“No—I’m not.” He glanced down the hall and then shifted closer. “I want a chance to know you, Aria,” he said, low and urgent. “I’m trying to prove I deserve it.”
“And I’m trying to believe you!” Her voice rose, sounding shrill and unfamiliar to her own ears. She backed down the hall, suddenly desperate to retreat.
Loran didn’t stop her.
He watched as she spun and sprinted away.
30
PEREGRINE
Move, Tider! Hurry up!”
Struck between the shoulders, Perry stumbled forward, crashing into a man rushing the other way. Pain tore through him, sharpest in his ribs. He recovered his balance and glanced back.
The man escorting him out of the Komodo was a giant. Perry’s height, but built like a mountain, his eyebrows pierced with metal studs. “You want to untie my hands? I’d walk faster with them free.”
The giant sneered. “You think I’m an idiot? Shut up and keep moving.”
Slowing his steps as much as he could, Perry scanned every hall and chamber for Aria and Roar. For Cinder. Sable’s men poured through the narrow halls, but he saw far fewer of Hess’s men.
Perry passed a room with a group of Guardians. They looked panicked and lost, like the rest of the world shared a secret. He shook his head. His gut feeling had been dead-on. Sable had beaten Hess at his own game. Perry had known as soon as the giant had stepped to his chamber minutes ago.
“Get up, maggot,” the Horn soldier had taunted, flinging a bundle of ragged clothes at Perry. “Put those on. It’s time to go.”
It had been far too soon. Only an hour had passed, not the four Hess said he’d needed.
Now the giant’s voice boomed at Perry’s back. “Faster! Move your feet, or I’ll knock you out and drag you outside!”
Perry didn’t see how that would help. He’d be harder to carry; that seemed obvious.
Abruptly, the giant pushed him through a door. Perry stumbled halfway down a ramp before it hit him: after days in the Komodo, he was finally outside.
He pulled the cool air into his lungs as he took a few steps over the loose dirt. The night smelled of smoke from fires that smoldered on the distant hills. His skin prickled with the familiar feel of the Aether. The sky churned red and blue and terrifying—a fearsome sight, but worlds better than being trapped in a small chamber.
Hovers lined the field before him, just as when they’d arrived, but the Komodo looked different from the coiled snake he’d seen before. Now it stretched backward and forward, unspooled, its links running in a straight line.
“Peregrine!”
Sable stood with a cluster of men a short distance away. Perry didn’t have to be pushed to walk over to him.
“Ready to see the Still Blue?” Sable smiled and lifted a hand to the sky. “Eager to leave all this behind?”
“Where are they?” Perry asked, anger burning in his blood.
“Cinder is loaded up and waiting for you. You’ll see him in a moment. As for the others . . . Roar is an aggravation at best, but only a fool would leave behind such a pretty girl as Aria. She’ll be here soon. When this is all behind us, I hope to get to know her better.”
“If you touch her, I will rip you to pieces with my hands.”
Sable laughed. “If they weren’t tied behind your back, that might actually concern me. Take him,” he said to the giant, who hauled Perry away.
Across the field, hundreds of people loaded crates onto Hovers. They were a mix of Horns who seemed to know little about preparing Hovers, Guardians who were trying to help, and Guardians who had no idea what was happening. Angry shouts volleyed back and forth. Total chaos.
As the giant pushed him toward a Dragonwing, he noticed armed men along the roofline of the Komodo. Everywhere he looked, he saw firepower. Dwellers and Outsiders taking sniper positions. He couldn’t tell whether they were working together or in opposition. It didn’t seem clear to them, either.
He climbed into the Hovercraft, taking a final look across the crowds massed along the runway, hoping to see Aria and Roar.
“Keep going, Tider,” said the giant. He struck Perry between the shoulder blades, sending him stumbling into the Dragonwing.
Perry moved to the cockpit. Cinder slumped in one of the four seats, looking almost asleep. He’d been given warm clothes, and a gray cap fitted snugly over his head. Off the Dweller drugs, he already looked healthier than hours earlier.
Seeing Perry, relief flared in his eyes. “They told me you were coming. What took you so long?”
“Damn good question,” growled the giant. He pushed Perry into the seat beside Cinder.
A Dweller peered back from the pilot seat, his face beaded with sweat and drawn with fear—no doubt owing to the gun pointed at his head by the man in the adjacent seat.
“If it isn’t Peregrine of the Tides.” The man with the gun leered, showing a mouthful of brown teeth as he smiled. “You don’t look like all that much.”
“He isn’t,” said the giant.
“Heard you got your wings clipped,” said Brown Teeth, his pistol never leaving the pilot’s head.
As they laughed, Perry took in the situation, noticing the pilot’s hands were free. They’d have to be, for him to fly the Hover. Perry drew a breath, hoping to find something in his temper besides fear.
“I’m going to tie your feet,” said the giant. “If you try to kick me, I will put a bullet through your foot, and then I’ll start hurting you. Understand?”
“I understand,” Perry said, though he didn’t really.
When the giant knelt, he kicked.
The giant’s head whipped back, his teeth snapping. He fell in a massive heap, wedged in the aisle between the seats.
The pilot reacted quickly, shoving away the Horn’s pistol. The soldier lunged, and the two men fell on each other, a jumble of gray and black wrestling in the close space in front of the controls.
Perry stood, hunching in the low cabin.
“What are you going to do?” Cinder asked.
“I don’t know yet.” Perry didn’t see a knife or tool he could use to free his hands. His options limited, he turned back to the fight and waited. When he saw his opening, he drove his knee into the Horn soldier’s head.
The man slumped, staggered for a long second. Long enough for the pilot to scramble to the floor and grab the fallen pistol.
He swung the weapon from Perry to the Horn soldier. His lip bled freely, dripping onto his gray uniform, and fear iced his temper, sharp and white at the edges of Perry’s vision.
“Easy. Easy, Dweller.” Perry could almost hear the pilot’s struggle. Friend or foe? Enemy or ally?
“You’re their leader,” he said, through labored breaths.
For a second, Perry thought he was being mistaken for Sable. Then he realized he wasn’t. The pilot knew of him.
“That’s right. I’m going to help,” he said, keeping his voice steady. “But I need my hands. I need you to cut me loose. . . . Can you do that?”
31
ARIA
As Aria sprinted through the narrow corridors, she watched the Komodo unravel. Dwellers and Horns pushed past her in a frenzy, their panicked voices carrying to her ears. No one knew what was happening. Only one thing was clear: the Hovers were leaving, and everyone was desperate to reach them.
Except her.
She ran, darting past people, finally reaching her chamber. The door was open. She shot inside and stared at the empty bunks.
No Soren or Roar.
Aria cursed. Where were they? She dove back into the corridors. Rounding a corner, she almost ran smack into Roar.
He yanked her close, his voice soft but scolding. “Where have you been? I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
“How did you get out?” she asked.
“Really?” Soren barely slowed to a jog. “You two can’t talk about this later?”
Roar reached behind his back and handed her a pistol. “Hess came for us,” he said, answering her question. “He’s planning something. He’s trying to put a stop to Sable.”
Soren took them to a heavy door, swinging it open. A cool gust swept over her as she darted outside, free of the Komodo at last.
Crowds milled by the fleet of Hovers. Guardians and Horns postured around each other, occupying the same field but standing separate, groups of gray and black. Their voices were low and warning, snarls before the bite. Funnels of Aether flashed in all directions, scoring bright lines down the night sky, but the Komodo sat under a pocket of less-threatening currents—for now.
“Where’s Perry?” she asked as they moved into the throng. She couldn’t see over the heads around her.
Roar scanned the field, shaking his head. “I don’t see him. He’s probably in a Hover already with Cinder. But I know who can tell us.”
Sable.
A sudden cry rose from the crowd, and the earth began to tremble, vibrating beneath her feet. She looked up, wondering if she’d misjudged the Aether. Blue and fire-red tempests swirled above, but she didn’t see any funnels forming.
“The Komodo!” Soren yelled.
Aria didn’t understand. People scattered away, shouting as they searched for cover. As the crowd around her thinned, she saw the Komodo—saw segments of it. The command center had disengaged into individual units. Black and hunched and beetle-like, each huge segment rolled on their tracks, the roar of their engines shaking the air.
Aria’s head whipped to the other end of the clearing. The Komodo units were surrounding the runway. On top of each one, she saw gun turrets rising up, their barrels aiming at the Hovers, and snipers now stood in perches along the rooflines.
Hess. He wasn’t going to let Sable take them without a fight.
Aria grabbed Soren’s arm. “This is your father’s plan? To shoot us?”
He shook his head. “Not us. He has to send a message to Sable.”
“We’re all together, Soren! Look around you.”
“It could work! But he better be prepared to—”
“Sable!” Hess yelled.
At the sound of his father’s raised voice, Soren took off running. Aria followed, threading through the crowd, hoping Roar was still behind her.
She broke through the press and arrived at the edge of a circle of people. Hess stood at the center. Alone.
He wore full military dress. He held a gun, and he was also wearing a Smarteye.
“Sable!” he yelled again, searching the people around him. “I know you’re here! Pay attention! Watch what happens when you force my hand!”
An explosion sent Aria flying backward. She fell to the dirt, the wind rushing out of her lungs, stunning her for an instant that went on forever. She rolled into a ball and slammed her hands over her ears as she gasped, struggling to recover her breath. The sound of the explosion had blown out her eardrums, and pain lanced into her skull. She couldn’t hear herself coughing. She heard nothing but the rush of her own blood, her own heartbeat.
Someone grabbed her arm. She lurched away, then saw that it was Roar. Fire reflected in his dark eyes as he spoke words she couldn’t hear. A massive cloud of black smoke rose behind him, blocking out the Aether.