Free Crimson Sky: A Dark Sky Novel by Amy Braun Page A

for each other.
     
    I’d never known anything like that. I looked down, picking at the piece of dried meat and nibbling on it.
     
    “He treats everyone like that,” I muttered. “I’m no exception.”
     
    Except that I was. I was always the target of abuse because of who my parents were.
     
    “How did you get trapped by him?”
     
    I shrugged, still looking at my hands. “The same way most people did. I was scared and desperate. I had a baby sister to take care of, and nowhere else to run.”
     
    “How did he know you were an engineer?” Sawyer asked.
     
    I stopped myself from looking at him, and admitting that Garnet knew my parents. “I told him. My mother and father were engineers. I learned from them, and I mentioned it to Garnet when I came to the colony. It kept me safe from… other things.”
     
    No one asked what those other things were, and I was grateful. I broke the silence by continuing to eat and looking up at the marauders.
     
    “What about the three of you? How do you survive up here?”
     
    “By doing what we do best,” Gemma answered, a wicked grin curving her lips. “We lie, cheat, and steal. We play things smart, but we’re not afraid to live dangerously.” She winked at me, then leaned deep into Nash’s chest. “Besides, the underground has nothing worth taking. All the good stuff,” she nudged the foot crate with the tip of her boot, “is up here.”
     
    “But what about the Hellions? Aren’t you worried they’ll find you?”
     
    “No,” Sawyer replied curtly. “If they track us down, we kill them.”
     
    I gaped at him. “You fight them directly ? Are you insane ?!”
     
    The anger in his expression both answered my question, and worried me.
     
    “It’s not easy and we don’t always seek it out. But the Hellions are butchers. If I get the chance, I’ll kill every last one of them.”
     
    The way he said it left no room for questions. I had no love for the Hellions, but even I knew that fighting them in direct combat was pointless. They were fast, strong, resourceful, and tireless. I would get Abby from the Behemoth and bring it down if the chance presented itself, but I would never fight a Hellion one on one. I’d never, ever seen one of them killed. I wasn’t sure it was possible.
     
    But the look on Sawyer’s face told me that it was possible, that he had done it, and it hadn’t sated the anger swarming his soul.
     
    Without warning, he stood up and walked away. I watched him disappear into the shadows, not sure what I had done something wrong.
     
    “Be careful when bringing up the Hellions,” Gemma said solemnly, getting my attention. “They’re a prickly subject for our captain.”
     
    “Why? What did they do to him?”
     
    “The same thing they did to all of us,” replied Nash, his dark eyes serious. “They took away people he cared about.”
     
    Of course that was the obvious answer. I’d lost both my parents and countless friends to the Hellions. Abby was their prisoner. My little sister, who always looked for bags of sugar on Scavenging Days. It would cover the outside of her clothes in a sparkling power, and she would sprinkle it on anything. Even hard bread or dry meat. She would see me shaking my head and smile, saying, “putting sugar on it makes it a treat.”
     
    My heart pinched in my chest. I absorbed the pain, pushed it away, and glanced at the shadows Sawyer had disappeared into.
     
    Where my fear blinded my rage, the opposite was true for Sawyer. Whatever– or whoever– he lost to the Hellions had pushed him beyond the point of pain. I suspected the only reason he hadn’t completely snapped was because Gemma and Nash knew how to hold him together.
     
    “Do yourself a favor, Claire,” Nash added. “Don’t ask Sawyer about his past. He doesn’t know how to let go of it yet.” Nash made it sound like he never would.
     
    Time seemed to move without me after that conversation ended. Gemma returned to ignoring