, they’ll set a trap for us. We won’t be able to escape it.” He glanced down. “We can go through the tunnels. Not all the passages are guarded, and we’ll be able to find a map we can use to show us which ones are. The Dogs will have all of the Barren laid out, so if the
Meridian
is there, it’ll be on the map. It’ll be riskier, but–”

“Then we shouldn’t do it!” she cried, shoving his chest.
 

Nash curled his hands around her forearms, keeping her close to him. “Gemma. Please. I need you to trust me. I’ll keep you safe–”

“I don’t care about
my
safety–”

“But I do. I know you don’t want to go to the Barren anymore than I do, but if this helps us finally have a safe future, then we need to take the chance.”

Gemma stared at him like she couldn’t believe the words coming from his mouth. She let out a strangled noise, something between a snarl and a sob, then pushed Nash aside and stormed away. He turned and watched her go, his big shoulders slumping with defeat.
 

Sawyer slowly took a step forward. “Nash, I didn’t mean to–”

“It’s okay. I’ll talk to her.” He took a step forward, then turned to Sawyer. “But she’s not wrong. Things would be different if you used the
Dauntless.
”

Sawyer didn’t pick a fight with his big friend. He let him leave to find his lover, hopefully so he could console and coax her into trusting her captain again. I glanced at Sawyer, watching him close his eyes and sigh, scraping his hand through his hair.
 

“Sawyer–”

“Get some rest, Claire,” he mumbled.
 

I paused, then started to argue, but Sawyer waved me off. “Don’t fight me on this, Firecracker. I’m not in the mood right now. You need food and more rest before you come with us. We might need to run, and it’ll be hard to carry you through the Barren if you pass out.”

A scowl formed on my face, but Sawyer didn’t notice it. He was turning and walking away to the back of the hangar where he usually slept.

I looked away when I heard Riley approach me. He didn’t look anywhere close to pleased.

“Are you sure about this? It’s going to be dangerous.”

“More than the world we already live in?” He didn’t find my weak joke amusing. “We don’t have a choice, Riley. If we don’t take the risk, we might as well surrender. I won’t do that. I was close to a slave once. I will not endure that again. I refuse to believe that Abby can’t have a life away from all this.”

Bright blue eyes sank into mine, holding me in a hypnotic trance. He inched closer, his hand wrapping around mine and clutching it tightly.
 

“I’m sorry about what I said earlier. I know this is important to you, and you’re not someone who needs to be babysat. But I don’t want anything to happen to you.” He dropped his eyes to the ground. “When I saw him bite you, I froze. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and I couldn’t think. I…”

Riley sighed painfully and closed his eyes. “It was like the world fell out from under me. Like I was back on the
Behemoth
, alone in my cell waiting for the next torture.”

He was close enough that I could recognize his warm, fresh scent. It wasn’t like Sawyer, who reminded me of crisp cedar. Riley was like clear summer air, inviting and tempting, the kind of sensation I wanted to consume my senses and linger on my skin.
 

“Tell me this is the only way,” he breathed, dipping his head. “Tell me we have a chance if we do this.”

His lips were so close that I tasted his breath when he exhaled. I felt lightheaded and was ignorant of everything else around me, yet I didn’t care.
 

I sounded like a distant version of myself when I repeated, “It’s the only way. We have a chance if we do this.”

Riley’s hand combed through my hair. It was warm and gentle on the back of my neck. He tilted forward, bringing his lips toward mine, ghosting over them and taking a soft breath–

The soft
whump
of a crate lid falling shut snapped me from the moment. My head jutted against Riley’s chin, knocking him off balance. We broke apart and looked in the direction of the noise.
 

Near the back of the hangar, Sawyer stood by a pile of large wooden crates. He hefted the fuel canister he’d taken from one of them and carried it back to the Hellion skiff. He was trying very hard not to look at us, but I recognized the grim expression on his face. It was the same one he wore when he saw me with Riley. The one that looked suspiciously like regret.

I stepped back from Riley, feeling cooler and grounded, though I couldn’t explain the small ache in my chest.

“I should check on Abby,” I mumbled out.

“I’ll do that,” he offered. “You should rest. You look like you can barely stand.”

I started to protest, but Riley placed his hand on my cheek, cupping my face and silencing me.

“I’ll make sure you see her before we go to the Barren, Claire. You have my word.”
 

Nodding, I took the passbooks from the journal and held them out to Riley. “Can you put these on the table by the bed? If she wakes up… I want to make sure she sees them.”

Riley took the passbooks. His free thumb stroked my cheek gently, making my stomach do a strange little flutter. “I will. Get some sleep.”

I nodded absently, like my head was attached to someone else’s neck. Riley bent forward and planted a lingering kiss on my forehead. Then he smiled, let me go, and walked toward the
Dauntless.

For a moment I stood there, feeling like I was trapped in another world. I wasn’t quiet disoriented, but I couldn’t remember what I was trying to do.

Sleep. I need to get some sleep. Just until Riley wakes me. I need to go to sleep.

Repeating the mantra in my head gave my feet motivation to work. I turned my back to the airship and began walking to the storage room I’d been unconscious in earlier. But not before I looked over my shoulder and found Sawyer.

He was standing by the skiff, climbing onto it while Gemma and Nash hauled weapons and supplies onto its deck. She wasn’t as tense as before, her outburst seeming to be over, but Nash was still moving cautiously next to her. When they looked at each other, their eyes weren’t filled with irritation, but with worry.
 

Nash handed the gas canister to Sawyer once he was onboard. He accepted it, and as he turned, his eyes caught Riley’s. They eyed each other suspiciously, two predators sizing each other up. Riley turned away first, walking confidently to the
Dauntless.
Sawyer watched his back, then turned to look at me.
 

Our eyes met, and I saw the flash of regret he’d tried to hide from me earlier. He looked away quickly, setting the canister on the deck, but there was no erasing what I’d seen.
 

No understanding what I could do about it, either.

I shook my head, turned, and didn’t stop walking until I was back in the storage room. I closed the door behind me and sighed.

If Sawyer and Riley didn’t resolve their problems with each other, it was going to get us all killed. All the marauders in the Barren would need to do was sit back and watch the show.

Chapter 7

Riley kept his promise. After another three hours of sleep, he gently shook my shoulder. He told me that everyone else, including Abby, was sleeping and would rise in a couple hours. He set the passbooks near the bed so she could see them when she woke up. Thanking him, I offered my makeshift bed and blanket so he could get some rest. He seemed a little too eager to slip on top of the warm mattress I’d just been lying in, but given how chilly the hangar usually was, I didn’t find it odd.

I left the storage room, softly closing the door behind me, and began crossing the expanse of the hangar. Noise carried easily thanks to the curved walls, so the sound of scraping metal was clear and loud. I followed it, coming around the tower of crates next to the skiff. Sawyer was sitting on a wooden box, drawing the blade of his cutlass along a whetstone set on a table. He lifted his head and drew in a long breath. His eyes brightened briefly before he quickly looked away. I leaned against the crates, watching him, hoping he would talk to me. Sawyer continued to sharpen his sword.

“Does it calm you down?” I asked.

“What?” He drew the whetstone across the silver blade. “This?”

I nodded once. “I see you sharpening your sword and knives, cleaning your guns, stocking up on bullets whenever you have the chance. It’s almost a ritual for you, isn’t it?”

He slowed the sharpening, but didn’t look up. We lingered in silence for so long I didn’t think he was going to answer me.
 

Then he said, “My father didn’t like messy kills. I know that’s not what most people think, but it’s true. He always made sure his weapons were sharp or loaded. He wanted his legacy to be the body count, not the brutality.”

 
Sawyer leaned back, lifting the sword from the whetstone. He shifted to face me, though his eyes were on the cutlass in his hands, which he turned and looked over with care.
 

“Davin was the opposite. He didn’t kill nearly as many people as my father, but he liked getting his hands dirty. You probably heard a rumor about him dislocating a man’s fingers and ripping them off with his bare hands?” He looked up at me. I nodded slowly, grimacing. “It’s not a rumor.”

I shifted on both my feet, uncomfortable and uncertain.

Sawyer rested the cutlass on his lap, gazing down. “They argued all the time. My father wanted to be a pirate, not a torturer. Davin would say that his methods could build more fear, make the Wanderers a stronger pirate Clan.” He shook his head. “I never agreed with either of them, but I have to admit that Davin was more effective. Still is. He knows how to get under your skin, then rip it from your bones.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. I could only imagine what memories were dredging up into his mind.

He raised his head, tawny eyes locking onto me with an almost fierce sincerity. “I told you, Firecracker. Don’t apologize to me.”
 

But I couldn’t stop myself. The words kept spilling out, abandoning reason and escaping my control.

“I wish I were stronger,” I admitted, dropping my eyes. “I should have fought with you, thrown another flashbang, something other than just stand there on the skiff. I saw them attacking you and Nash and Gemma, but I…”