Crimson Sky: A Dark Sky Novel (14 page)

His fingers traced higher, sending shudders through me. I pulled back to breathe, and Sawyer’s lips traced the curve of my jaw and neck. I twined my fingers through his hair, loving the heat of his breath and the way he felt against me. It was easy to understand how someone could get lost in a moment like this.

And that was the thought that stopped me. Even with what he told me tonight, I didn’t know very much about Sawyer. What he told me was only admitted because he was drunk. He’d relived painful memories, and I tried to ease his pain by listening and comforting him. What he was doing now was obscuring his thoughts. He wanted something I couldn’t give. What he needed was sleep.

My fingers circled Sawyer’s wrists and pulled them away from my waist. My shirt fell back into place, but my skin already felt cold without his touch. Sawyer leaned away from my neck, and it took nearly all of my control not to kiss him again when I looked in his glowing eyes.

“We can’t do this,” I whispered.

“Why not?” he breathed back. “You weren’t complaining a minute ago.”

Because there was nothing to complain about,
I thought. Still holding his wrists, I pushed him away from me. I couldn’t move him very far, but he got the message and stepped out of my reach. I brought my hands back to my sides and slid them into my pant pockets.

“We should be focusing on getting your ship fixed,” I muttered, hoping that would get through to him.

It did.

“You’re right,” he acknowledged. If we hadn’t just been so intimate, I might have teased him, but right now I felt too exposed, too confused. I couldn’t even look at him.

“I don’t know what… I need to get some sleep. Gemma will be waking me up soon.”

“I can take your watch if you–”

“No,” he interrupted quickly. “No, I… I just need to be alone.”

Sawyer turned and walked away before I could stop him. I stood in front of the
Dauntless
, watching him leave and wishing I understood what had happened between us. I didn’t think he cared about me as anything other than an asset, and there was no doubt in my mind that he told me the truth about his past. The brothers and father he lost, the confession of wanting to kill Briggs for hurting me, all of that had been true. The alcohol had loosened his tension too much for him to think about lying.

It was almost enough to make me think our kiss wasn’t just born from a desperate need. That he wanted to do it because he felt something for me.

But I knew better. In this world, dreams were torn apart as easily as flesh under a Hellion’s teeth.

Chapter 8

My assumption about Sawyer was true. The next morning, he didn’t even look at me. He was tired-eyed but sober, and there was no indication he was sick from the alcohol he drank last night. All of Sawyer’s walls were back up, but I was sure Nash and Gemma would know something was bothering him sooner rather than later.

The hangar hadn’t been attacked, and it seemed like the Hellion skiffs were back on the
Behemoth
. Within a few hours, we were ready to leave for the substation.

I rarely traveled to the ports, but even from there I had no problem finding Garnet’s main power hub. It was mere blocks away from the old industrial district, which was now just a series of cracked buildings tumbling against the skyline. The substation was easily recognizable as a broken metal forest.

The wire fence surrounding the station had been pulled down and warped into a wavy horizon, making it tricky to step on. Toppled power poles and antenna lay slumped together, like two bodies crashing against one another after a night of heavy drinking. Severed distribution and transmission lines swayed in the gentle breeze, their exposed wires no longer sparking. The large circuit breakers, transformers, and regulators were now empty, dented boxes. Arresters and air-break switches were torn from the top of their constructs and thrown carelessly on the sandy ground. Thick black wires snaked along the dusty earth to the brick control house on the left. It was untouched during The Storm, which was likely part of the reason Garnet chose this particular station to reroute the power into the underground.

Westraven relied on electricity, and while most of it needed to be charged from the entire substation, flickers of electricity were still transferred underground as reserves. Garnet took control of those reserves when he came back from the failed Discovery and began building his empire. He took any workers he could find and showed them how to transfer the power. With the help of other engineers, he was able to fix the broken transformers and set up even more generators to push the power into the earth. As decent as the power could be, it wasn’t reliable, so newer engineers like me were often sent out to modify and repair any damage or faulty wires.

But I wouldn’t find what I needed for the power core out here. 

“It’s called an electron-cell,” I told the marauders as we crossed the fence into the substation grounds. “Garnet keeps them in the control house,” I pointed to the small, brick building. “I only need one.”

“How come no one’s guarding this place?” Gemma asked. She was walking beside me with Nash and Sawyer on her right side. All of them had drawn their preferred weapons– Gemma with her flintlock, Nash with his brass knuckles, and Sawyer with his cutlass. I was the only one who remained unarmed.

Gemma’s question began to bury itself in my brain. She made an excellent point. For all his faults, Garnet was rigid about security when it came to his substation. He always had guards patrolling the fence and posted one or two at the front of the control house during the day. At night, he drew them back inside but kept them on the grounds. That could be where they were, but right now, in the middle of the day, I couldn’t see anyone.

“Maybe the Hellions finally made it into the underground,” I offered, though I didn’t believe that myself.

“I don’t trust maybes,” Sawyer grumbled.

I peered around Gemma and Nash to see him stride forward, his cutlass held securely in this grip. Sawyer walked directly to the control house’s front door and turned to press his ear to the door. He shook his head and beckoned Nash and Gemma over. The two marauders hurried to their captain. Nash knelt in front of the doorknob and Gemma stood behind him, aiming her flintlock at the crevice of the door. I hung back, not wanting to get in the way of any violence that might ensue. I could have probably picked the lock, but it would take time and alert Garnet’s guards if they were inside the control house.

And I have to admit, Gemma shooting the lock out so Nash could kick the door in was much more exciting. Sawyer rushed into the open door with his cutlass, ready to take on any threats hiding in the shadows. I moved closer when I heard nothing, hoping that he hadn’t gotten captured or injured. I crowded the door with Nash and Gemma when Sawyer turned back into the entrance, frowning.

“Nobody’s here,” he announced.

“You couldn’t hear anyone downstairs?” I asked. The control house was an entrance that led into a basement where the electron-cells were kept and charged.

Sawyer shook his head, and a knot of anxiety built in my stomach. Garnet
never
left his electron-cells unguarded. They were the keys to his kingdom. Could the Hellions really have found a way into the underground? Had they hunted and killed everyone in the colony? I could care less if Garnet and his bullies were killed, but I didn’t want the other survivors to suffer and die. They already lived in hell under Garnet. Meager and pathetic as it was, they had carved out a life for themselves. It shouldn’t be taken from them after everything they’d been through.

“Claire?”

Sawyer saying my name brought me out of my thoughts. He tossed his head in the direction of the stairs. “Mind taking the lead from here?”

This was the first time Sawyer had talked or even looked at me since last night. Professionally and impersonally, but I would take what I could get.

“Giving me control now, are you?” I tried with a mischievous smile.

Sawyer didn’t smile, but some of the tension in his eyes seemed to disappear. “Only because I don’t know what I’m looking for. Better get a move on, Firecracker.”

I exaggerated my frown, but it made Sawyer grin. Just this once, I could cut him some slack.

I entered the substation and crossed the ten foot gap to the stairs. Sawyer instructed Nash and Gemma to stay behind and guard the entrance before following me. The pale blue glow coming from the basement increased as I descended the concrete steps. I reached the bottom and turned to the right, looking at the source of Garnet’s power.

Along the far wall were four glass tubes, each one with a narrow shelf and a circuit breaker between them. The heavy cords from the transformers outside ran straight across the roof and connected to the tops of each tube, filling them with uncontrolled electricity.

White bolts of energy tinged, danced, and rippled on the two forked connectors on the top and bottom of the tubes. The dull whirrs of the generators behind me and the steady thumps of power filled the room, making the air seem too heavy.

There was a thud and an angry curse behind me. I looked back and found Sawyer glaring at the floor.

“What’s this?” he asked tersely.

I followed his line of sight. A lone patch of metal sat in the floor with a large iron ring, the ring that Sawyer likely tripped over.

“Oh, that,” I said. “I always forget it’s here. It’s an entrance to the underground. It’s usually how Garnet sends us up here. We try to take it as often as possible when we work aboveground, but sometimes the Hellions make that difficult, and we don’t want them to know it exists.”

Sawyer scowled at the hatch.

“If Garnet was going to send someone up here through the escape hatch, he would have done it already,” I told him.

He stared at me, still suspicious. “What if that’s what he’s doing? He could be sending someone through the underground route right now for a check-up.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Then we’ll just have to be faster than them, won’t we?”

Deciding not to wait for Sawyer’s reaction, I turned and looked between the tubes. My eyes fixated on the electron-cell boxes used to contain and transport the electricity. It was a heavy box that almost resembled a battery. I hurried toward the shelves and grabbed one, bringing it back to the front of the center column.

At the iron base of the tube were positive and negative terminals that would connect to the ports on top of the electron-cell. After the electron-cell clicked into place, I flicked the small switch on the control panel on my right. A steady buzz filled the air as the dancing electricity suddenly turned violent and stormy. Jagged bolts snapped out from the tall electrical prongs and shot up the glass walls. It was a lot of power to be contained in such a fragile case, and it was a little scary to watch. I looked at the control panel on the left side of the electron-cell, watching the power bar rise as it filled with electricity.

“Maybe you should back up,” Sawyer said, drawing my attention to him as he stood close to my shoulder. He watched the electricity nervously.

“We’ll be fine,” I assured him. “Garnet is a bastard, but he knows how to be smart around this kind of power. He knows how to contain it safely, and I know how to operate it.”
I hope.
I smiled weakly. “I won’t let it fry you, I promise.”

Sawyer narrowed his eyes. “You really need to work on your sense of humor, Firecracker.”

I scowled. “Maybe I would if you stopped calling me that.”

Sawyer’s frown remained, but his eyes smiled. “Looks like it won’t be improving for a while, then.”

I scoffed and turned my back on him, trying to ignore the warmth I felt in my chest when he looked at me that way. There was a beep and a flashing green light indicating the electron-cell was full. I flipped the switch down, shutting off the connection to the electricity and the cell. After waiting a few seconds to make sure it was safe to touch, I pried the electron-cell from the terminals and turned to face Sawyer. He eyed the electron-cell apprehensively, like he expected it to bite him at any moment.

“It can’t hurt you like this,” I told him. “It has to be connected to something.”

“Right,” he muttered.

I smirked at his unease, proudly carrying my prize up the stairs.

“Sure you only want to take one?”

I glanced back at him. Sawyer shrugged one of his shoulders. “If you ever want to get back at Garnet, now’s your chance.”

The offer was tempting. Very, very tempting. But I thought about the sad, scared faces of the people in the community. How they needed Garnet’s electricity. Turning the fat warlord’s world upside down would be amusing, but I wouldn’t forgive myself for causing everyone else grief.

“Maybe another time. When it’s actually a challenge.”

Sawyer smiled at that. I couldn’t help but stare at him for a moment. I couldn’t see any trace of the heartbroken, desperate young man from last night. I wondered if he was thinking about it at all, or if he pushed his pain down where it could never be found again. I took a breath to ask him, then watched Sawyer’s face change.

He was no longer smirking. The tension was back in his shoulders, defensiveness in his eyes. His entire body became a warning that I couldn’t ignore. I grinned awkwardly, then started up the stairs before he could see my blush.

Nash and Gemma were still vigilantly standing outside the substation doors when we came back out. Gemma whirled on us, an angry look crossing her pretty face.

“What the hell took you so long?” she demanded.

I stared at her, completely confused. Sawyer brushed past me before I could remind her that I was getting the key element to fixing her ship.

“What’s wrong?” Sawyer asked.

“We’re being watched,” grumbled Nash. “Felt eyes on us when you went inside, but I can’t see anyone.”

“Hellions?”

Nash shook his head, his dark eyes moving back and forth along the substation grounds. “No. Whoever’s out there, they’re human.”

My heart began pounding.
Garnet.
“We have to get out of here,” I told them, already pushing past the marauders. Garnet’s daily routine always involved hurting someone, but it was usually done to appease his boredom. It was rare he punished someone out of pure anger, though when he did, he was ferocious.

If Garnet found out that we were stealing the direct source of his power, his wrath would be as swift and as bloody as a Hellion raid.