Brooke

1 ARIA

Aria lurched upright, the echo of gunshots ringing in her ears.

Disoriented, she blinked at her surroundings, taking in the canvas walls, the two bed pallets, and the stack of battered storage trunks, finally recognizing Perry’s tent.

Pain pulsed steadily in her right arm. She looked down at the white bandage wrapped from her shoulder to her wrist, dread swirling in her stomach.

A Guardian had shot her in Reverie.

She licked her dry lips, tasting the bitterness of pain medication. Just try it, she told herself. How hard could it be?

Aches stabbed deep in her bicep as she tried to make a fist. Her fingers gave only the slightest twitch. It was like her mind had lost the ability to speak with her hand, the message vanishing somewhere along her arm.

Climbing to her feet, she swayed in place for a moment, waiting for a wave of dizziness to pass. She’d come to this tent soon after she and Perry had arrived, and hadn’t left since. But she couldn’t stay there a second longer. What was the point, if she wasn’t getting better?

Her boots sat on top of one of the trunks. Determined to find Perry, she slipped them on—a challenge, one-handed. “Stupid things,” she muttered. She tugged harder, the ache in her arm becoming a burn.

“Oh, don’t blame the poor boots.”

Molly, the tribe healer, stepped through the tent flaps with a lamp in hand. Soft and gray-haired, she looked nothing like Aria’s mother had, but they had similar demeanors. Steady and dependable.

Aria jammed her feet into her boots—nothing like an audience to motivate—and straightened.

Molly set the lamp down on a trunk and came over. “Are you sure you should be up and about?”

Aria swept her hair behind her ear and tried to slow her breathing. Cold sweat had broken out along her neck. “I’m sure I’ll go insane if I stay here any longer.”

Molly smiled, her full cheeks glowing in the lamplight. “I’ve heard that very comment a few times today.” She pressed a rough-skinned hand to Aria’s cheek. “Your fever’s down, but you’re due for more medication.”

“No.” Aria shook her head. “I’m fine. I’m tired of being asleep.”

Asleep wasn’t really the right word. For the past few days, she had a few murky recollections of surfacing from a black abyss for medicine and sips of broth. Sometimes Perry was there, holding her and whispering in her ear. When he’d spoken, she’d seen the glow of embers. Other than that, there’d been nothing but darkness—or nightmares.

Molly took Aria’s numb hand and squeezed. Aria felt nothing, but as Molly probed higher, she sucked in a breath, her stomach clenching.

“You’ve had some nerve damage,” Molly said. “I suppose you’re figuring that out for yourself.”

“But it’ll heal, won’t it? Eventually?”

“I care for you too much to give false hope, Aria. The truth is, I don’t know. Marron and I did the best we could. We were able to save the limb, at least. For a while it looked like we might have to remove it.”

Aria drew away, turning toward the shadows as the words sank in. Her arm had almost been removed. Taken off, like some expendable part. An accessory. A hat or a scarf. Had she really come that close to waking up and finding a piece of herself missing?

“It’s the arm that was poisoned,” she said, tucking it close to her side. “It wasn’t much to start with anyway.” Her Marking, the half-finished tattoo that would have established her as an Aud, was the ugliest thing she’d ever seen. “Will you show me around, Molly?”

Aria didn’t wait for an answer. The urge to see Perry—and to forget about her arm—was overwhelming. Ducking through the tent flaps, she came to a dead stop outside.

She looked up, overcome by the sheer presence of the cave, a hefty immensity that felt both close and everywhere. Stalactites of every size emerged from the darkness above, darkness unlike what she’d experienced in her medicated haze. That had been empty, an absence. This darkness had sound and volume. It felt full and alive, droning low and constant in her ears.

She drew a deep breath. The cool air smelled brackish and smoky, the scents so strong she could taste them.

“For most of us, the darkness is the hardest part,” Molly said, coming to her side.

Around them, in neat rows, Aria saw more tents, ragged ghosts in the gloom. Sounds carried from farther off, where torches flickered—the crunch of a cart wheeling over stone, the steady trickle of water, the pleading bleat of a goat—all echoed frenetically in the cave, assaulting her sensitive ears.

“When you can’t see more than forty paces off,” Molly continued, “it’s easy to feel trapped. We aren’t, thank the skies. It hasn’t come to that yet.”

“And the Aether?” Aria asked.

“Worse. Storms every day since you arrived, some right on top of us.” Molly threaded her arm through Aria’s healthy one. “We’re lucky to have this place. Sometimes it’s not easy to feel that way, though.”

An image of Reverie crumbling to dust came to Aria’s mind. Her home was gone, and the Tide compound had been abandoned too.

Molly was right. This was better than nothing.

“I suppose you want to see Peregrine,” Molly said, leading Aria past a row of tents.

Immediately, Aria thought. But she said, simply, “Yes.”

“You’ll need to wait a little while, I’m afraid. We had word of people entering the territory. He’s gone out with Gren to meet them. I’m hoping it’s Roar and that he’s brought Cinder with him.”

Just hearing Roar’s name brought a rawness to Aria’s throat. She worried about him. She’d only been separated from him for a few days, but it felt like too long.

They came to an open area, wide as the clearing at the heart of the Tide compound. At the center spread a wooden platform surrounded by tables and chairs—all packed with people gathered around lamps. Dressed in browns and grays, they blended into the dimness, but their chatter drifted toward her, their voices tinged with anxiety.

“We’re only allowed to leave the cave when it’s safe outside,” Molly said, noticing Aria’s expression. “Today there are fires burning close by and a storm just south, so we’ve been stuck here.”

“It’s not safe to be outside? You said Perry was out there.”

Molly winked. “Yes, but he gets to break his own rules.”

Aria shook her head. As Blood Lord, he needed to take risks, more like.

By the stage, people began to notice them. Sun-bleached and salt-scrubbed, the Tides were an aptly named tribe. Aria spotted Reef and a few of his strongest warriors, a group known as the Six. She recognized the three brothers: Hyde, Hayden, and Straggler, the youngest. It didn’t surprise her that Hyde, a Seer like his brothers, spotted her first. He lifted a hand in a tentative greeting.

Aria returned a shaky wave. She barely knew him, or any of these people. She’d only spent a few days with Perry’s tribe before she left the Tide compound. Now, standing before these almost strangers, she felt a powerful longing to see her people, but she didn’t. Not a single person she and Perry had rescued from Reverie was there.

“Where are the Dwellers?” she asked.

“In a separate portion of the cave,” Molly said.

“Why?”

But Molly’s attention had moved to Reef, who left his men and stalked over. In the darkness, his features looked even harsher, and the massive scar that cut from his nose to his ear appeared more sinister.

“You’re finally up,” he said. His tone made it sound like Aria had been lazing around. Perry cared for this man, she reminded herself. Trusted him. But Reef had never made any attempt to befriend her.

She stared into his eyes. “Being injured is boring.”

“You’re needed,” he said, ignoring her sarcasm.

Molly wagged a finger at him. “No, you don’t, Reef. She just woke up and needs a chance to get acclimated. Don’t put this on her so soon.”

Reef squared his shoulders, his thick eyebrows drawing together. “When should I tell her then, Molly? Every day brings a new storm. Every hour, our food stores dwindle. Every minute, someone else comes closer to going mad inside this rock. If there is a better time for her to know the truth, I’d like to know when it is.” He leaned in, a few of his thick braids falling forward. “War rules, Molly. We do what’s needed, when it’s needed, and right now that means she needs to know what’s happening.”

Reef’s words shook any last wisp of fuzziness from Aria’s mind. They brought her back to where she’d been a week ago, alert and tense, a little breathless, with a sense of desperation curling inside her like a stomachache.

“Tell me what happened,” she said.

Reef turned his intense gaze on Aria. “Better if I show you,” he said, striding away.

She followed him from the gathering area, deeper into the cave, where it grew darker and quieter and darker still, her dread mounting with every step. Molly let out a sigh of exasperation, but she came along.

They wove through the melting formations—a forest of stone that dripped from the ceiling and rose up from the ground, gradually molding together—until Aria walked through a natural corridor. Here and there, the tunnel opened to other passageways, which breathed cool damp drafts against her face.

“Down that way is the storage area for medicines and supplies,” Molly said, gesturing to the left. “Everything that’s not food or animals. Those are kept in the caverns at the south end.” Her voice sounded a little too cheerful, like she was trying to compensate for Reef’s gruff manner. She swung the lamp gently as she walked, causing the shadows to tilt up and back along the cramped space. Aria found herself growing slightly light-headed and seasick. Or cavesick.

Where were they taking her?

She had never known darkness like this. Outside there was always Aether, or sunlight, or moonlight. In the Pod, within the protected walls of Reverie, lights always blazed. Always. This was new, this suffocating pool. She felt the pitch black fill her lungs with every breath. She was drinking the dark. Wading through it.

“Behind that curtain is the Battle Room,” Molly continued. “It’s a smaller cavern where we brought one of the trestle tables from the cookhouse. Perry meets with people in there to discuss matters of importance. The poor boy hardly ever leaves.”

Walking silently ahead of them, Reef shook his head.

“I worry about him, Reef,” Molly said, with plain irritation. “Someone has to.”

“And you think I don’t?”

Aria worried too—more than either of them—but she bit her lip, leaving them to argue.

“Well, you’re good at hiding it, if so,” Molly shot back. “All you seem to do is lecture him about what he’s doing wrong.”

Reef glanced over his shoulder. “Should I start slapping him on the back and telling him he’s wonderful? Will that do us any good?”

“You could try it once in a while, yes.”

Aria stopped listening to them. The hair on her arms lifted as her ears latched on to new sounds. Moans. Whimpers. Sickly sounds that swept toward her through the tunnel. A chorus of need.

She broke away from Molly and Reef, clutching her wounded arm to her side as she rushed ahead. Rounding a bend in the corridor, she arrived in a large, dim cavern, lit along the perimeter by lamps.

Spread across the floor on blankets lay dozens of people in varying states of consciousness. Their faces were ghastly white against their grays—the same clothes she’d worn her entire life until she’d been cast out of Reverie.

“They took ill immediately after you all arrived,” Molly said, catching up to her. “You went to Perry’s tent, and they came here, and that’s how it’s been. Perry said this same thing happened to you when you first came out of Reverie. It’s the shock to your immune systems. There were inoculations onboard the Hover you arrived in. A supply for thirty people—but there are forty-two here. We administered equal amounts to everyone, at Perry’s request. He said it’s what you’d have wanted.”

Aria couldn’t respond. Later, when she could think clearly again, she would recall Molly’s every word. She’d consider the way Reef watched her with his arms crossed, like this was her problem to fix. Now she moved further inside, her heart stuck in her throat.

Most of the people she saw were still as death. Others shook with fever, their complexions sallow, almost green. She didn’t know which was worse.

She searched the faces around for her friends—Caleb and Rune and—

“Aria . . . over here.”

She followed the voice. A pang of guilt hit her when she spotted Soren; he hadn’t come to mind. Aria stepped past the quaking bundles, kneeling at his side.

Soren had always been so burly, but now the thickness in his shoulders and neck had deflated. Even wrapped in a blanket she could tell. She could see it in his hollow cheeks and sunken eyes, which were heavy, half-lidded, but focused on her.

“Nice of you to come by,” he said, clearly more lucid than the others. “I’m a little envious you got private accommodations. Pays to know the right people, I guess.”

Aria didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t absorb this level of suffering. Her throat was choked with it. Tight with the need to help. To change this somehow.

Soren blinked tiredly. “I can see why you love the outside,” he added. “It’s mega champ out here.”

2 PEREGRINE

You think it’s Roar and Twig?” Gren asked, pulling his horse alongside Perry’s.

Perry inhaled, searching for traces of the riders who’d been spotted earlier. He smelled nothing but smoke.

Ten minutes ago he’d left the cave, eager for fresh air. For light and the feeling of openness and movement. What he’d gotten was a thick gray haze from the morning’s fires blanketing everything, and the stinging sensation of the Aether like soft pinpricks over his skin.

“I’d be surprised if it was someone else,” he replied. “Hardly anyone besides me and Roar knows this trail exists.”

He had hunted these woods with Roar since they were kids. They had killed their first buck together not far from here. Perry knew every bend on this path, which cut through land that had once been his father’s, then his brother’s, and then—half a year ago when he’d become Blood Lord—his.

It had changed, though. In the past months, Aether storms had started fires that sheared through the hills, leaving wide, charred stretches. The temperature was too cold for late spring, and the smells of the wood were different too. The scents of life—earth, grass, and game—seemed buried beneath the acrid stench of smoke.

Gren tugged his brown cap down. “What are the odds they have Cinder with them?” he asked, a note of desperation bleeding into his voice. Cinder had been kidnapped while under Gren’s watch, and he hadn’t forgiven himself.

“Good,” Perry said. “Roar always comes through.”

He thought of Cinder, of how weak and frail the boy had been when he’d been taken. Perry didn’t want to think about what was happening to him in Sable’s and Hess’s hands. They had joined forces, Horns and Dwellers, and abducted Cinder for his ability to control the Aether. He was key to reaching the Still Blue, it seemed. Perry just wanted him back.

“Perry.” Gren reined in his horse. He angled his head, turning to better catch sounds with his keen ears. “Two horses. Riding hard right toward us.”

Perry couldn’t see anyone yet as he scanned the trail ahead, but it had to be them. He whistled to let Roar know he was there. Seconds passed as he waited for Roar’s answering call.

None came.

Perry cursed. Roar would have heard and whistled back.

He swept his bow off his shoulder and nocked an arrow, his gaze never leaving the bend in the path. Gren drew his bow as well, and they fell silent, bracing for anything.

“Now,” Gren murmured.

Perry heard the horses thundering closer. He drew his bowstring back, aiming at the trail, as Roar tore around a stand of birches.

Perry lowered his bow, trying to sort out what was happening.

Roar approached at a gallop, his black mount kicking up clods of dirt. His expression was focused—cold—and it didn’t change when he spotted Perry.

Twig, one of the Six like Gren, rounded the bend behind him. Like Roar, he rode alone. Perry’s hope of getting Cinder back crashed.

Roar rode hard until the last moment, and then checked his mount sharply.

Perry stared at him, unable to speak, the silence stretching between them. He hadn’t expected to look at Roar and think Liv, though he should have. She had belonged to Roar too. The loss landed like a blow to Perry’s stomach, as hard as it had days ago when he’d first learned.

“Good you’re back safe, Roar,” he said finally. His voice sounded strained, but he got the words out at least.

Roar’s horse stamped in agitation, tossing its head, but Roar’s gaze held steady.

Perry knew that hostile look. It had just never been directed his way.

“Where have you been?” Roar asked.

Everything about that question was wrong. The accusing tone in Roar’s voice. His implication that Perry had failed in some way.

Where had he been? Looking after four hundred people who were withering away in a cave.

Perry ignored the question, asking his own. “Did you find Hess and Sable? Was Cinder with them?”

“I found them,” Roar said coldly. “And, yes. They have Cinder. What are you going to do about it?”

Then he put his heels to his horse and rode away.

They returned to the cave without a word. The awkwardness clung to them, as dense as the smoke hanging over the woods. Even Gren and Twig—best of friends—said little to each other, their usual banter banished by the tense mood.

The hour of silence left Perry plenty of time to remember the last time he’d seen Roar: a week ago, in the eye of the worst Aether storm he’d ever been in. Roar and Aria had just come back to Tide territory after spending a month away. Seeing them together after weeks of missing Aria, Perry had lost his mind and attacked Roar. He’d swung his fists, assuming the worst of a friend who had never once doubted him.

Surely that contributed to Roar’s dark temper, but the real cause was obvious.

Liv.

Perry tensed at his sister’s memory, and his horse shied beneath him. “Whoa. Easy, girl,” he said, settling the mare. He shook his head, streaked at himself for letting his thoughts slip.

He couldn’t let himself think about Liv. Grief would make him weak—something he couldn’t afford with hundreds of lives in his hands. It would be harder to stay focused with Roar back, but he’d do it. He had no choice.

Now, as he took the switchback trail down to the protected cove below, he caught sight of Roar up ahead and told himself not to worry. Roar was his brother in every way except by blood. They’d find a way past a fight. Past what had happened with Liv.

Perry dismounted on the small beach, staying behind as the others disappeared into the dark cleft that led into the belly of the mountain. The cave was his personal torture, and he wasn’t ready to return to it yet. When he was in there, it took every bit of his concentration to quell the panic that tightened his lungs and stole his breath away.

“You’re claustrophobic,” Marron had told him yesterday. “It’s an irrational fear of being trapped in close spaces.”

But he was also Blood Lord. He didn’t have time for fear, irrational or otherwise.

He drew a breath, savoring the outside air for a few moments longer. Afternoon ocean breezes had blown away the smoky haze, and for the first time that day, he could see the Aether.

The blue currents rolled across the sky, a tempest of luminescent, twisting waves. They were fiercer than ever—more violent than even yesterday—but something else caught his eye. He saw tinges of red where the Aether churned most intensely, like hot spots. Like the red of sunrise, bleeding through the crest of a wave.

“Do you see that?” Perry said to Hyde, who jogged out to meet him.

One of the best Seers in the Tides, Hyde followed Perry’s gaze, his hawk’s eyes narrowing. “I see it, Per. What do you think it means?”

“Not sure,” Perry said, “but I doubt it’s good.”

They fell quiet for a few moments before Hyde broke the silence.

“I wish I could see the Still Blue, you know?” His gaze had moved to the horizon, across endless miles of ocean. “It’d be easier to take all of this if I knew it was there, waiting for us.”

Perry hated the defeat that gathered in Hyde’s temper, a flat, stale scent like dust. “You’ll see it soon,” he said. “You’ll be the second to see it.”

Hyde took the bait. He grinned. “My eyes are stronger than yours.”

“I meant Brooke, not me.”

Hyde shoved him in the shoulder. “That’s not right. I have twice her range.”

“You’re a blind man compared to her.”

Their debate continued as they headed into the cave, Hyde’s temper lifting, just as Perry had hoped. He needed to keep morale up, or they’d never get through this.

“Find Marron for me, and get him to the Battle Room,” he told Hyde as they stepped inside. “I need Reef and Molly there as well.” He nodded to Roar, who stood a few paces away, staring across the cave with his arms crossed. “Get him water and something to eat, and have him join us right away.”

It was time for a meeting, and Roar had information about Cinder, and Sable and Hess. In order to reach the Still Blue, Perry needed Dweller ships—he and Aria had taken one from Reverie, but it wouldn’t carry enough people—and he also needed a precise heading or the Tides wouldn’t go anywhere.

Cinder. Hovers. A heading.

Three things, and Sable and Hess had them all. But that was going to change.

Roar spoke with his back still turned. “Perry seems to have forgotten that I can hear his every word, Hyde.” He turned to face Perry—and there was that dark stare again. “Whether I want to or not.”

Anger washed over Perry. Nearby, Hyde and Gren tensed, their tempers spiking red, but Twig, who’d been with Roar for days, moved first.

He dropped the horse lead in his hands and darted to Roar, taking a fistful of his black coat. “Come on,” he said, giving Roar a nudge that was almost a shove. “I’ll show you the way. Easy to get lost around here till you get used to it.”

When they’d left, Gren shook his head. “What was that?”

Answers flipped through Perry’s mind.

Roar without Liv.

Roar without a reason to live.

Roar in hell.

“Nothing,” he said, too rattled to explain. “He’ll cool off.”

He headed for the Battle Room as Gren went to tend to the horses. Anxiety built inside him with every step he took, pressing on his lungs, but he fought against it. At least the darkness of the cave didn’t bother him, as it did most everyone. By some twist of fate, his Seer eyes saw even better in low light.

Halfway there, Willow’s dog, Flea, charged up, jumping and barking like he hadn’t seen Perry in weeks. Talon and Willow arrived right behind him.

“Did you find Roar?” Talon asked. “Was it him?”

Perry grabbed Talon, holding him upside down, and was rewarded with a belly laugh. “It sure was, Squeak.” Roar had shown up—in appearance, at least.

“And Cinder, too?” Willow asked, her eyes wide with hope. She had grown close to Cinder. She was just as desperate to get him back as Perry.

“No. Just Roar and Twig so far, but we’ll get him, Willow. I promise.”

Despite his assurance, Willow let loose an impressive stream of curses. Talon giggled and Perry laughed too, but he felt sorry for her. He scented the way she hurt.

Perry set Talon down. “Do me a favor, Squeak? Check on Aria for me?” She’d been drifting on pain medication since they’d arrived at the cave, the wound in her arm refusing to heal. He went to see her whenever he could, and spent every night with her in his arms, but he still missed her. He couldn’t wait until she woke.

“Sure!” Talon chirped. “Come on, Willow.”

Perry watched them dash away, Flea loping after them. He had expected the cave to frighten his nephew, but Talon had adapted—all the kids had. The darkness inspired them to play endless games of hide-and-seek, and they spent hours on adventures exploring the caverns. More than once, Perry had heard kids in hysterics over the echoing of sounds—some best left unheard.

He only wished the adults had the same spirit.

Perry stepped into the Battle Room, nodding to Marron. The ceiling was low and uneven, forcing him to duck as he made his way around the long trestle table. He fought to keep his breathing steady, telling himself the walls weren’t caving in; it only felt like they were.

Roar had arrived before him. He leaned back in his chair, his boots kicked up on the table. He held a bottle of Luster, and he didn’t look up as Perry entered. Bad signs.

Bear and Reef nodded at Perry, in the midst of a conversation about the red flares that had appeared in the Aether. Bear’s walking stick rested lengthwise on the table, spanning the distance occupied by the three men. Whenever he saw that cane, Perry remembered dragging Bear from the rubble of his house.

“Any idea why the color is changing?” Perry asked. He took his usual seat, with Marron on his right and Reef on his left. He felt strange sitting across from Roar, like they were adversaries.

Candles burned at the center of the table, the flames steady and perfect; there were no drafts back here to make them flicker. Marron had ordered rugs hung along the perimeter to create false walls and the illusion of a real room. Perry wondered if it helped the others.

“Yes,” Marron said. He began twisting a gold ring around his finger. “The same phenomenon happened during the Unity. It signaled the onset of constant storms. They held for thirty years in those days. We’ll see the color continue to change until it’s entirely red. When that happens, it will be impossible to go outside.” He pursed his lips, shaking his head. “We’ll be confined here, I’m afraid.”

“How long do we have?” Perry asked.

“The accounts from those days vary, so it’s difficult to say precisely. It could be as long as a few weeks, if we’re lucky.”

“And if we’re not?”

“Days.”

“Skies,” Bear said, propping his heavy arms on the table. He let out a loud breath, setting the candle flame trembling in front of him. “Only days?”

Perry tried to digest that information. He had brought the Tides there as a temporary shelter. Promised them it wouldn’t be forever—and it couldn’t be. The cave wasn’t a Pod like Reverie, with the capability to sustain itself. He needed to get them out of there.

He looked at Reef, for once craving his advice.

But then Aria stepped into the chamber.

Perry lurched to his feet so fast that his chair fell backward. He took the ten paces to her in a flash, bumping his head on the low ceiling, knocking his leg into the table, moving with less coordination than he had in his entire life.

He pulled her close, holding her as tight as he could while being careful about her arm.

She smelled incredible. Like violets and open fields under the sun. Her scent set his pulse racing. It was freedom. It was everything the cave wasn’t.

“You’re awake,” he said, and almost laughed at himself. He’d been waiting to talk to her for days; he could have done better.

“Talon said you’d be here,” she said, smiling at him.

He ran his hand over the bandage on her arm. “How do you feel?”

She shrugged. “Better.”

He wished it were really true, but the dark circles under her eyes and the pallor of her skin told him otherwise. Still, she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Easily.

The room had fallen quiet. They had an audience, but Perry didn’t care. They’d spent a winter apart while she’d been at Marron’s, and then another month when she’d gone to Rim with Roar. The week they’d spent together at the Tides had been made up of stolen moments. He’d learned his lesson. He wouldn’t waste another second with her.

He took her face in his hands and kissed her. Aria made a small sound of surprise, and then he felt her relax. Her arms came around him, and what started as a brush of their lips became deeper. He gathered her close and forgot everything, everyone except her, until he heard Reef’s gruff voice behind him.

“Sometimes I forget he’s nineteen.”

“Oh, yes. Easy to do.” The gentle reply could only be from Marron.

“Not now.”

“No . . . certainly not now.”

3 ARIA

Aria blinked at Perry, a little overwhelmed.

Their relationship had just made a definitive shift to public, and she was unprepared for the wave of pride that swept through her. He was hers, and he was incredible, and they didn’t have to hide, or explain, or be apart anymore.

“We probably should get started with the meeting,” he said, smiling down at her.

She mumbled her agreement and forced herself away from him, trying not to look as staggered as she felt. She spotted Roar standing on the other side of the table, relief snapping her back to the present.

“Roar!” Aria rushed to his side, wrapping him in a half hug.

“Easy, there,” he said, frowning at her arm. “What happened?”

“Oh, this? I got myself shot.”

“What did you go and do that for?”

“I wanted some sympathy, I guess.”

It was their usual way with each other, teasing and light, but Aria studied him as they spoke, and what she saw brought a twist to her heart.

Though he sounded like himself, Roar’s eyes had lost all their humor. They were heavy with sadness now—a sadness he carried everywhere. In his smile. In the drape of his shoulders. Even in the way he stood, weight to one side, like his entire life was out of balance. He looked as he had a week ago, when they’d floated down the Snake River together: heartbroken.

Her attention moved past him to Marron, who made his way toward them and smiled expectantly, his blue eyes alert and lively, his cheeks ruddy and round—the very opposite of Roar’s hardened planes.

“It’s so good to see you,” Marron said, pulling her close. “We’ve all been worried.”

“It’s good to see you too.” He was soft, and he smelled so good, like rosewater and woodsmoke. She held on to him a moment longer, remembering the months she’d spent in his home over the winter after learning that her mother had died. She’d have been lost without his help.

“Aren’t we in the middle of a crisis, Aria?” Soren walked in with his shoulders back and his chin tipped up. “I swear that’s what you said five minutes ago.”

The expression on his face—arrogant, annoyed, disgusted—had been hers six months ago when she’d first met Perry.

“I’ll get rid of him,” Reef said, rising from his chair.

“No,” Aria said. Soren was Hess’s son. Whether he deserved it or not, the Dwellers would look to him as a leader, along with her. “He’s with me. I asked him to be here.”

“Then he stays,” Perry said smoothly. “Let’s get started.”

That surprised her. She’d worried about Perry’s reaction to Soren—the two had despised each other at first sight.

As they settled around the table, Aria didn’t miss the dark look Reef cast her way. He expected Soren to disrupt the meeting. She wasn’t going to let that happen.

She sat next to Roar, which felt both right and not, but Perry already had Reef and Marron at his sides. Roar slouched in his chair and took a long pull from a bottle of Luster. The action struck her as angry and determined. She wanted to lift the bottle from his hands, but he’d had enough taken away from him.

“Hess and Sable have almost every advantage, as you all know,” Perry said. “Time is against us too. We have to move on them quickly. Tomorrow morning, I’ll lead a team to their camp with the aim of rescuing Cinder, securing Hovers, and getting the exact heading for the Still Blue. In order to plan the mission, I need information. I need to know what you saw,” he said to Roar, “and what you know,” he said to Soren.

As he spoke, the Blood Lord chain winked at his neck and candlelight glinted on his hair, which was pulled back but coming loose in pieces. A dark shirt stretched across his shoulders and arms, but Aria could easily recall the Markings it concealed.

The rough-edged hunter with the fierce glare she’d met half a year ago was almost gone. He was confident now, steadier. Still fearsome, but controlled. He was everything she’d expected him to become.

His green eyes flicked to her, holding for an instant like he knew her thoughts, before moving to Roar beside her.

“Whenever you’re ready, Roar,” he said.

Roar answered without bothering to sit up or project his voice. “Hess and Sable joined up. They’re on the plateau between Lone Pine and the Snake River, right out in the open. It’s a big camp. More like a small city.”

“Why there?” Perry asked. “Why gather forces inland if the Still Blue is across the sea? What are they waiting for?”

“If I knew any of those things,” Roar said, “I’d have said so.”

Aria’s head snapped to him. On the surface his appearance verged on boredom, but his eyes held a predatory focus that hadn’t been there moments ago. He gripped the bottle of Luster tightly, the lean muscles in his forearms taut.

She looked around the table, picking up other signs of tension. Reef sat forward, his gaze boring into Roar. Marron darted a nervous glance at the entrance, where Gren and Twig stood, looking very much like guards. Even Soren had picked up on something. He looked from Perry to Roar, like he was trying to figure out what everyone knew that he didn’t.

“Anything else you do know that you’d like to share?” Perry said calmly, like he’d missed Roar’s biting comment completely.

“I saw the fleet of Hovers,” Roar answered. “I counted a dozen like the one outside on the bluff and other kinds of smaller craft too. They’re lined up on the plateau outside this segmented thing that’s coiled up like a snake. It’s massive. . . . Each unit is more a building than a craft.”

Soren snorted. “The segmented, coily thing is called a Komodo X12.”

Roar’s dark eyes slid to him. “That’s helpful, Dweller. I think that cleared it up for all of us.”

Aria looked from Soren to Roar, dread moving like ice through her veins.

“You want to know what the Komodo is?” Soren said. “I’ll tell you. Better yet, how about you take these rugs down and I’ll draw some stick figures on the cave wall for you? Then we could have a séance or a sacrifice or something.” Soren looked at Perry. “Maybe you could supply some drums and half-naked women?”

Aria had some experience handling Soren, and was prepared. She turned from Perry to Marron. “Would drawings help?” she asked, fighting Soren’s sarcasm with directness.

Marron leaned forward. “Oh yes. They’d help immensely. Any specifications you can provide with respect to the Hovers’ speed, range, cargo capacity, weaponry. Onboard supplies . . . Truly, Soren, anything would be very useful. We’d know which craft we need. We could prepare better. Yes, drawings and any other information you can recall. Thank you.”

Perry turned to Gren. “Bring paper, a ruler, pens.”

Soren looked from Marron to Perry to Aria, his mouth gaping. “I’m not drawing anything. I was joking.”

“You think our situation is a joke?” she said.

“What? No. But I’m not helping these Savag—these people.”

“They’ve been taking care of you for days. Do you think you’d be alive if weren’t for these people?”

Soren looked around the table like he wanted to argue, but said nothing.

“You’re the only one who knows the Hovers,” Aria continued. “You’re the expert. You should also tell us everything you know about your father’s plans with Sable. Every one of us needs to know as much as possible.”

Soren scowled. “You’re kidding me.”

“Didn’t we just agree this wasn’t a laughing matter?”

“Why should I trust them?” Soren asked, as if there were no Outsiders there.

“How about because you don’t have a choice?”

Soren’s furious gaze went to Perry, who was actually watching her, his lips pressed together like he was fighting a smile.

“Fine,” Soren said. “I’ll tell you what I know. I intercepted one of the comms between my father and Sable before Reverie . . . fell.”

Reverie hadn’t just fallen. It had been deserted. Thousands of people had been abandoned and left to die—by Soren’s father, Hess. Aria understood why Soren might not want to bring attention to that fact.

“Sable and a few of his top people have the coordinates to the Still Blue memorized,” he continued. “But there’s more to it than just knowing where it is. There’s a barrier of Aether at sea somewhere, and the only way to the Still Blue is by breaching it. Sable said he’d found a way through it, though.”

The chamber fell silent. They all knew that way was Cinder.

Perry rubbed his jaw, the first trace of anger appearing on his face. Across the back of his hand, Aria saw the scars Cinder had given him, pale and roped.

“You’re sure Cinder’s there?” he said, turning to Roar. “You saw him?”

“I’m sure,” said Roar.

Seconds passed.

“Do you have nothing more to add, Roar?” Perry asked.

“You want more?” Roar drew himself up. “Here’s more: Cinder was with the girl named Kirra, who was here at the compound, according to Twig. I saw her take him into the Komodo thing. You know who else is there? Sable. The man who killed your sister. The ships we need are also there, since I’m assuming the one outside isn’t going to carry us all to the Blue. It looks to me like they have everything and we have nothing. There it is, Perry. Now you know the situation. What do you recommend we do? Stay in this miserable pit and talk some more?”

Reef slammed his hand on the table. “Enough!” he bellowed, pushing up from his chair. “You cannot speak to him that way. I won’t allow it.”

“It’s grief,” Marron said softly.

“I don’t care what it is. It doesn’t excuse his behavior.”

“Speaking of excuses,” Roar said, “you’ve been looking for a way to come after me for a while now, Reef.” He stood and spread his hands. “Looks like you’ve got it.”

“This is exactly what I’m talking about,” Soren said, shaking his head. “You people are animals. I feel like a zookeeper.”

“Shut up, Soren.” Aria rose to her feet and took Roar’s arm. “Please, Roar. Sit down.”

He jerked away. Aria flinched as pain ripped through her, and she pulled in a hissing breath. She’d reached for Roar with her good arm, but his sharp movement had given her a jolt, igniting a hot flare in her wounded bicep.

Perry shot out of his chair. “Roar!”

The room fell quiet in an instant.

Aria’s arm trembled, pressed against her stomach. She forced herself to relax. To hide the waves of pain that tore through her.

Roar stared at her in silent mortification. “I forgot,” he said under his breath.

“I did too. It’s all right. I’m fine.”

He hadn’t meant to hurt her. He never would. But still no one moved. No one made a sound.

“I’m fine,” she said again.

Slowly, the attention of the room shifted to Perry, who was glaring at Roar, his gaze burning with rage.