Under the Never Sky: The Complete Series Collection

by Rossi, Veronica

Her first touch over his knuckles was feather soft, but chills came over him, shaking his shoulders. Aria’s hands went still.

  “Keep going,” he said, before he could change his mind and rip his arm off. It might have hurt less. He kept his head down. Watched the dark spots his tears made as they fell on his leather pants. He wanted to ask her to sing. He remembered her voice, how it had carried him away. He couldn’t form the words. But then the Luster kicked in, saving him by dulling some of the pain. Perry pushed the wetness off his cheeks and straightened, swaying unsteadily.

  Aria wrapped the long strip of gauze around his wrist, and then wove it up, looping it through each of his fingers. She was calm now. Focused. He watched her as he sank deeper and deeper into the mind-numbing fog of Luster.

  She was touching him. He wondered if she realized it too.

  “Have you ever seen someone like him before?” she asked.

  Cinder. A boy with Aether in his blood. “No. Never seen that,” he slurred. Perry wondered how it was possible, but he couldn’t deny what he’d seen. Not with proof moving through him in agonizing waves. How many times had he looked up and felt connected to the sky himself? Like it wasn’t just some faraway force? Like his own mood ebbed and flowed with the Aether? He should’ve trusted his Sense. Cinder set off the same stinging sensation in his nose. And he’d known the boy was hiding something.

  “I was trying to help. . . . The more I try to catch up, the farther I fall behind.” The words slipped out, clumsy but true.

  Aria looked up from his hand. “What did you say?”

  Her face blurred left and right. Finally his focus pinned on her.

  “Nothing. Nothing. Just stupid things.”

  Roar came back carrying Cinder across his neck in a hunter’s hold, legs to one side, arms to the other.

  “Is he dead?” The question came out of Perry in one sound, all of the words sliding together.

  “Unfortunately, no,” Roar said, out of breath.

  Cinder balled up as soon as Roar set him down. He was shaking worse than before. He turned his face into the earth. Perry saw wide patches of bare scalp. They hadn’t been there before. His clothes were blackened. Almost falling off completely.

  “We have to leave him, Perry. He’s too weak.”

  “We can’t.”

  “Look at him, Peregrine. He can barely hold his head up.”

  “The Croven will come through here.” Perry gritted his teeth as stars bloomed before his eyes. Fewer words, he told himself. Less movement. Just breathing.

  Aria draped a blanket over Cinder. She bent close. “Is it the Aether?”

  Perry peered up. The Aether had a soft, washed-out look. It had waned back to the wisps of earlier that day. He was in so much pain, he hadn’t noticed. Then he realized the sting in his nose was faint. Hardly there. Cinder had to be linked to the Aether tides.

  “Just leave,” Cinder rasped.

  “Listen to him, Perry. It’s a haul to Marron’s, and we’ve got twenty Croven on our heels. Are you really going to risk our lives for this fiend?”

  Perry didn’t have the strength to argue. He climbed to his feet, concentrating on hiding his unsteadiness. “I’ll carry him.”

  “You will?” Roar shook his head, his laugh dry. “He’s not Talon, Perry!”

  Perry wanted to punch him. He tried to get himself over to Roar, but his legs took him sideways. Aria jumped up, darting toward him, but he found his balance. For a moment, he was staring down into her eyes. Seeing her worry. She turned to Roar.

  “He’s right, Roar. We can’t leave him like this. And we’re only wasting time arguing.”

  Roar looked from Aria to him. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.” He went to Cinder and hoisted the boy roughly onto his shoulders, cursing viciously as he turned up the mountain and set off.

  They traveled in a close pack now. Aria walked to Perry’s right, the blisters and cuts on her feet hidden by boots. Roar trudged to his left, breathing hard, making the climb to Marron’s with a hundred extra pounds on his shoulders. Perry tucked his arm close to his chest, but it didn’t help. He felt his heartbeat thumping in his hand with every step. Thirst gripped him. He emptied every one of their skins within the first hour but found no relief.

  When the Luster wore off, he battled waves of pain that threatened to drop him. But he noticed something else, too. The pine shroud had lifted. Scents came with familiar clarity, isolated and sharp. His nose had finally adjusted.

  The Croven’s fetid scents carried to him on the wind. He counted more than two dozen individual scents. Stronger, closer, were Aria’s and Roar’s tempers.

  From them he scented only fear.

  Chapter 21

  ARIA

  Aria stared into the woods with burning eyes, searching for crow masks and black capes. They were moving too slow and stopping too often for Roar to catch his breath. When they did rest, she didn’t miss the look of relief on Perry’s ashen face. Somehow, despite the state of her feet, she’d become the fastest one among them.

  Her gaze fell to Perry’s bandaged hand. The white gauze, bright in the fading daylight, was spotted with blood. She’d never seen a wound like that. She couldn’t imagine the pain he was in. She couldn’t believe what had happened.

  Who was Cinder? How could a human have that kind of power? Aria knew about animals that used bioelectricity. Rays and eels. But a boy? It was like something from a Realm. But then hadn’t she just learned about Scires and Auds and Seers? Couldn’t Cinder’s ability be just another mutation? Harnessing the Aether seemed like a massive genetic break. But it was possible.

  She lost herself in the rhythm of picking her feet up and setting them down until Roar stopped suddenly and dropped Cinder on the dirt, making no effort at gentleness.

  “I can’t carry him anymore.”

  Night had fallen but a full moon shone, bold and bright in the sky. The Aether had weakened, fading to a wash of pale light. They’d reached a stretch of flat land. The mountain climbed up ahead, growing thickly wooded again.

  Cinder lay in a heap, his eyes closed. He wasn’t shivering anymore. Perry swayed beside her.

  “We’re almost there,” he said, tipping his head toward the wooded slope. “It’s just there.”

  Roar shook his head. “My legs.”

  Perry nodded. “I’ll take him.”

  Cinder’s eyes opened to slits, searching for Perry. “No.” His voice was small, a whimper. He rolled to the side, turning his back to them.

  Perry stared at him for a moment. Then he took Cinder’s wrist, pulling the boy’s arm across his shoulder. Perry’s wounded arm wrapped around Cinder’s waist as he hauled Cinder up. They began to walk together, Perry bending forward to bring himself closer to Cinder’s height.

  Cinder glanced up as they passed her, his black eyes sparkling with the sheen of tears. With shame, Aria realized. He’d torched the hand that now held him upright.

  Aria whirled around. “What is that?” The night had a new noise. A faraway hum.

  “Bells,” Roar said, glaring at the woods.

  She remembered Harris’s words. “To drive away dark spirits,” she said.

  “To drive me mad.” Roar took something from his bag. A black hat that he pulled over his head. Heavy flaps came down to cover his ears. “They disorient me.”

  Perry turned. He lifted his head slightly, his eyes scanning as he drew a breath through his nose in a natural, wild gesture. This was him. The Scire. The Seer. He met Roar’s gaze, a silent message passing between them.

  “We have to run,” Roar said.

  Terror shot through her. She looked at Cinder, hanging at Perry’s side. “How are you going to run with him?”

  He was moving before she’d finished asking the question. Aria reached into her pockets and scooped out the rocks she’d collected. She let them scatter on the ground.

  Minutes after they started running, her muscles cramped. Nausea rose up in her, which she didn’t understa
nd, as she hadn’t eaten in a day. She pushed on. Her boots caught on every small stone. Every step stabbed the bottoms of her feet. Trees loomed up ahead, shadowed shapes on the hillside. The trees would hide them. She ran and ran and still they seemed no closer.

  “They’re running too,” Perry said after another stretch. An hour? A minute? All the color had drained from his face. She could see that even in the dark.

  She didn’t notice when dawn came, gray and misty. Or when they’d made it to the incline where the trees began. She appeared beneath the pines suddenly, like she’d fractioned into a Realm.

  “Move, Cinder. Run,” Perry told him.

  Cinder’s feet dragged. He was barely supporting his own weight anymore.

  Aria bit her lip, searching desperately into the woods for the Croven. The bells were loud now, disorienting like Roar said. “Let me take him, Perry.”

  Perry slowed. His hair was slick and darkened with sweat. His soaked shirt sucked to his frame. He nodded, letting her take Cinder. Cinder was freezing to the touch. His eyes had rolled to the back of his head. Roar appeared at his other side. Together, they dug in, pushing, carrying Cinder between them as the slope grew steeper and the bells rang louder.

  Roar stopped. “Straight uphill. Can you manage without me?”

  “Yes.” She turned and her heart seized. “Where’s Perry?”

  “Slowing the Croven down.”

  He’d left? He’d gone back?

  Roar drew his knife. “Keep moving. Get to Marron’s. Get us help.”

  He tore down the slope, his black clothes fading into the shadows. Aria firmed her grip around Cinder’s bony ribs and pressed on, her every step weighted by terror. She couldn’t push back the thought . . . What if she never saw them again? What if that was the last time she’d see Perry? She wouldn’t let it be.

  “Help me, Cinder.”

  “I can’t.” The words were softer than a whisper at her side.

  She was close when she noticed the stone wall. It was so unexpected, rising amid the evergreens. It soared to high above, many times her height. Aria hobbled up with Cinder, flattening her free hand on the rough surface. She had to feel it to be sure it was real. She followed it, keeping close enough that her shoulder dragged against the wall, until she came upon a heavy wooden gate. A screen was embedded in the mortar to the side. She gasped, seeing a device from her world here on the outside.

  She swiped her hand across the dusty screen. “I need help! I need Marron!” Her breath came in ragged sobs. She tipped her head up to a tower high above her.

  “Help!”

  Someone peered down, a dark figure against the bright morning sky. She heard distant shouts. A few moments later, the inset screen flickered on. A man appeared, his face plump and fair and blue-eyed. His damp, butter-blond hair showed the traces of a thorough combing.

  A disbelieving smile broke over his face. “A Dweller?”

  The gate opened with a rumble that clattered in her kneecaps.

  Aria wobbled into a broad grass courtyard, her shoulders screaming with the effort of keeping Cinder on his feet. Cobbled streets linked stone cottages and garden plots. In the distance, still within the wall, she saw pens with goats and sheep. Smoke drifted skyward from several chimneys. A few people glanced at her, more curious than surprised. It looked like a keep in a Medieval Realm, except the enormous structure at the center resembled a gray box, not a castle.

  Ivy grew along its walls but did nothing to soften the cement structure. There was only one entry, heavy steel doors that slid open smoothly as she watched. The round-faced man from the screen emerged. He was short and portly but graceful as he hurried toward her. A young man followed close at his side. She’d been standing there long enough that the gate behind her began to close.

  “No!” she said. “There are two more people coming! Peregrine and Roar. I was told to find Marron.”

  “I’m Marron.” He turned his blue gaze toward the door. “Perry is out there?” By then, shouts of “Croven” rained down from the wall. Marron gave quick orders to the lanky young man at his side, directing people to take posts on the wall, others to head downhill to help Perry and Roar.

  Two men came forward and took Cinder from her side. Cinder’s head fell back limply as they picked him up.

  “Have him taken to medical,” Marron told them. When he looked back to her, his expression softened. He pressed his hands together beneath his soft chin, a smile lighting in his eyes. “Blessed, blessed day. Look at you.”

  He tucked her neatly under his arm and ushered her toward the square structure. Aria didn’t protest. She could hardly walk. She let herself be cushioned to his soft side. Perfume flowed into her nose. Sandalwood. Citrus. Clean smells. She hadn’t smelled perfume since she’d been in the Realms.

  She rushed through an explanation of the Croven as he led her inside. They crossed an airlock chamber that had been left open, no longer serving the purpose for which it had been designed. A wide cement hall brought them to a large room.

  “I sent my best people to help. We can wait for them here,” Marron said.

  It was only then she realized Marron was wearing Victorian clothes. A black tailcoat over a blue velvet vest. He even had a white silk puff tie and spats.

  Where was she? What kind of place had she stumbled into? She turned, searching the room for understanding. Three-dimensional wallscreens, like people had before the Unity, framed two sides of the room. They showed images of forests, green and lush. Birdsong twittered through hidden speakers. The other walls were covered in richly patterned fabric. Every few feet, glass cases housed collections of odd items. An Indian headdress. A red old-fashioned sporting jersey with the number forty-five in block numbers across the back. A paper magazine, the dinosaur illustration on the cover framed by a yellow border. Spotlights showcased everything, like in ancient museums, so that Aria’s eyes traveled from one burst of color to another.

  At the center of the room, several lush couches were ordered around an ornate coffee table with curved legs. Aria’s brain flashed with recognition. She’d seen a table like that in a Baroque Realm. A Louis XIV piece. She peered at Marron. What kind of Outsider was he?

  “This is my home. I call it Delphi. Perry and Roar call it the Box,” he added, with a quick, affectionate smile. “There’s so much I want to know, but it’ll have to wait, of course. Please have a seat. You look so very tired, and standing won’t bring them here any faster, I’m afraid.”

  Aria moved toward the couch, suddenly feeling self-conscious. She was filthy and Marron’s home looked rich and immaculate, but the need to get off her feet overpowered her. She sat down, a gasp of relief escaping from her lips. The plush couch gave beneath her weight, melting against her back and her legs. She brushed her hand over the chocolate-colored fabric. Unbelievable. A silk couch. Here, on the Outside.

  Marron sat opposite her, twisting a ring around a pudgy finger. He appeared to be a 4th Gen, but there was a childlike curiosity in his eyes.

  “Perry is hurt,” she said. “His hand is burned.”

  Marron issued more orders. Aria hadn’t even realized there’d been other people in the room until they sped off. “I have a facility here. We’ll take care of him as soon as he’s inside. Slate will see that it gets done.”

  She guessed Slate was the tall young man who’d just been outside. “Thank you,” she said. Her eyes were closing on their own. “I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have left him. But he was gone before I knew it.” She spoke without realizing it.

  “My dear . . . ,” Marron said, looking at her with concern. “You need rest. What if I have you informed the moment they arrive?”

  She shook her head, fighting off a wave off exhaustion. “I’m not going anywhere until they get here.” She folded her hands in her lap, recognizing the gesture as her mother’s.

  Any second, Perry would get there.

  Any second.

  Chapter 22

  PEREGRINE

&nb
sp; The bells rang everywhere. Perry couldn’t tell where the sound was closest. He scanned the woods. “Where are you?”

  His eyes locked onto movement. Downhill two Croven stalked toward him, their capes dragging along the earth. They didn’t wear masks. Perry knew the exact moment they saw him. Fear slashed across their faces and then they dove behind a tree.

  Perry pulled his bow off his shoulder, but he couldn’t move the fingers of his burnt hand. How was he supposed to draw his bow? The Croven peered around the tree, testing for danger. Sure, they crept onward in quick bursts, clutching their knives.

  He had to do something. Aria and Roar were moving too slowly with Cinder. They wouldn’t make it to Marron’s unless he held off the Croven.

  Perry sat where he was and wedged the bow stave across his feet. With his good hand, he fumbled to nock an arrow to the string. Then he pushed his legs out, drawing the string back and loosing it. It was a clumsy shot—he hadn’t fired an arrow using his feet since he was a boy sneaking off with his father’s bow—but the arrow flew, forcing the Croven to scramble for cover again.

  “Perry, your bow!”

  Roar pulled the quiver off Perry’s back as he ran up. He took Perry’s bow, nocked an arrow, and fired. Perry shot to his feet and drew his knife, and realized that it was backward—Roar with a bow and him with a knife—but they were moving. Keeping the Croven back as they worked their way up to Marron’s. He became Roar’s eyes, spotting whenever one of the Croven made a reckless charge. He found them. Roar fired.

  Perry sensed movement at his back, and spun. A dozen men sprinted downslope toward them. Perry gripped the knife tighter. There were too many and too close. Then he realized they weren’t Croven.

  “Marron’s men, Roar!”

  Roar spun, his eyes wide, sweeping. Arrows sliced past them, flying at the Croven. They ran, legs tearing into the slope. They didn’t stop until they’d crossed the gate into Marron’s courtyard.

  People surrounded him, telling him to follow. Perry did what they asked. He could barely speak. He stumbled into the Box and through Marron’s halls, not thinking beyond moving his legs.