Into the Still Blue (Under the Never Sky, #3)(56)

“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.

He took her arm and helped her up. A gust of hot air blew a pungent, chemical reek into her face, stinging her eyes. At the far end of the fleet, fire engulfed a Dragonwing—part of the craft already scorched down to its steel ribs.

Roar’s grip on her arm tightened. “Stay here. Stay with Soren. I’m going to find Perry. Aria, can you hear me?”

She nodded. His voice was faint, but she heard him. Not only what he said but also what he meant.

Roar had to find out if Perry was in the Dragonwing covered in flames.

Roar’s eyes moved past her as Hess screamed again.

“Come forward, Sable! Come forward, or I will destroy every one of them! They’re my ships! I will not let you have them!”

“Yes,” Soren said. “Pressure him.”

“Calm yourself, Hess. I’m coming.”

The sound of Sable’s voice rooted Aria—and everyone— in place.

“Where are you?” Hess searched the ring of people around him. “Come forward, coward!”

Aria spotted Sable as he slipped past a few of his soldiers. “I’m right here.” He gestured to the burning Hovercraft as he approached Hess. “I would have come without all of that.”

Panic crept over Aria with every step he took. He wore a knife at his belt. But Hess had a gun.

She sensed movement behind her. Horn soldiers closed in, forming a wall around them. Roar caught her eye and shook his head. It was too late.

In seconds, Aria felt a gun press against her spine.

Kirra smiled and said, “Hi.”

They were stripped of their weapons. Her, Roar, and Soren. Trapped, all three of them. Again.

“We were going to do this together, Sable,” Hess said. “That was the arrangement we made.”

Sable measured Hess in that same quiet way Perry had. The way of Scires. The flames from the exploded Dragonwing roared in the silence, the fire a bright spot against the night.

Perry wasn’t in that Hover. He couldn’t be.

“Together?” Sable said. “Is that why you were planning to betray me?”

“You gave me no choice. We made a deal, and you broke it. Tell your people to stand down. We leave on my orders, like we planned, or no one leaves. I’ll level every one of the Hovers to the ground.”

Sable took a step toward Hess. “Yes, you’ve said that.”

Hess lifted his gun. “Don’t come any closer.”

“I always keep my word,” Sable said, still advancing in deliberate steps. “I didn’t break our deal. You only believe that I was going to.”

Aria noticed the crowd loosening. People dropped back, responding to some instinctive signal.

“I will shoot you,” Hess said.

“Yes, yes, yes, do it!” Soren chanted at her side.

Time slowed, every second lasting an eternity. Aria couldn’t move, couldn’t utter a sound.

“If you shoot me,” said Sable, “then my men will cut you down next. That doesn’t sound like a solution, does it? It sounds very similar to what you’re proposing . . . all or nothing. Lower your gun, Hess. You got what you wanted. We’re at a stalemate, and we both know you won’t pull that trigger.”