Perry’s throat tightened as they rode away. Weeks ago, he’d planned to leave his tribe behind, but now it was much harder than he’d expected. Harder than it had ever felt before.
His thoughts turned to Kirra as the afternoon wore on. She’d been after Cinder all along. Her questions about the Croven and his scarred hand hadn’t been about him. She’d been probing him for information, waiting for the right time—the right way—to snatch Cinder. She’d deceived Perry, just like Vale had.
Sable was behind this. Perry didn’t want to think about what use he had in mind for Cinder. He should’ve trusted his instincts. He should’ve sent Kirra away the day she’d shown up.
Kirra’s tracks moved north on a well-worn trader’s route. They’d been riding a few hours when Perry glimpsed movement in the distance. Adrenaline sparked through him. He spurred his horse, shooting forward, hoping to cut off Lark and Forest.
His stomach seized when he saw that it wasn’t either of Kirra’s men.
Twig pulled his horse alongside. “What do you see?”
Waves of numbness rolled through Perry. He couldn’t believe his eyes. “It’s Roar,” he said. “And Aria.”
Twig cursed. “Are you serious?”
Perry’s impulse was to call out to them. They were both Auds. If he raised his voice, they’d hear him. It was what he would have done once. Roar was his best friend. And Aria was …
What was she to him? What were they to each other?
“What do you want to do?” Twig asked.
Perry wanted to run to her, because she’d come back. And he wanted to hurt her, because she’d left.
“Perry?” Twig said, jarring him back.
He urged his horse on. They rode closer, and the moment came when Aria heard the horses. Her head turned in his direction, but her eyes remained unfocused, unseeing in the dark. He watched her lips form words he couldn’t hear and then heard Twig’s answer beside him.
“It’s me, Twig.” He paused, sending Perry a worried glance. “Perry’s with me too.”
Messages passed between Auds. Heard only by Aud ears.
Perry watched as Aria looked at Roar, her face tensing in a look of plain regret. No. It was more than regret. It was dread. After a month of being apart, she dreaded seeing him.
She reached out and took Roar’s hand, and he knew they were passing a message between them. Perry couldn’t believe his eyes. They didn’t think he could see them, but he did. He saw everything.
He was in fog as they reached each other. He dismounted and felt like he was floating. Like he was seeing everything from a distance.
He didn’t know what was happening. Why Aria wasn’t in his arms. Why there was no greeting or smile on Roar’s face. Then Aria’s temper hit him, and it was so heavy and dark that he felt himself sway, overcome by it.
“Perry …” She looked at Roar, her eyes blurring.
“What is it?” Perry asked, but he already knew. He couldn’t believe it. Everything Kirra had said—everything he’d tried not to believe about Roar and Aria—was true.
He looked at Roar. “What did you do?”
Roar wouldn’t meet his eyes, and his face was white.
Rage ignited inside of him. He lunged and shoved Roar, swinging, curses pouring out of him.
Aria shot forward. “Perry, stop!”
Roar was too quick. He gave ground, and trapped Perry by the arms. “It’s Liv,” he said. “Perry … it’s Liv.”
38
ARIA
Finally Roar spoke, and Aria’s heart broke at his words.
“I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t stop Sable. I’m sorry, Perry. It happened so fast. She’s gone. I lost her, Perry. She’s gone.”
“What are you talking about?” Perry said, shoving Roar away. He looked at Aria, confusion flashing in his green eyes. “Why is he saying that?”
Aria didn’t want to answer. She didn’t want to make it real for him, but she had to. “It’s the truth,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
Perry blinked at her. “You mean … my sister?” The tone in his voice—vulnerable, tender—destroyed her. “What happened?”
As quickly as she could, she explained Hess and Sable’s deal to reach the Still Blue together, and about Talon as well. She hated to do it, but he needed to know Talon’s life was in danger. Liv, she saved for last. She felt light-headed as she spoke, breathless and detached, like when she’d been invisible in the Realms.
She hadn’t spoken for long, but when she finished, the woods felt darker, fading into the night. Perry looked from her to Roar, tears brimming in his eyes. She watched him battle with himself, struggling for focus. Struggling to keep himself together. “Talon is trapped in Reverie?” he said finally.
“Talon and thousands of people,” she answered. “They’ll run out of oxygen if we don’t get them out. We’re their only chance.”
He was moving to his horse before she’d finished speaking. “Go after Cinder,” Perry told Twig.
Aria had forgotten Twig was there. “What happened to Cinder?”
Perry swung into his saddle. “The Horns took him.” He rode up and held his hand down to her. “Let’s go!”
Aria glanced at Roar. Whatever she’d expected of today, leaving him hadn’t been part of it.
“I’ll go with Twig,” he said to her. The tension between him and Perry was still there.
Quickly she hugged Roar. Then she took Perry’s hand. He pulled her up behind him, and the horse began to move before she’d settled her weight.
Aria reached out instinctively, wrapping her arms around him as the horse galloped into the woods. Liv was forgotten for now. Roar and Cinder, too. Everything except Talon.
She could feel the ridges of Perry’s ribs through his shirt. The shift of his muscles. He was real and close, just as she’d wanted him to be for weeks—for months. But nothing had changed. He still felt far away.
39
PEREGRINE
Perry pushed the horse toward Reverie beneath a night sky writhing with Aether. Snatches of the horizon showed through the trees, pulsing with the light of funnels. They were heading south, right into the heart of a storm, but he had no choice. Talon was trapped.
Images of his sister flashed before his eyes. Senseless things. Liv pinning him down, when they were young, to run a brush through his hair. Liv wrapped in Roar’s arms at the beach, laughing. Liv arguing with Vale over the arrangement with Sable, almost going to blows. He couldn’t accept that he’d never see her again.
Talon was all he had now. He was the only family Perry had left. He glanced at Aria’s arms, wrapped tight around him. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe he had more.
As they neared Reverie, a sharp scent carried on a warm gust, rustling through the trees. It brought a chemical taste to his tongue that he remembered from the night he’d broken into the Pod in the fall. Though he couldn’t see Reverie yet, he knew it was burning.
Soon after, the horse locked beneath him as they crested a hill, rearing up, nickering in terror. The broad valley that spread before him was a sight unlike anything Perry had ever seen. They’d ridden for hours—it was sometime in the middle of the night—but Aether lit up the flat expanse. Hundreds of funnels lashed down from the sky, leaving bright red trails across the desert. Perry tightened his grip on the reins as the horse stamped and tossed its head. No amount of training would quiet its instincts now.
Terror speared through him as the rounded form of the Pod came into focus. It sat directly beneath the thick of the storm, spewing clouds of smoke as black as coal. Much of it was concealed, but he remembered its shape from other times he’d been there. An enormous central dome like a hill, surrounded by smaller domes that branched off like the rays of the sun. Somewhere in there, he’d find Talon.
The horse wouldn’t settle. Perry turned in the saddle. “We can’t ride any farther.”
Aria jumped to the ground, no hesitation. “Come on!”