Soren gasped, feral energy vibrating off him. She had seen Roar’s efficient ruthlessness before, but Soren hadn’t.
Perry darted out of the woods, passing Roar and diving into the Dragonwing. Then Brooke emerged and took her place behind the two Guardians who continued their careful approach, unaware of their fallen teammate at Roar’s feet.
“Put your weapons down!” Brooke yelled, raising a gun. The two men spun and froze as they saw her. Aria drew her pistol from a concealed holster. It felt awkward handling the weapon with her non-dominant hand, but she doubted she’d need to use it.
The four Guardians had been neutralized: Perry would have the man inside the Hover handled. Roar had taken care of the Guardian outside the craft. She and Brooke had the two in the clearing.
Everything was under control. Just like they planned.
Until Soren reached behind his back and drew a gun.
12
PEREGRINE
Perry crashed into the Dragonwing’s cockpit, spotting his target, the Guardian who’d stayed behind, in the pilot seat.
The man grabbed for the gun at his belt. His hand never touched the weapon.
Perry jammed his knee into the Guardian’s face. Not the blow he’d intended, but the space was tight. He caught the slumping Guardian by the collar and dragged him to the bay door, tossing him out into the rain, where he landed a few paces from Roar’s man.
Perry jumped down from the Dragonwing. He didn’t need to say a word to Roar, who knew exactly what to do.
“I got it, Perry. Go,” Roar said before his feet even hit the mud.
Perry sped past him, running toward Brooke. Across the flooded field, smoke still spewed from beneath the tail of the Belswan. He was struck by how small Aria, Soren, and Jupiter looked against the Hover. Brooke stood halfway across the field, between the two Hovers, pointing a gun at the pair of Guardians she’d surprised from behind.
The two men still held their guns as they assessed the situation. Perry watched them consider their overpowered teammates lying in the mud at Roar’s feet. Then Brooke and Aria, both with guns. And finally him, jogging up.
The Guardians had no options. They would recognize that and yield. They should’ve already seen that by now, but something didn’t feel right.
Perry was twenty paces away from Brooke when he spotted the gun in Soren’s hand.
“You heard her!” Soren screamed at the top of his lungs. “She said put your weapons down!”
The Guardians looked from Brooke to Perry to Soren, their movements jerky. They drew together, back to back, their guns raised.
“Do it!” Soren screamed.
They will, Perry wanted to shout. Give them a chance and they’ll do it!
He bit back the words. Panic fed panic. Yelling would only make matters worse.
Soren’s arms straightened, his gun swinging between the Guardians. “I told you, weapons down!”
A single pop broke into the air, muffled by the patter of the rain but unmistakable.
Soren had fired. He jolted back, absorbing the recoil.
An instant later, shots exploded into the air as the Guardians fired back.
Brooke cried out as she dropped to the ground. Aria, Soren, and Jupiter scattered, running back to the Belswan.
Every muscle in Perry’s body wanted to sprint toward them, but he threw himself down. Wet earth coughed as bullets struck around him. He rolled, splashing through rainwater. In the middle of a field, there was nowhere to find cover.
The shots stopped, the drone of the rain filling the quiet. He lifted his head. The Guardians were running for the woods.
The shorter man of the two turned as he fled, unleashing a barrage of shots at Roar, who crouched by the Dragonwing.
Roar launched himself beneath the craft, disappearing to the other side.
More gunshots. Whistling overhead on a path to Aria. Slapping the mud by Perry’s arms.
Ignoring them, he brought his gun up, everything he knew about shooting falling into place. He relaxed his muscles, letting the bones in his arms support the weapon. Then he aimed and let out his breath, firing two shots. Adjusting slightly, he found the next man and squeezed the trigger twice again.
They were clean shots, all. Kill shots.
The Guardians went sprawling just before the tree line.
Perry leaped up before they’d fallen to the earth. Scrabbling for a foothold in the thick mud, he half sprinted, half slid to the Belswan, one thought blaring in his mind. One person.
“I’m fine,” Aria said as he reached her.
He took her by the shoulders and looked her over anyway. Head to toe. Toe to head. She was all right. He waited for the relief to set in, but it wouldn’t.
“Perry, are you?” Aria asked, her eyes narrowing.
He shook his head. “No.”
A wailing sound pulled his attention away. Nearby, Jupiter clutched his thigh as he writhed in agony on the ground. Brooke knelt beside him. Blood poured from a cut high on her scalp, running down one side of her face.
“It’s nothing, Perry,” she said. “Just a graze, but he’s worse. They got him in the leg.”
Aria moved to Jupiter’s other side. “Let me see, Jup. Calm down and let me see.”
Perry glanced across the field. Roar stood by the Dragonwing, over the bodies of the other two Guardians. Perry whistled, and Roar looked up. He shook his head, and Perry understood. Roar had shot them. He’d needed to. The instant Soren’s gun went off, there’d been no other possible outcome.
Perry’s vision began to tunnel, his rage focusing on one point. Wheeling, he snatched Soren up by the collar. “What’s wrong with you?” he yelled.
“They weren’t putting down their guns!”
Soren struggled, but Perry held him fast. “You didn’t give them a chance!”
“Yes, I did! How much time does it take to lower a gun? An hour?” Soren stilled, no longer fighting against Perry’s grip. “It was only supposed to be a warning shot! I didn’t know they’d shoot back!”
Perry couldn’t respond. He wanted to break Soren’s jaw again. Prevent him from ever speaking another word. “I should have finished you off the first time, Dweller.”
Roar jogged up. “We need to move, Perry. Time’s running.”
“You’re going back,” Perry said, releasing Soren with a shove. “You’re out of this.”
Soren was a danger. There was no way Perry would take him into the Komodo now.
“Oh yeah? Who’s going to fly the Dragonwing for you?” Soren tipped his head to Jupiter. “Him? I don’t think so. Who’s going to get you to Cinder inside the Komodo? You think you’re just going to stumble up to him, Savage?”
“I should’ve learned to fly Hovers,” Aria said.
Her tone was wry, but her temper was ice. Controlled. Perry drank it in, letting it take the edge off his own anger.
“We have to bring him, Perry,” she said. “The Guardians are all dead. Jupiter and Brooke are hurt. If Soren doesn’t come, it’s over.”
Perry looked at Soren. “Get in the Dragonwing and wait there. Don’t even blink without telling me first.”
Soren marched away, grumbling. “I’m blinking, Savage. I’m doing it right now.”
“Soren,” Roar called. When Soren looked back, Roar flung his knife into the air. The blade spun end over end, heading right for Soren, who yelped and dodged aside.
It missed him by a hair, as Roar had surely intended. Roar never missed.
“Are you insane?” Soren yelled, his face turning red.
Roar jogged over and calmly picked up his knife, but he sheathed the blade with a vicious thrust. “That’s how you do a warning shot.”
Perry watched them walk to the Dragonwing. Same direction, twenty paces between them. Then he carried Jupiter into the Belswan, setting him down in the pilot seat.
Aria had already boarded the ship. She tied a tourniquet around Jupiter’s leg. Then she wrapped a bandage around Brooke’s head as she relayed instructions to Brooke for treating Jupiter’s wound. Anticoagulant. Pressure. Pain medication. Everything was in the kit at her feet.
Jupiter rambled, asking over and over if he was going to die. The blood from his leg mixed with the rainwater on the floor of the craft. From what Perry could tell, the shot had only hit muscle, the bullet cutting through cleanly. As gunshot wounds went, it was a good one, but Jupiter blathered on until Aria put her hand over his mouth, silencing him.
“Pay attention,” she said. “You need to fly this Hover, Jupiter. Get back to the cave. Brooke knows the way. They’ll take care of you there.”
“We’ll get there,” Brooke said, smiling. “Don’t worry about us. Go. And good luck.”
“You too, Brooke,” Aria said. “Be safe.” Then she darted out of the cockpit.
Perry caught her at the top of the ramp. A sheet of rain fell across the opening, blocking the outside like a waterfall. He grabbed her by the hips, afraid of hurting her arm—and that was the problem right there.
Four dead. Two injured.
And they hadn’t even reached the Komodo yet.
“Aria, that was too close—”
“I’m going with you, Perry,” she said, spinning to face him. “We’re getting Cinder back. We’re getting Hovers, and then we’re going to the Still Blue. We started this together. That’s how we’re going to finish it.”
13
ARIA
With Soren piloting the Dragonwing, they sped through the lashing rain toward the Komodo, their breaths loud and ragged in the quiet of the cockpit. They were a quartet of pure stress, each of them fighting to regain focus.
Aria pressed her back into the seat. The ride was jarring, almost violent compared to the Belswan, as though this craft had to fight to reach its greater speeds. She felt every small jostle in her throbbing arm.
Soren and Roar sat in the two anterior seats, commander and pilot. She and Perry sat in the seats behind them.
Half an hour ago, four men had been in these same spots. Her seat still held the warmth one of them had left behind. It seeped through her clothes to her legs and her back. She was cold, trembling and soaked, but that warmth—the final echo of a man’s life—made her want to crawl out of her skin.
Was it her fault? She hadn’t pulled the trigger, but did that matter? Her eyes moved to Soren’s back. She had brought him to the Tides. She had trusted him.
Beside her, Perry sat rigidly. He was muddied, bloodied, and intent, his stillness contrasted by the rainwater dripping steadily from his hair. He’d been against Soren from the beginning, Aria thought. Should she have listened to him?
She turned her focus back to the windshield. Trees blurred past, the hills where the Komodo was stationed drawing closer at an astonishing rate.
“Five minutes out,” Soren said.
Five minutes until they reached the Komodo. They were heading right into the dragon’s lair—and there were two dragons.
She pictured Hess, who was so quick to disregard human life. Travel safely, Aria, he’d said, before he dumped her out to die. He’d done the same to the thousands of people he left in Reverie. He’d told them he was going to fix everything; then he’d abandoned them in a collapsing Pod.