Under the Never Sky: The Complete Series Collection

by Rossi, Veronica

  “How’s he doing?” Perry asked.

  Molly caught his eye and smiled. “Better. He’s awake.”

  Perry stepped into the room. Cinder’s eyes fluttered open. He looked gray and hollow-boned, his breath rasping and shallow. He was wearing his usual cap, but his head was bald beneath. Perry scratched his chin, remembering. The only thing Cinder had said when he’d come to the night of the storm was Don’t let anyone see me.

  “I’ll head up and make sure everything is set for him,” Molly said, leaving them.

  “You ready to go?” Perry asked Cinder. “I’ve got one more trip before I’m coming back for you.”

  Cinder licked his lips. “I don’t want to.”

  “Willow’s going to be there. She’s been waiting to see you.”

  Cinder’s eyes filled with tears. “She knows what I am.”

  “You think she cares that you’re different? You saved her life, Cinder. You saved the Tides. Right now I think she likes you better than Flea.”

  Cinder blinked. Tears rolled down his face, seeping into the pillow. “She’ll see me this way.”

  “I don’t think she gives a damn what you look like. I know I don’t. I won’t force you, but I think you should come. Marron has a special place set up for you, and Willow needs her friend back.” He grinned. “She’s driving everyone crazy.”

  Cinder’s mouth twitched in a brief smile. “All right. I’ll go.”

  “Good.” Perry rested his hand on Cinder’s hat. “I’m grateful for you. Everyone is.”

  Gren waited outside with a horse. “I’ll keep an eye on him,” he said, handing Perry the reins.

  The compound was quiet, but across the clearing Perry saw Forest and Lark packing up their own mounts. They looked over, tipping their heads at him.

  Since the night of the storm, Kirra had no longer flirted or pushed him. In the span of a week, she’d gone from interested to indifferent, and he was fine with it. He regretted every second he’d spent with her on the beach. He regretted every second he’d ever spent with her.

  Perry swung up into the saddle. “I’ll be back in an hour,” he told Gren.

  Marron had transformed the cave. Fires cast golden light across the vast space, and the smell of sage floated through the air, softening the dampness and salt. He had organized the sleeping areas with tents for each family around the perimeter, to match the setup of the compound. Lamps lit a few from inside, and the material glowed soft white. The wide space at the center had been left open for gatherings, with the exception of a small wooden platform. In adjacent caverns, there were areas for cooking, washing, and even for keeping livestock and storing food. People wandered from one place to the next, wide-eyed as they oriented themselves in their new home.

  It looked a thousand times more inviting than anything Perry had imagined. He could almost forget he was beneath a mountain of rock.

  He spotted Marron by the small stage with Reef and Bear, and walked over to join them. Bear leaned on a cane, and both of his eyes were black.

  “What do you think?” Marron asked.

  Perry rubbed the back of his head. As much as Marron had done, it was still a temporary shelter. Still a cave. “I think I’m lucky to know you,” he said finally.

  Marron smiled. “Likewise.”

  Bear shifted his weight, peering at him. “I was wrong to doubt you.”

  Perry shook his head. “No. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t doubt. And I want to know what you think—especially when you think I’m wrong. But I need your trust. I always want the best for you and Molly. For everyone in the Tides.”

  Bear nodded. “I know that, Perry. We all do.” He held out his hand, his grip crushing when Perry took it.

  Bear wasn’t the only one in the Tides who had changed toward Perry since the storm. They didn’t argue with him anymore. Now, when he spoke, he sensed them listening and felt the power of their attention. He’d become Blood Lord day by day, through every act, every success, and even through his failures. Not by taking the chain from Vale.

  Perry looked around, and a seed of suspicion took root. It was difficult to tell in this new space, but they seemed too few in number. People were missing.

  “Where’s Kirra?” he asked. He didn’t see her, or any of her people.

  “Didn’t she tell you?” Marron said. “She left this morning. She told me they were going back to Sable.”

  “When?” Perry demanded. “When did they leave?”

  “Hours ago,” Bear said. “First thing this morning.”

  That couldn’t be right. Perry had just seen Lark and Forest. Why would they have stayed behind?

  Fear shot through him. He spun, running back to the horse he’d left outside with Twig. Ten minutes later, he thundered up to his house. The front door gaped open. He didn’t see a soul anywhere.

  Perry stepped inside, his heart pounding. Gren lay on the floor with his hands and feet bound by rope. Blood streamed from his nose, and his eye was swelling shut.

  “They took Cinder,” he said. “I couldn’t stop them.”

  Half an hour later, Perry stood on the beach outside the cave with Marron and Reef. He pulled the Blood Lord chain over his head and held it in his fist.

  Marron’s blue eyes widened. “Peregrine?”

  Nearby, Reef stared at the sea, arms crossed, unmoving.

  “I can’t take this with me.” Perry didn’t need to say why. With storms striking so often and the borderlands teeming with dispersed, leaving would be more dangerous than ever. “The Tides trust you,” he continued. “Besides, you like jewels better than I do.”

  “I’ll keep it,” Marron said. “But it’s yours. You’ll wear it again.”

  Perry tried to smile, but his mouth twitched. He wanted to wear the chain more than ever, he realized. He wasn’t the Blood Lord that Vale or his father had been, but he was still worthy. He was the right leader for the Tides now. And he knew he could carry the weight—his own way.

  He handed the chain to Marron and headed up the beach with Reef. Twig waited at the trail with two horses. The only ones Kirra had left behind.

  “Let me go,” Reef said.

  Perry shook his head. “I have to do this, Reef. When someone needs me, I dive.”

  After a moment, Reef nodded. “I know,” he said. “I know that now.” He ran a hand over his face. “You’ve got a week before I come after you.”

  Perry remembered the day he’d gone after Aria. Reef had given him an hour that lasted ten minutes. He smiled. “Knowing you, that means a day,” he said, clasping Reef’s hand. He pulled his satchel over his shoulder, and picked up his quiver and bow. Then he mounted up and set off with Twig.

  Perry’s throat tightened as they rode away. Weeks ago, he’d planned to leave his tribe behind, but now it was much harder than he’d expected. Harder than it had ever felt before.

  His thoughts turned to Kirra as the afternoon wore on. She’d been after Cinder all along. Her questions about the Croven and his scarred hand hadn’t been about him. She’d been probing him for information, waiting for the right time—the right way—to snatch Cinder. She’d deceived Perry, just like Vale had.

  Sable was behind this. Perry didn’t want to think about what use he had in mind for Cinder. He should’ve trusted his instincts. He should’ve sent Kirra away the day she’d shown up.

  Kirra’s tracks moved north on a well-worn trader’s route. They’d been riding a few hours when Perry glimpsed movement in the distance. Adrenaline sparked through him. He spurred his horse, shooting forward, hoping to cut off Lark and Forest.

  His stomach seized when he saw that it wasn’t either of Kirra’s men.

  Twig pulled his horse alongside. “What do you see?”

  Waves of numbness rolled through Perry. He couldn’t believe his eyes. “It’s Roar,” he said. “And Aria.”

  Twig cursed. “Are you serious?”

  Perry’s impulse was to call out to them. They were both Auds. If he raised his v
oice, they’d hear him. It was what he would have done once. Roar was his best friend. And Aria was …

  What was she to him? What were they to each other?

  “What do you want to do?” Twig asked.

  Perry wanted to run to her, because she’d come back. And he wanted to hurt her, because she’d left.

  “Perry?” Twig said, jarring him back.

  He urged his horse on. They rode closer, and the moment came when Aria heard the horses. Her head turned in his direction, but her eyes remained unfocused, unseeing in the dark. He watched her lips form words he couldn’t hear and then heard Twig’s answer beside him.

  “It’s me, Twig.” He paused, sending Perry a worried glance. “Perry’s with me too.”

  Messages passed between Auds. Heard only by Aud ears.

  Perry watched as Aria looked at Roar, her face tensing in a look of plain regret. No. It was more than regret. It was dread. After a month of being apart, she dreaded seeing him.

  She reached out and took Roar’s hand, and he knew they were passing a message between them. Perry couldn’t believe his eyes. They didn’t think he could see them, but he did. He saw everything.

  He was in fog as they reached each other. He dismounted and felt like he was floating. Like he was seeing everything from a distance.

  He didn’t know what was happening. Why Aria wasn’t in his arms. Why there was no greeting or smile on Roar’s face. Then Aria’s temper hit him, and it was so heavy and dark that he felt himself sway, overcome by it.

  “Perry …” She looked at Roar, her eyes blurring.

  “What is it?” Perry asked, but he already knew. He couldn’t believe it. Everything Kirra had said—everything he’d tried not to believe about Roar and Aria—was true.

  He looked at Roar. “What did you do?”

  Roar wouldn’t meet his eyes, and his face was white.

  Rage ignited inside of him. He lunged and shoved Roar, swinging, curses pouring out of him.

  Aria shot forward. “Perry, stop!”

  Roar was too quick. He gave ground, and trapped Perry by the arms. “It’s Liv,” he said. “Perry … it’s Liv.”

  38

  ARIA

  Finally Roar spoke, and Aria’s heart broke at his words.

  “I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t stop Sable. I’m sorry, Perry. It happened so fast. She’s gone. I lost her, Perry. She’s gone.”

  “What are you talking about?” Perry said, shoving Roar away. He looked at Aria, confusion flashing in his green eyes. “Why is he saying that?”

  Aria didn’t want to answer. She didn’t want to make it real for him, but she had to. “It’s the truth,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

  Perry blinked at her. “You mean … my sister?” The tone in his voice—vulnerable, tender—destroyed her. “What happened?”

  As quickly as she could, she explained Hess and Sable’s deal to reach the Still Blue together, and about Talon as well. She hated to do it, but he needed to know Talon’s life was in danger. Liv, she saved for last. She felt light-headed as she spoke, breathless and detached, like when she’d been invisible in the Realms.

  She hadn’t spoken for long, but when she finished, the woods felt darker, fading into the night. Perry looked from her to Roar, tears brimming in his eyes. She watched him battle with himself, struggling for focus. Struggling to keep himself together. “Talon is trapped in Reverie?” he said finally.

  “Talon and thousands of people,” she answered. “They’ll run out of oxygen if we don’t get them out. We’re their only chance.”

  He was moving to his horse before she’d finished speaking. “Go after Cinder,” Perry told Twig.

  Aria had forgotten Twig was there. “What happened to Cinder?”

  Perry swung into his saddle. “The Horns took him.” He rode up and held his hand down to her. “Let’s go!”

  Aria glanced at Roar. Whatever she’d expected of today, leaving him hadn’t been part of it.

  “I’ll go with Twig,” he said to her. The tension between him and Perry was still there.

  Quickly she hugged Roar. Then she took Perry’s hand. He pulled her up behind him, and the horse began to move before she’d settled her weight.

  Aria reached out instinctively, wrapping her arms around him as the horse galloped into the woods. Liv was forgotten for now. Roar and Cinder, too. Everything except Talon.

  She could feel the ridges of Perry’s ribs through his shirt. The shift of his muscles. He was real and close, just as she’d wanted him to be for weeks—for months. But nothing had changed. He still felt far away.

  39

  PEREGRINE

  Perry pushed the horse toward Reverie beneath a night sky writhing with Aether. Snatches of the horizon showed through the trees, pulsing with the light of funnels. They were heading south, right into the heart of a storm, but he had no choice. Talon was trapped.

  Images of his sister flashed before his eyes. Senseless things. Liv pinning him down, when they were young, to run a brush through his hair. Liv wrapped in Roar’s arms at the beach, laughing. Liv arguing with Vale over the arrangement with Sable, almost going to blows. He couldn’t accept that he’d never see her again.

  Talon was all he had now. He was the only family Perry had left. He glanced at Aria’s arms, wrapped tight around him. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe he had more.

  As they neared Reverie, a sharp scent carried on a warm gust, rustling through the trees. It brought a chemical taste to his tongue that he remembered from the night he’d broken into the Pod in the fall. Though he couldn’t see Reverie yet, he knew it was burning.

  Soon after, the horse locked beneath him as they crested a hill, rearing up, nickering in terror. The broad valley that spread before him was a sight unlike anything Perry had ever seen. They’d ridden for hours—it was sometime in the middle of the night—but Aether lit up the flat expanse. Hundreds of funnels lashed down from the sky, leaving bright red trails across the desert. Perry tightened his grip on the reins as the horse stamped and tossed its head. No amount of training would quiet its instincts now.

  Terror speared through him as the rounded form of the Pod came into focus. It sat directly beneath the thick of the storm, spewing clouds of smoke as black as coal. Much of it was concealed, but he remembered its shape from other times he’d been there. An enormous central dome like a hill, surrounded by smaller domes that branched off like the rays of the sun. Somewhere in there, he’d find Talon.

  The horse wouldn’t settle. Perry turned in the saddle. “We can’t ride any farther.”

  Aria jumped to the ground, no hesitation. “Come on!”

  Perry grabbed his bow and ran after her, legs heavy from hours in the saddle. As they tore across the desert, he tried not to think of their odds, running miles through an Aether storm, with no shelter, no place to take cover.

  Funnels struck down, each one louder, closer, sending searing waves across his skin. A sudden shriek exploded in his ears; then a flash of light blinded him. Forty paces away, a funnel of Aether twisted down, ripping across the earth. Every muscle in his body clenched, pain shuddering through him. Unable to soften his fall, he thudded onto the ground, the wind driven out of his lungs.

  Aria crouched a few paces away, tucked in a ball, her hands jammed over her ears. She was screaming. The sound of her pain carried above the Aether, cutting through him. He couldn’t stop it. Couldn’t move to her. How could he have brought her here?

  The brightness receded suddenly as the funnel spooled back up. Quiet roared in his ears. He fought to bring his feet beneath him and stumbled toward her. Aria shot toward him at the same time. They collided, slamming together, grasping for each other as they found their balance. Their eyes locked, and Perry saw his own terror mirrored on her face.

  An hour passed in a heartbeat. Perry didn’t feel his weight. Didn’t hear his steps as he ran. Brilliant slashes of light surrounded them, and the deafening roar of the storm was constant.

&nbs
p; They closed in on the Pod’s massive form, stopping half a mile away. Smoke billowed around them. Perry’s eyes and lungs burned. He couldn’t scent anything anymore. From where he stood, he could see that much of Ag 6, the dome he’d broken into months ago, had collapsed. Flames spewed a hundred feet in the air. He’d hoped to enter Reverie through it again. Now he saw they had no chance.

  “Perry, look!”

  The smoke shifted with the wind, drawing back like a veil. He saw another dome shimmering with blue light and spotted a vast opening. As he watched, two Hovercrafts streamed out of it, looking small as sparrows against the dome’s massive scale. They cut a seam through the desert, their lights fading into the smoky, flashing darkness.

  “That has to be Hess,” Aria said. “He’s abandoning it.”

  “That’s our way in,” he said.

  They ran closer, huddling together at the side of the opening, which soared hundreds of feet tall. Inside, he saw Dweller ships lined in rows. He recognized the smaller craft from when they’d taken Talon. Bodies shaped like teardrops, sleek and shimmery as abalone shells. Beyond them loomed a ship that dwarfed the others, its form segmented like an earth crawler. Armed soldiers moved in controlled chaos, loading supply crates, directing the flight of one Hover after another in a rush to leave the Pod.

  As he watched, a craft nearby sparked to life. Wings spread from its underbelly, a set of four like a dragonfly. Lights shot down their length, and then the air thrummed as the craft lifted off the ground. He flinched as it shot past with a deafening, buzzing sound.

  Aria met his eyes. “The airlock into Reverie is at the other end.”

  Perry saw it. The entrance was hundreds of yards away. He honed in on a group of men close by, his gaze finding the compact pistols at their belts.

  “We can sneak past them,” Aria said. “They’re focused on leaving, not on defending the Pod.”

  He nodded. It was their only shot. He pointed to a cluster of supply crates on palettes halfway down the hangar. There was a gap between them and the wall. “When the next Hover powers up, run for those crates. We can take cover behind them.”