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  I wasn’t going to escape the hatred, or Garnet’s grasp.

  He saw all of this on my face, and knew he had won. He stepped back, a smug smirk on his face. He walked back to the crates.

  “Leave her face. Don’t want her to get brain damage when she’s still useful.”

  One of the twins, the larger one, Tyson, stepped in front of me. He was so big he took up my entire frame of vision.

  “This is for Gordon.”

  Tyson’s fist slammed into my left side like a brick. The force of it had me stumbling to the right, but Malik dragged me back to center. I swayed on my knees, my entire left side throbbing with pain.

  “This is for Kevin.”

  The next punch went into my right side. I gasped and sagged again, certain that something had cracked. I whimpered and tried to slide out of Malik’s grip, but he easily dragged me up again. He pulled my arms back, pushing out my chest and straining the bruises on my ribs. I groaned and hoped it was over.

  “This is for Mr. Garnet.”

  I never said I was lucky.

  More fists pounded into my stomach, forcing all the air from my lungs. The beating couldn’t have lasted longer than a couple seconds, but Tyson didn’t hold back. He used his considerable strength to hit vulnerable parts of me. My body felt like it had been thrown into a wall multiple times. I was coughing and dry heaving by the time he was finished.

  “Get her out of here before she pukes,” Garnet ordered. “I don’t want her staining my carpet.”

  Tyson and Malik dragged me out of the tent, then threw me onto the street. I landed hard on my arching ribs, rolling to a stop and crying out in pain. I turned again and curled into myself. I looked up just as Malik kicked me hard in the stomach.

  That time I almost did throw up. I coughed and gasped, but couldn’t breathe.

  “That’s because I didn’t get a shot in before, bitch.”

  The guard stalked off, leaving me whimpering and groaning on the cold concrete.

  I thought about staying where I was. Consciousness flickered on and off in my head. If I didn’t think I’d be trampled or robbed, I wouldn’t have moved. But I had to get back to Abby. It wasn’t past Garnet to hurt my sister while I was battered, just to prove he could.

  Every motion hurt, but I finally turned onto my knees and pushed myself up. Sharp pain cut through my stomach as I straightened, making me collapse. I caught myself with one hand and wrapped the other around my middle. I stood up again, staggered once, but kept my footing this time. I shuffled toward my lean-to, trying to remember where it was.

  No one helped me. Hardly anyone even looked at me. I didn’t have many friends in the colony. Almost all of them blamed me for my parents being unable to lock the Hellions in their world beyond the Breach, and the others were too afraid to be my friend lest they become victims of Garnet’s wrath. It made living here hard, and walking to my little shelter next to impossible.

  Somehow I managed. My insides were raw and bruised, but nothing felt broken. I almost laughed at the thought. Of course Garnet wouldn’t permanently damage me when he needed my skills. But I would be in constant pain until he decided I screwed up some other way and he could hurt me again.

  As soon as I slipped under the curtain, I saw my only friend. The only person I cared about.

  A little girl with curly blonde hair and bright green eyes stared up at me from her cot. Dirt was smeared across her face, and the tattered clothes she wore hung over her too thin frame. Her eyes were filled with tears, but she wasn’t hurt. I would have sighed with relief if I didn’t feel like it would hurt me even more.

  “Hey, Abby,” I mumbled out.

  My eight year old sister choked out a sob and launched herself at me. I nearly fell again when I caught her and winced when she wrapped her arms around me, but I let her do it. I closed my eyes and smelled the sugary scent of her hair.

  Abby had never known a world that was safe, where monsters didn’t exist and above and below ground. I couldn’t hold onto the hope that she ever would. The Hellions controlled the skies, and Garnet made living a torture. I didn’t imagine either animal would give up their superiority any time soon.

  “I need to lie down, Abby,” I told her, stroking her oily blonde curls.

  My sister pulled her head back from my chest and looked at me with luminous eyes. I wondered how she saw me, ten years older than her with straight, lifeless blonde hair and tired green eyes, battered and bruised, wearing a stained black blouse, scuffed boots, and grey work pants with a brown utility belt stuffed with tools. I probably looked as strong as I felt.

  Abby peeled off of me and stepped back, hurrying to make my cot as comfortable as she could, pushing off my spare tools and fluffing the pile of shirts I used for a pillow. Tiny sparkles of white sugar dusted the cot as she moved. I smiled. Abby had gotten into one of the sugar bags again. I should have known by the smell in her hair.

  I sat down on the creaking cot and rolled onto my back, groaning as I stretched out. The top of my head and entirety of my feet dangled off the edges of the cot, but at least I could sleep like this.

  While I was shifting and getting as close to comfortable as I could, Abby was scurrying around the lean-to, bundling foods and blankets and water into her little arms. She hurried back to me, kicking over a crate since there was too much in her hands. She set the food on the crate and unfolded the blanket that was bigger than her. She tossed it over my body, most of it landing on me. Then Abby took out a strip of meat and reached into a small burlap sack. She opened the sack and sprinkled it with miniscule crystals. She grabbed a flask of filtered water and handed it to me with a strip of dried rat meat. I took both from her gratefully, draining the flask and chewing the meat that tasted like tree bark. The crystal seasoning she placed on it wasn’t salt. It was sugar. It didn’t enhance the flavor of the meat at all, but I was so hungry I didn’t even care.

  Besides, my sister put sugar on everything.

  Abby watched me, wringing her hands nervously. “How much do you hurt?” she asked shakily.

  I closed my eyes. “I’ll be fine,” I assured her. “I just need to rest.”

  “You can’t keep doing this, Claire. You’ll get killed.”

  There was no point in denying that. If the Hellions didn’t slaughter me for food, Garnet would let his thugs beat me to death. Neither option was appealing, but I couldn’t take care of Abby on the surface. After our father died and our mother left us, we had nowhere to run. Any friends who might have taken in a ten year old girl and a baby were dead or missing. Going underground was the only way I knew she would live, and where I could use my skills to keep her that way.

  I didn’t think my parent’s mistakes would follow me into the earth.

  “I’ll get us out of here, Abigail,” I said. “I promise. Nothing will happen to you.”

  I meant the last part with every cell in my aching body. But the first half of the promise wasn’t one I could see an end to. I would run if I knew we could get past the Westraven barricades. I’d offer my engineering skills to someone else if I knew they wouldn’t treat us worse than Garnet. I would kill every Hellion I could if I thought for one second I would have a chance.

  Instead, I trapped myself in a deal that was sure to end in my death and leave Abby in a worse position than she was now.

  “Get some sleep, Abby,” I told her.

  She was already shaking her head. “I’m going to find something to make you better.”

  I sighed. There were pain remedies available from the nurses, but there was no telling what was actually in them. On the other hand, the colonists tended to like Abby more than they liked me. Probably because she was an adorable little girl without an ounce of darkness in her soul, and she had no interest in engineering.

  “Get something from Moira,” I murmured. “No one else. Don’t let Garnet’s guards see you.”

  Abby nodded, planted a gentle kiss on my bruised cheek, then raced out of the lean-to. When she wa
s gone, I reached under the collar of my shirt and tugged out the hidden necklace hanging against my chest.

  The chain was thin, tightly woven silver. Dangling off the end of the chain was a black steel skeleton key with four blocky teeth. I turned the key over in my hands, but there were no markings to hint at what it was for.

  But like Abby, I knew I had to keep it hidden and safe. That had been my mother’s final wish…

  She closed the door with a harsh bang, making me jump and Abby wail in my arms. I looked at my baby sister, barely a month old, far too young to understand the loud noises surrounding her. Mom pulled down more furniture, blocking the door as best as she could. The Hellions pounded against it. The wood began to fracture.

  She turned to us, pulling a silver chain from around her neck. She looped it over my head and tucked it under my shirt. I opened my mouth to ask what it was, but she spoke before I did.

  “Take your sister and find somewhere to hide. Don’t let anyone see the key, do you understand?”

  I jumped when a piece of the wooden door cracked and rained splinters onto the floor. The Hellions shrieks drowned out Abby’s cries.

  “But you’re coming too?” I asked.

  Mom shook her head sadly. Her long blonde hair was tangled and messy, and her green eyes were as sad as they were when Dad was killed.

  “I can buy you time.” She looked at the ground. “I have to buy us all time,” she muttered.

  I tried to ask what she meant, but another sharp crack made me jump and back away. The Hellions could hear Abby screaming, and it was turning them ravenous.

  Mom grabbed my arms and pushed me toward the cellar door. She sent me through, then looked at me from the doorway.

  “You need to survive, Claire. You can save us. Not just your sister, but everyone.”

  Tears choked me. “What about you?”

  My mother smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. There was pain in them, and a look of regret.

  A last look. I choked again, trying to breathe and hold my sister close to me.

  “Mommy…”

  She knelt down touched my shoulder. The door was disintegrating behind her. The Hellions would be on us.

  “You’re a strong, smart, brave girl, Claire. You have mine and your father’s talents. One day you’ll use that key, and you’ll save us all.”

  I didn’t understand. Why was she wasting time telling me this? Why wasn’t she coming?

  Mom pressed a kiss onto the top of my head, then bent and did the same to Abby. My baby sister’s cries lessened for a moment as her mother caressed the top of her head. As if she knew it would be for the last time.

  Then without a final word, she slammed the door in our faces. I stood in the dark, staring in horror, listening to wood shatter and the rasping screeches of the Hellions while my mother began to scream…

  © 2016 Amy Braun. All rights reserved.

  More From Amy Braun

  CURSED

  DEMON’S DAUGHTER

  DARK DIVINITY

  DAMNATION’S DOOR

  DARK SKY

  CRIMSON SKY

  MIDNIGHT SKY

  AMBER SMKY

  STANDALONE NOVELS AND NOVELLAS

  STORM BORN

  PATH OF THE HORSEMAN

  NEEDFIRE

  ANTHOLOGIES AND COLLECTIONS

  ENGINEERED DECEIT in GHOSTS, GEARS, & GRIMOIRES from Mocha Memoirs Press.

  THE MAKER OF MONSTERS in SPAWN OF THE RIPPER from April Moon Books.

  HELL TO PAY in LEGENDS OF SLEEPY HOLLOW: ORIGINAL TALES OF TERROR FROM AMERICA’S SPOOKIEST VILLAGE.

  SURVIVALISM in THE DEAD WALK: VOLUME 2 from FOF Publishing.

  DISMANTLE in THE STEAM CHRONICLES from Zimbell House Publishing.

  LOST SKY in AVAST, YE AIRSHIPS! from Mocha Memoirs Press.

  SECRET SUICIDE in THAT HOODOO, VOODOO, THAT YOU DO from Lincoln Crisler and Ragnarok Publications.

  BRING BACK THE HOUND in STOMPING GROUNDS from April Moon Books.

  HOTEL HELL in DEATH’S CAFE from Mocha Memoirs Press.

  CALL FROM THE GRAVE in TOIL, TROUBLE, AND TEMPTATION from Mocha Memoirs Press.

  CHARLATAN CHARADE in LOST IN THE WITCHING HOUR from Breaking Fate Publishing.

  DARK INTENTIONS AND BLOOD in AMOK! from April Moon Books.