Megan Crewe - A Sky Unbroken

A SKY UNBROKEN

A SKY UNBROKEN

Book 3 of the Earth & Sky trilogy

Megan Crewe

RAZORBILL

an imprint of Penguin Canada Books Inc., a Penguin Random House Company

Published by the Penguin Group

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Published in Razorbill hardcover by Penguin Canada Books Inc., 2015

Simultaneously published in the United States by Skyscape, New York

Copyright Megan Crewe, 2015

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Publishers note: This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover design by Krista Vossen

Cover photos: (trees) Fuse/Getty Images; (planet) Mopic/Shutterstock;

(flames) KateJoanna/Shutterstock; (stars) Larry Landolfi/Getty Images

Interior design by Girl Friday Productions

Author photo by Chris Blanchenot

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Crewe, Megan, author

A sky unbroken / Megan Crewe.

(Earth & sky trilogy ; book 3)

ISBN 978-0-670-06814-2 (bound)

I. Title.

PS8605.R482S59 2015 jC813'.6 C2015-904799-4

eBook ISBN 978-0-14-319830-7

Visit the Penguin Canada website at www.penguin.ca

Special and corporate bulk purchase rates available; please see www.penguin.ca/corporatesales or call 1-800-810-3104.

To Chris, with every sort of love

Skylar

I wake up in a darkened room stiff and aching, and alone.

When I open my eyes, theres nothing to see. Not a speck of light. The floor Im slumped on is cool and hard. A familiar mineral smell laces the air. I grope out with my hands and feet and find walls on all sides. The space isnt much bigger than my bedroom closet at home.

Home.

A wave of fire rushing through Earths atmosphere, searing across the planets surface as I watch from above. Flaming red-and-violet clouds roiling in its wake. Every particle of living blue and green burnt away.

My stomach heaves. I tilt my head, gagging on acid-soured spit. Then I push myself away, off the floor, until my back smacks the wall behind me. Sitting there, I wipe my mouth. My legs tremble. I dont think I could stand up if I wanted to.

My home is gone. My house, my street, my school, the park where I ran cross-country practice, Michlin Street with its cafes and the pie shop and Angelas favorite thrift store and

Angela. Mom and Dad. Lisa. Evan. My grandparents. Every classmate and teacher. Every one of my neighbors. Everyone...

The horror of it swells inside me, suffocating me. My eyes burn.

Gone. Theyre all gone.

My mind balkstwists away from the thought and skitters around the fringes like a mouse trapped in a cage with an elephant. Theres no room for the full truth of it inside me. But theres nothing else. Just me, alone in the dark. I lower my head and rock.

I dont realize Im crying until the sobs start hitching out of me, tears dripping off my cheeks, salt on my lips. A strange, low sound rips up from my chest, as if my body is trying to drown out the truth. As if, if I drown it out, it will stop being true. I squeeze my arms around my knees, still rocking.

No. No. No. I refuse to accept it.

Im not sure how long its been when I come back to myself. Im suddenly aware of the rawness in my throat and on my face where Ive rubbed it against my jeans, of the dampness seeped down the collar of my shirt, and of the multiplying threes spinning out like an echo in the back of my head: 3 times 19,683 is 59,049. 3 times 59,049 is 177,147. 3 times 177,147 is...

The knowledge of whats happened is still there, looming like a distant mountainside behind my consciousness. I hold off from looking closer. As long as its over there, tangible but separate from the rest of my thoughts, I feel more like myself. I cant deal with the enormity of this catastrophe right now. Id get further trying to factor infinity.

Instead, I drag in breaths slow and even, and press my palms against the cool floor. Theres a hint of a tremor in the surface beneath me. Im still on a ship, I think. A ship thats moving rather quickly, even by Kemyate standards, for that tremor to be perceptible.

I was on a ship when it happened. Tabzis brothers pleasure jetter. In the navigation room, staring through the view screen at those churning clouds...

Win said the bomb used the same technology that led to the accidental destruction of his planet and forced the Kemyate survivors onto the space station orbiting above it millennia ago. I traveled down to their former planet as part of a mining expedition. There wasnt the slightest sign of life, just dull brown land, dull gray water. Thats what Earth must look like now.

My gut lurches, and I shy away from the image. Not going there. I have to deal with whats happening right now first.

My impressions of what followed the detonation are fragmented. A squad of Kemyate police burst in with Thlo in their midst. The six of us stared at them, and at her, the woman whod led our group of rebels to that point. At her impenetrable eyes as she flicked her hand toward the Enforcers. I remember the out-of-tune twang of a blaster and Isiss body crumpling, black-and-red curls scattering; Britta leaping up and shot too. Thlo gesturing to me. Take care of that one.

Win threw himself in front of me and caught that blast, but it didnt matter. As I reached for him where he was sprawled and gasping, another crackle hit the back of my head.

Nothing after that but blackness.

I have no sense of how long I was out. Obviously I was moved from the navigation roombut how far? Am I even on the same ship?

And where are the others? The Enforcers shot to numb, not to kill... While I was watching, at least. They could all be gone too. Tabzi and Emmer, who I hardly knew, but who came through when we needed them most. Isis, who took charge in Thlos absence in her usual mellow but focused way. Britta, who risked her life with me, distracting the ships that came to stop us, smiling all the way. And Win. The one person Ive been able to count on all along, who was protecting me right until the end.

I hug myself, feeling the echo of his embrace. The last time I held him, I knew it was supposed to be the last. I was supposed to leave and never see him again. But at least I was going to know he was okay, working toward the future hed dreamed of.