Midnight Sky (Dark Sky Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

my head to meet Riley’s face. His smile was sympathetic and understanding. Exactly what I needed.  
    “Okay,” I breathed, pushing out of his arms. I ran a hand through my hair, feeling worn out even though I’d done virtually nothing today.  
    My hand instinctively reached for the key on my neck. I drew it out from my shirt and twisted it in my fingers anxiously. As I spun the black steel key, I began to remember the epicenter of all my problems.
    There was so much on my mind right now that it was easy to lose focus. I was always preoccupied with my job as Sawyer’s engineer, watching for Hellions and attacking pirates, and looking after Abby. It had been months since I was able to do anything surrounding the key, and the machine my parents tried to build.
    I needed to concentrate on shutting the Breach, if it was indeed possible. Anything else would just have to wait until the Hellions could no longer threaten our meager existence. But where to start?
    The answer came almost as soon as I thought about the problem.
    “I need to go home,” I said.
    “Home?” Riley asked, hearing the thoughts I meant to keep to myself.  
    “My parents house, where I grew up,” I explained. “I meant to go back and look around, but with everything that happened...”
    Riley put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it gently. “What do you think will be there?”
    “My mother kept journals and notebooks to help her work. She might have left clues about the machine she and my father were building.”
    He hesitated. “It’s been ten years, Claire. Do you really expect those journals to still be there?”
    “I don’t know,” I sighed. I turned from Riley and took a short breath to relax. “I have no starting point. I don’t know where their ship is or if they had some kind of secret warehouse or anything. But I have to start looking.”
    I walked to the railing of the starboard deck and looked down. Gemma and Nash were working together to disperse the supplies and ration the food. Sawyer was cleaning his flintlock, and if the weapon-covered table behind him was any indication, he was just getting started.
    “The Hellions will be back,” I said. “It worries me that they’ve been waiting so long. We have to find this machine and close the Breach before they return.”
    “Then we will,” Riley assured, sounding close. “As soon as we find it, I’ll take you to the Breach.”
    I looked at him. “You know where it is?”
    Riley nodded slowly. “My father was part of the last Sky Guard resistance. There weren’t many of them. They had a map they used to mark off where the Breach was and how to attack it. I was fifteen but my father wouldn’t allow me to come, so after he left on a big mission, I memorized the map.” He looked at his feet. “They never came back that night.”
    “I’m sorry, Riley,” I said. I understood what it was like, looking at your family desperately, wondering if you would see them again, and the wrenching pain in your soul when that wonder took a turn for the worst.
    “After that I tried to get to the Breach myself,” he went on. He laughed bitterly. “Not the best idea I’ve ever had.”
    A haunted look crossed his face, something I’d seen in Abby more frequently. He was probably thinking about all the horrendous sights and terrible tortures he endured during his two years of imprisonment on the Behemoth . As soon as I saw that expression, it disappeared, and the casual, kind Riley I knew was back in place.
    “Don’t know about you,” he prompted with a grin, “but I could go for a spar right now.”
    What he really wanted was a distraction. Truth be told, I wanted the same thing. I nodded, hoping it would work, and doubting it all the same.

    ***

    “You need to attack,” Riley repeated.
    I held the wooden training sword in front of me, which was feeling ten times heavier in my tired hands. I’d been training with Riley for almost an hour, and hadn’t landed a single strike