Into the Still Blue (Under the Never Sky, #3)(44)

“No. Stay away from him, Aria. Find a way to get us out of here. Use Hess. If he likes to run from problems, let’s give him somewhere to go. Another option. But promise me you’ll stay away from Sable.”

“Perry, no.”

“Aria, yes.” Didn’t she understand? He could endure anything—except losing her.

“What if Roar was right?” she said, her eyebrows drawing together. “What if Sable is a problem until we do something? Until we stop him?”

He wanted to tell her I will. He’d handle Sable. But he couldn’t say it. Not half-naked, blue and beaten. When he vowed to take Sable’s head off, he wanted to be on his feet.

She shot away from him, her feet landing on the floor with a quiet thump. Half a second later, the door opened.

The soldier, Loran, stood at the threshold. “Time’s up,” he said to Aria.

She moved immediately. Pausing at the door, she glanced back at Perry and put a hand to her heart.

Then she stepped out, and he numbed himself again. Shutting out the pain in his muscles. Ignoring the intense ache he always felt without her.

Loran lingered a second longer, sending Perry a cutting glance before he followed.

Perry stared at the door for long minutes after they’d gone, breathing in the residual scents in the small room. Noticing how strange the soldier’s temper was, dense and heavy. A brick wall of protection. Stranger still was the glimmer of warmth behind it.

Carefully, muscles quivering, Perry rolled onto his back, absolutely certain.

Loran was more than a soldier. He wondered if Aria knew.





[page]UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

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25


ARIA


I thought you were going to talk to him,” Loran said in hushed tones as he escorted her back through the Komodo’s corridors.

“We did talk,” she said.

It had taken all her willpower to leave Perry in that room. Even now, she wanted to turn back, but something stopped her. A nagging feeling about the man walking three paces behind her.

“That looked like more than talking.”

Aria spun, facing him. “Why do you care?”

Loran stopped short. He frowned, opening his mouth to speak, then seemed to reconsider.

“Why did you take me to see him?” she pressed. “Why did you help me?”

He looked down his slender nose at her, his lips pressed tight, like he was trying to keep himself from speaking. She was desperate to understand why he’d taken a risk for her. Why he seemed so intent whenever he was looking at her. Why his dark gray eyes seemed so achingly familiar.

He had a deep musical baritone—a beautiful voice.

And he was old enough—

He was old enough—

She couldn’t even let herself think it.

His head whipped to the side. Aria heard Kirra’s voice, her sultry purr grating and unmistakable. Was she always roaming these halls?

Loran grabbed her arm and pulled her down the corridor. He stopped before a door and pressed at a keypad, yanking her inside as it opened.

Across a small room was another door with a rounded window made of two thick panes. Blue light came through it. Electric light that moved like a living, starving thing.

Aether.

“This way.” He stepped around her, opening the door, and suddenly she was stepping outside, onto a platform framed by a metal rail, her hair lifting in the wind.

It was night. She’d had no idea. That meant she’d been in the Komodo almost two days. A sea of metal surrounded her—the roofs of the Komodo’s individual units—and funnels of Aether twisted above. She saw the red flares. They had spread so much in just the time she’d been imprisoned. Everywhere she looked—east and west, north and south— the funnels lashed down to the earth, in some areas no more than a mile off. She felt the familiar prickling in the air and heard the shrieking sounds of the funnels—the sound of the Aether charging closer.

They were running out of time.

“We need to talk,” Loran said behind her.

Aria turned and faced him. By the shifting light of the sky, she studied his face. His expression was too soft for a soldier. Too pleading for a stranger.

He sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. “I don’t know where to start.”

Emotion prickled behind her eyes. Her heart was slamming. Pounding to get out of her ribs.

He didn’t know where to start, but she did.

“You’re an Aud,” she said.

“Yes.”

“You knew my mother.”

“Yes.”

She pulled in a breath and dove. “You’re my father.”

“Yes.” He looked at her, full on, the moment expanding between them. “I am.”

A cold wave swept over her.

She had guessed right.

Her back thumped against the metal railing as that single thought ran through her mind: she had guessed right. Finally, she’d found her father and didn’t have to wonder anymore. The curiosity she’d carried around her whole life could be put to rest, once and for all.

Her eyes filled, the world blurring, not for this man—who she knew nothing about—but for her mother, who had known him. Had Lumina loved him? Hated him? Aria’s mind suddenly filled with questions again, and here, standing before her, was the only person who could answer them.