Into the Still Blue (Under the Never Sky, #3)(73)

When she’d met Cinder, he’d lashed at her and Perry and Roar while trailing after them like a lost child. That time in the woods seemed so long ago. He fit now. He had achieved the same thing she wanted herself. Cinder had found Perry. He’d found Willow and Flea and Molly. He had a place. A family.

Aria understood why Perry was going with him. And she hated that she understood.

“Thank you for what you’re doing,” Sable said.

Aria glanced at Loran. Did he hear Sable’s falseness? He was an Aud; surely he had to.

“I’m not doing anything for you,” Cinder snapped. He stood and disappeared into the craft.

“So long as he does it,” Sable said, with a small shrug. He turned to Perry. “We went through a good deal of trouble getting here, didn’t we? Suffered a few bruises along the way, but the important thing is that we made it. Everything is prepared. The Dragonwing will be controlled remotely by one of the pilots on my craft. We’ll get you close, Peregrine. All you and Cinder have to do is the rest.”

He had the nerve to make it seem as if he were doing the difficult part. She could hear Perry’s breath beside her, fast and irregular. As hard as this was for her, it was so much worse for him.

Sable inclined his head. “Good luck.”

Aria didn’t even see Perry’s face before he hugged her. “I’ll be thinking about you,” he said, lifting her off the ground. “I love you.”

She said it back, and that was it.

All that mattered. Everything there was to say.





[page]UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

..................................................................





40


PEREGRINE


The hatch closed the moment Perry boarded the Hover, controlled by some unseen Dweller under Sable’s command.

He fell into the pilot seat, concentrating on breathing. Just breathing in and out, and not thinking about what had just happened. In the chair beside him, Cinder gripped the armrests as he stared through the windshield.

“There you are, Peregrine.” Sable’s voice filled the small cockpit. “I can see both of you, but I’m told you can only hear me.”

Perry rubbed a hand over his face and sat up, forcing himself to gather his wits. “I hear you,” he said. He wondered if Roar or Aria was also there, watching and listening. He doubted it.

Their Hover was docked on the edge of the bluff. Outside, past fifty yards of dirt and sea grass, there was only sky. Only Aether. Perry had to stop himself from imagining shooting off the bluff and dropping to the coastline below.

Faintly, through the speakers, Perry heard pilots moving through flight commands. And then one by one, the other Hovers in the fleet rose off the ground. When their craft lifted with a jolt, Cinder gasped, his eyes flying wide open.

Perry swallowed through a dry mouth. “Buckle yourself in,” he said.

Not the most soothing words he’d ever spoken, but it was the best he could do at the moment.

Cinder looked over, scowling. “What about you?”

Perry glanced down, muffling a curse as he snapped his own harness on.

The Hovers didn’t shoot over the bluff like he’d pictured. They turned south and hugged the edge of the coast, following the trail to the compound that he and Roar had walked just yesterday.

As the fleet formed up like a flock, his Hover fell to the rear. Perry’s gaze moved to the Belswan at the lead.

Talon. Aria. Roar. Marron. Reef and the rest of the Six.

He couldn’t stop listing their names. They were all in there. Sable had handpicked the people closest to Perry and brought them on his Hover. It made Perry’s stomach churn to think they were in Sable’s control now.

In minutes, the Tide compound came into view, sitting up on a small rise. It was still his land, despite the flash of Aether and the trails of fire along the hills. He still felt it calling to him—but in a voice he no longer recognized.

“Did I ever tell you that my home in Rim was bigger than the whole of your compound?” Sable asked.

A jab, but Perry couldn’t have cared less. His house had always offered enough space. Even when the Six had slept wall to wall across the floor, there had always been enough room for everyone.

“You want to compare sizes, Sable? I bet I win.”

Perry didn’t know why he said that. He’d never been one for bragging—that was more Roar’s manner—but the remark made Cinder look over and smile, so it was worth it.

“Take one last look at your land,” Sable said, changing the subject.

Perry did. As the Hovers soared past the abandoned compound, he took in as much as he could, aching and nostalgic. Amazed at this new, shocking perspective of the place he’d lived in since birth.

After passing the compound, the fleet turned west and sped up, covering the half-hour walk over the dunes to the ocean in a heartbeat.

The beach where he’d learned how to walk and how to fish and how to kiss was a blur of beige and white. Gone in an instant, and then there was only water. Only waves that stretched out as far as he could see.

This journey was nothing like what he had imagined. For years, he’d pictured himself crossing over hills or deserts with the Tides in search of the Still Blue. He had expected a land voyage, not the steel blue of the ocean below and the glaring currents of Aether above.