“Nothing,” Caleb said. “It’s the way they look at us.”
“You mean the same way you look at them?”
Rune quirked an eyebrow. “Well, they are disgusting.”
“That’s kind of sharp, Rune,” Jupiter said, his hands going still.
Caleb rolled his eyes. “They aren’t disgusting. They’re just . . . rustic.”
Aria ignored the comment. She was pretty sure she’d become rustic too. “How long are you planning to keep yourselves segregated? Forever?”
“Maybe,” said Rune. “It’s not like forever will be long. We’re not going to the Still Blue. All we’re doing is waiting out our last days.”
The sounds of nearby conversation quieted. Aria felt the attention of others focus on them. Everyone was listening. “Just because we failed once doesn’t mean we should stop trying.”
“Trying to what, Aria? Make friends with the Savages? No, thanks. I’m not interested. I don’t understand why you took us out of Reverie just so we could die here instead.”
Soren shook his head. “Unbelievable,” he muttered.
Aria had heard enough too. She stood, forcing calm into her voice as she spoke. “You think Soren and I saved your life by getting you out of Reverie? We didn’t. We gave you a chance. You have to choose whether you want to live or die, not me. Hiding back here isn’t either.”
34
PEREGRINE
So, what happened?” Twig asked. “The Dwellers couldn’t hold on against the Horns?”
Perry sat at the edge of the wooden platform at the center of the main cavern. He’d changed into his own clothes soon after arriving. Then he’d spent a little time with Talon, catching up on the past couple of days. Now Perry was surrounded by his people, who gathered along the platform with him and pressed together at nearby tables.
He felt crowded and mildly panicked, as he always did inside the cave, but like he was exactly where he should be: immersed in the Tides.
Marron was there. Old Will. Molly and Bear, and the Six. Wherever he looked, he saw smiles. Their happiness flooded his nose with bright scents, their tempers bringing him the spring the Aether had taken.
Perry hadn’t realized how scared they’d been until then. The relief he scented was potent; he wondered how many in the tribe had believed he’d never come back from the Komodo.
Nearby, Talon, Willow, and Brooke’s sister, Clara, played a game to see who could jump furthest from the platform. Cinder acted as judge, Flea sitting beside him. Everyone else—everyone over thirteen—waited to hear what happened in the Komodo.
Perry looked at Roar, who was the storyteller between the two of them, but Roar smiled and shook his head.
“This one’s yours, Per,” he said. He tipped back a bottle of Luster, taking a healthy drink, his temper the mellowest Perry had scented since Liv’s death.
Perry started with their breach of the Komodo, and then told the tribe about their imprisonment and escape, leaving out only what Sable had done to him. When he skipped that part, Reef pinned a searing gaze on him. Perry expected questions from him later.
As he talked, bowls of fish soup were passed around, along with huge loaves of bread and thick slices of cheese. A luxury, Perry knew, and he said as much.
“Oh, enjoy it!” Marron offered in a rare show of abandon. “You’re home, Peregrine. You’ve made it back safely, all of you, and we’re so happy.”
He sat next to Roar, who’d insisted that Marron share his bottle of Luster. Marron’s cheeks were flushed, his blue eyes carefree. Seeing him that way made Perry smile.
Reef crossed his arms. “Hess and Sable turned on each other.”
Perry nodded, taking a huge bite of bread. His appetite for real food—not the Dwellers’ plastic-tasting meals—was enormous. The only thing he wanted more at the moment was a bed.
A bed with Aria in it, he amended.
“We should learn from that,” Reef continued. “We should take that as warning. We’re at risk of the very same thing happening here.”
Perry swallowed. “What are you saying?”
“The Dwellers,” Molly explained. “They’re keeping their distance. They’re scared of us, Perry. That’s all.”
Reef crossed his arms. “Fear is dangerous. It sparks violence much faster than anger. Doesn’t it, Peregrine?”
“It can, yes.”
From the corner of his eye, Perry caught the small shake of Roar’s head. It felt so right, Reef’s lectures and Roar’s annoyance at Reef’s lectures. The moment strengthened him more than a bellyful of food.
“The Dwellers are harmless,” Molly said. “They’ll will mix with us now that Aria is back. I’m more concerned about other things. Perry, you said we needed Hovers to reach the Still Blue. . . . We only have two.”
Perry acknowledged the problem and stated his position on the matter. Two Hovers wasn’t enough, but the Tides— and the Dwellers in the back—would stand together. He and Aria had agreed; they wouldn’t make a selection of people to go.
“I support that stance,” said Marron. “I’m behind you.”
“I’m behind you,” said Reef, “but I don’t support that stance. Why should we all perish?”
“Hold on,” Twig said. “Isn’t there another option besides perishing?”
“We could try to locate more Hovers,” said Marron, slurring a little.
“From another Pod?” Reef shook his head. “We don’t have time for that. We don’t know if other Pods even exist anymore.”
They wanted to take action, which Perry understood. It was always his impulse too. But this time, their best course was simply to wait.
Sable needed Cinder. He would come to them—soon. Perry had no doubt in his mind. But that knowledge would only put the tribe in a panic, so he held his tongue. The Tides would know soon enough.
As the debate continued, Perry’s gaze drifted to the children again. They took turns running up and smacking Straggler on the head, trying to get him to chase them. Cinder had moved off. He sat with Bear, looking especially small and frail next to the huge farmer whose life he’d saved.
Cinder’s favorite black cap had found its way back to his head. Molly’s doing, Perry was sure. She’d have had it waiting for him.
Cinder saw Perry watching him and forced a smile, though his eyes were almost closed.
“He’s tired,” Molly said. “I’ll find him a quiet place to sleep soon, but let’s give him a few more minutes. This is doing wonders for his heart.” She smiled, and added, “And mine.” She studied Perry, her brown eyes knowing. “They wanted him for his ability.”
Perry nodded. “He’s the only way to get through the barrier of Aether that surrounds the Still Blue.”
Molly pressed her lips together, falling silent for a moment. “You saw what it cost him to channel the Aether in the compound, Perry. He’s barely recovered at all since then. You know what it would mean for him to use his ability in his condition?”
“I do.” It was all he wanted to say about it now. He shut away his worries about Cinder behind thick walls, with his memories of Liv.
Liv.
His heart began to pound. He looked at Roar, who had the bottle of Luster halfway to his mouth. Roar stopped and made a face, his eyes narrowing in question.
“Walk with me?” Perry said.
Roar’s mouth broke into a grin. “Finish that,” he said, pushing the bottle of Luster at Marron. Then he hopped to his feet and said, “Lead the way, Per.”
Perry walked to the cove outside and kept going, climbing the bluff and then following the trail back to the Tide compound. He hadn’t set out to return home; his feet carried him there out of habit.
Illuminated by thick Aether flows, the night was as bright as twilight, as all nights were now. Ashes flittered through the air; soft as feathers underfoot. His pulse beat too fast for the easy pace he and Roar made.
They arrived at the compound and walked to the center of the clearing. Perry felt raw, like every step brought him closer to the edge of a cliff. His gaze swept across the homes, hollow and eerily quiet. Bear and Molly’s house stood out, looking like a rotten tooth with its listing walls blackened and leaning at odd angles. He remembered the night Bear had been trapped under those walls.
Perry’s house still stood, though. It didn’t look the same, but it didn’t look different, either. He stared at it for a long time, trying to figure out what had changed. Debating whether he wanted to go inside.
“Remember when I tripped you during the summer festival,” Roar said, “and you fell into Vale’s mug and chipped a tooth?”
Used to his spontaneous stories, Perry answered smoothly. “I remember Vale chasing me down and beating me for spilling Luster all over his lap.”
“Well, you shouldn’t have fallen on him.”
“Right. That was stupid of me.”
“It was. You’ve always been terrible at falling.”
Despite their joking, Perry felt sure now that Roar was seeing all the same memories he was. All the times they’d torn through the compound as kids, barefoot, noisy, safe, no thought in their minds that this place would ever change. That people they loved would vanish.
Or be murdered.
He cleared his throat. It was time. “I’m supposed to talk to you about things. About what’s been going on.”
“Really? Why start now?”
“Aria. I promised her.”
Roar’s smile was faint. He crossed his arms and stared at Perry’s house. The house that had also been Liv’s.
Perry caught a sob in the back of his throat and drew a quick breath. The ache he felt for Liv was a monstrous thing, clawing at his chest. He began before he lost his nerve.
“Liv is alive in my peripheral vision. When I’m not thinking about her . . . when she’s just past the point where I can see her, it feels like she’s still there. Thinking of ways to embarrass me. Telling me all the stupid things you said, like I don’t already know. Like I wasn’t there to hear them myself. But when I look right at her, I remember she’s gone and I—” He stared at the sky for a few moments, forcing himself to draw a few breaths before he continued. “I couldn’t let myself feel that kind of anger. That lost. Not with the Tides needing me to be Blood Lord.”
“Why don’t you just tell me the truth, Perry? Why can’t you ever say what you’re really thinking?”
Perry glanced at him, surprised. Roar was staring at Perry’s house, his jaw clenched. “Why don’t you tell me what you think I’m thinking?”
Roar wheeled and faced him directly. “You blame me! I was there and I couldn’t protect her—”
“No.”
“I told you I’d bring her home and I didn’t. I lost her. I—”
“No, Roar,” he said again. “No one on this earth would have fought harder for her than you—and that includes me. You think I haven’t thought about what I could’ve done to get her back? To have stopped it from happening?”