Under the Never Sky: The Complete Series Collection

by Rossi, Veronica

  “All right. I swear to you, from now on I’ll talk. You’ll get tired of hearing my voice. But I think you should be the one to start.” He wasn’t the one with tears in his eyes.

  “Right now?”

  “Brooke and Roar aren’t back yet. We have some time.”

  Aria shook her head. “I don’t know where to start. It was one thing at first, but now it feels like everything.” The wind swelled, blowing her hair into her face. She pushed it away. “We haven’t fixed anything, Perry. Reverie is gone. We had to leave all those people behind, and you had to leave your house, and I liked that house. I wanted to sleep with you in the loft and watch the Aether through the crack in the roof—how you told me you loved to do? We never had a chance to do that. We won’t ever be able to.”

  She lifted her injured hand. “And there’s this. I was just figuring out how to fight; now it doesn’t work. I couldn’t buckle the belt in the Hover. I can’t even tie my hair back.” She tucked the arm to her side again. “Cinder is a prisoner. Liv is gone. Roar is . . . I don’t know . . . I don’t know how to help him. I don’t know what’s happened to the two of you—and then there’s you. I hurt you when I left, and I’m so scared that I damaged us—”

  “You didn’t.”

  “Then why won’t you talk about it?”

  Pressure built inside his chest, quickening his pulse. It was the same trapped feeling he got inside the cave, and it reminded him of how he’d felt when he’d walked into Vale’s room and found her missing. He’d carried that pressure around until the moment she’d come back.

  “I want to forget it happened. I need to, Aria. You were poisoned right in front of me. You almost died. For a while there . . . I thought you’d really left me.”

  “I left for you, Perry.”

  “I know. I know that now. It hurt both of us, but we got through it. And we’re not damaged because of it. We’re stronger.”

  “We are?”

  “Sure. Look at us. We’re surviving our first fight . . . or second.”

  Aria rolled her eyes. “This isn’t a fight and neither was yesterday.”

  He smiled. “Now you’re scaring me.”

  She laughed. It was a sparkling sound. A burst of brightness in the quiet of the woods. For the first time since he’d seen her running toward him, he relaxed.

  Aria still held her hand against her side. He wanted to take it and kiss each one of her fingers, but he didn’t want to chance making her feel worse about her injury.

  He stepped around her.

  “Perry, what are you—”

  He held her shoulders, keeping her from turning. “Trust me.”

  He swept her hair behind her shoulders, feeling her tense in surprise. Then he combed it back with his fingers. He loved her hair. Black as onyx, steeped in her violet scent. Heavy as a blanket in his hands.

  Reaching up, he tugged off the leather strap he’d used to pull his own knots back earlier, and tied her hair at the base of her neck.

  “Is that what you wanted?” he asked.

  “It’s, um . . . much better.”

  Bending, he kissed the smooth skin just beneath her ear. “How’s this?”

  “I don’t know. . . . Try again?”

  He smiled and wrapped his arms around her, gathering her close. Ahead of them, the lights from inside the Hover filtered through the trees—her world, blending with his. “You really want me to talk?”

  Aria leaned back, letting him take her weight. “Yes.”

  “You’re going to hear a lot about my favorite subject.”

  “Hunting?”

  He laughed. “No.” He slid his hands to her hips, feeling muscle and solid bone, and then back up, over the curve of her waist. “Not hunting.” Every part of her drove him mad, and he told her so, whispering in her ear as she rested against him.

  When she turned sharply to the woods, he knew she’d heard Roar and Brooke. It was time to go back, but he held on, keeping her there just a little longer.

  “What brought you out here, Aria?” he asked.

  She looked up, right into his eyes. “I needed to find you.”

  “I know,” he said. “The second I left you, I felt the same way.”

  They returned to the cargo hold to listen to Soren’s assessment.

  Perry sat with Aria, Brooke, and Jupiter, while Roar stood off in the shadows again.

  Soren planted his feet wide and locked his hands behind his back, letting out a self-important sigh as he scanned their faces. He acted as though he were going to address a crowd of thousands instead of the five of them.

  “First, I want to say that it’s a real shame none of you are smart enough to appreciate what I’ve done here. To put it in simplistic terms, which you may or may not comprehend, I essentially hit a bull’s-eye.”

  Perry shook his head. Every single thing Soren did chafed him, but Aria seemed unruffled.

  “What did you find out?” she asked.

  “That I’m unstoppable. And indispen—”

  “Soren.”

  “Oh, you mean about the plan? We’re all set.”

  Aria looked at Perry in surprise. Soren had only been at work for two hours, maximum.

  “Let’s run through it,” Perry said.

  “It’s ready,” Soren insisted. “Let’s get this going. Every minute we spend sitting here, we’re taking a chance they’ll find us out.”

  Perry rubbed his chin, studying Soren. Scenting his temper.

  Something didn’t feel right. While still in Reverie, Soren had begun an experimental treatment to control his moods. Supposedly there was no risk of him becoming violent anymore, but anger lurked behind his obnoxious comments. Perry questioned his frame of mind, and his allegiance, even if Aria didn’t.

  Had Hess really betrayed Soren—his son? Given Perry’s own experience with Vale, he knew betrayal was possible within families. But maybe there was something more. Was Soren leading them right into the jaws of the enemy? Into a trap?

  Roar spoke from the shadows. “I’m with the Dweller.”

  Jupiter shrugged. “I am too?”

  “Aria and I decide how this goes,” Perry said.

  “Why?” Soren barked. “I hacked the system. I’m the one flying this ship. I’m doing everything. What are you doing? Why aren’t you taking orders from me?”

  “Because you’re scared,” Perry said. Might as well put it out there now, before they went any further. As a Scire, he seldom manipulated people, poking at the fears revealed through their tempers. But if Soren was going to break, Perry wanted it to happen here, not during their mission. So he pressed again.

  “You don’t know what you want. Do you, Dweller? Are you going to turn your back on us the first chance you get? Are you taking us in to impress your father? To get back on his good side?”

  Soren went very still, the veins at his neck swelling. “Just because of your weird mutation, don’t think you know what’s in my head. You don’t know anything.”

  “I know what side I’m on. I know I can handle pressure.”

  Perry’s words hung in a beat of silence. He’d gone right to Soren’s weakness, but it was the truth: Soren’s control was brittle, and Perry had proved it.

  Soren cursed and lunged forward. “Stupid Savage! I should have killed you. You should be dead!”

  Perry shot to his feet, yanking Aria behind him. Roar drew his blade, but Brooke was closer. She stepped in and pulled an arrow from the quiver at her back.

  “Go ahead,” she said, pressing the steel tip into Soren’s chest. “Take another step, Dweller. I’m already tempted.”

  Soren’s glare shifted away from Perry. He raked his eyes down Brooke’s body and said, “I’m tempted too. Anytime, Laurel. Just say the word.”

  For a long moment, no one moved. Perry knew he wasn’t the only one grasping for some clarity on what had just happened.

  Then Brooke said, “Who the hell is Laurel?”

  Behind him, Aria let out a chirp
of laughter, and suddenly Perry understood.

  Roar sheathed his knife, glancing at her. “And you call me wicked.”

  A scarlet blush crawled up Soren’s neck. “You’re all crazy,” he growled. “Every one of you!”

  Aria slipped past Perry. “I want to see what you set up, Soren. Show us?” She headed into the cockpit, denying him the opportunity to brood or argue by pulling him with her.

  Nicely done, Perry thought. She had gotten them exactly what they needed, a run-through of the plan, and it would give Soren a chance to recover his confidence by showing them the work he had done.

  “Brooke,” Perry said as the others filed into the cockpit. “Thank you.”

  She paused, setting her bow and quiver against the wall. “You’d have done the same for me.”

  Perry nodded. “I might have drawn blood, though,” he said.

  Brooke’s smile was a quick flash, but genuine. She glanced into the cockpit. “I miss her, Perry . . . don’t you?”

  Liv. “Yes,” he said.

  Brooke waited for him to say something more. What was there to say? What did she and Roar and Aria want from him? He couldn’t change his sister’s death. If he let himself feel it, the crack that ran through his heart would widen. It would break him, and he couldn’t break. Not here. Not now.

  “Do you think it’s easy for me and Roar?” Brooke asked.

  “No.” He tipped his chin toward the cockpit. “We should get in there.”

  Brooke shook her head, disappointed. “Fine,” she said, and stepped into the cockpit.

  Perry didn’t follow her. He leaned against the wall of the Hover, pressing his thumbs to his eyes until he saw red spots instead of Liv with a crossbow bolt in her heart.

  They spent the next hours considering every angle of their plan, talking every scenario through as the night wore on. Roar yawned, then Jupiter, and then they were all yawning, fighting sleep. Everyone knew their role, but Aria wanted them to suit up and walk through their parts—a good idea considering Jupiter’s and Soren’s inexperience.

  They found Guardian suits inside the storage lockers. Aria and Brooke grabbed theirs and left, taking turns in the cockpit for privacy.

  It took Perry ten seconds to figure out that none of the suits would fit him. He swung open another locker, searching for more, and found a large black vinyl bag. He’d just grabbed the handle, noting its heaviness, when Soren spoke at his back.

  “That’s an inflatable boat, Outsider. And if that’s what you’re wearing, I’m out of this operation.” He snorted. “Can’t you read? It says so right there in huge letters. ‘Motorized Ship, Small.’”

  Perry stuffed the bag back into the locker. It took all his self-control not to rip the metal door off and slam it across Soren’s face.

  “Here you go, Perry,” Jupiter said, his mouth lifting in an apologetic smile. He tossed a folded bundle. “Extra large.”

  Perry caught it and pulled his shirt off.

  Soren made a sputtering sound behind him. “Are those tattoos permanent?” he asked, gaping. His attention shifted to the panther Marking covering Roar’s shoulder. Soren opened his mouth to say something else but reconsidered.

  He was scared of Roar, which was wise. Roar could be ruthless and deadly. Perry had seen that side of him plenty of times. Lately, it felt like that was the only side he saw.

  Roar looked over at Perry, his gaze cold and dark, though his temper flared crimson.

  Normally, Roar would have made a crack about Soren, but things were anything but normal. He shut the locker in front of him and left.

  The Guardian uniform felt light and tough as Perry pulled it on, the material cool and faintly reflective. He’d never thought he’d have to dress like a Mole. The men who had taken Talon had worn suits like this, as had the Guardians who’d shot Aria in Reverie. Perry expected to hate the garment for that reason, but he was surprised to find that he liked the way it felt, like he’d donned the protective skin of a snake.

  He didn’t miss Aria’s double take as they filed out of the Hover. He grinned, feeling a little self-conscious—and more than a little streaked at himself for caring what she thought when there were more important things to worry about.

  Outside, leaves rolled across the clearing in waves, carried on gusts. Rain clouds knitted tightly across the sky, casting the night in a darkness so impenetrable that Brooke and Aria jogged back into the Hover for light sticks.

  Though the Aether wasn’t visible, Perry could sense it prickling on his skin. He wondered if the currents were coiling into funnels behind those clouds, and if the red flares had appeared. Would they see a rainstorm and an Aether storm in the morning?

  Brooke and Aria returned, and they all took their positions. Soren and Jupiter stayed by the Belswan with Aria. Brooke, Perry, and Roar waited in the woods, ready to surround the Dragonwing as it came to the rescue. When Perry signaled, they moved in and rehearsed how they would overpower the Guardians, down to who would speak and what they’d say.

  They spent time coordinating how to take down the Guardians unharmed. A regular Dragonwing crew consisted of four men, trained pilots all, and they’d need every one of them in order to steal Hovers from Sable and Hess.

  Four pilots meant four Belswans. Added to the one already in their possession, they would have enough capacity to carry all the Tides to the Still Blue.

  “No bloodshed,” Perry said, after they’d run through every detail a few times. “We do this just as planned.”

  Agreement all around. Nods from everyone.

  They’d done all they could do.

  They were ready.

  11

  ARIA

  So . . .” Soren waved a shaky hand at the pilot seat. In his other hand, he gripped the Smarteye tightly. “I’m going to sit so we can get started and everything.”

  “Go ahead,” Aria said.

  “Thanks.” Soren dropped into the chair, and his leg began to bounce.

  Last night during rehearsal, he’d been calm. Everything had been calm. But now, rain pelted the windshield of the cockpit. Outside, in the gray early morning, the trees tossed back and forth and the wind howled through the bay doors.

  It wasn’t an Aether storm, but it was enough to make Aria’s stomach buzz with nerves.

  “Let’s get this going,” Perry said.

  Roar and Brooke had taken their positions outside, waiting for the mission to begin.

  They weren’t altering their plan because of the storm. Aria had really never understood rain until she’d come to the outside. In the Realms, it was poetic. Ambience for a night with friends in a mountain cabin. For a day studying in a café. But in the real, it streamed into your eyes and chilled your muscles to the bone. It had a biting side, and they hoped the Guardians who came in the Dragonwing would be thrown off because of it.

  “I’m ready,” Soren said. “It’s all set. I did this in Reverie once. Remember, Jup?”

  In the other pilot seat, Jupiter sat up, almost straightening out of his usual slouch. “Yeah, I remember. You got us out of history exams that one time.”

  Soren’s lip curled. “Right . . . exams.”

  Aria wondered if he was thinking what she was: how terribly far they had come from school. From hours in the lounges of Reverie, studying and fractioning in the Realms.

  “Once I hack into their system,” Soren said, “I’ll be traceable. I’ll throw every obstacle I can at them, but that’s when the clock starts running.”

  He had already told them this. There were three components to the mission. First, a breach of the Komodo’s security system, which he’d handle alone. This would bring the patrol to them, setting up the takeover of the Dragonwing—the second step. Last, disguised as Guardians, they would enter the Komodo itself.

  In the worst-case scenario, the security system breach would be discovered while they were inside extracting Cinder, but Soren predicted they would have two hours before that happened. If they followed the plan, t
hey’d have plenty of time.

  “We know, Soren,” Aria said. “If we’re going to intercept this patrol, we have to start now.”

  He nodded, the color leaving his face. Aria watched his grip on the Smarteye ease. Then he brought the device to his face with visible effort and placed the clear patch over his left eye.

  One second passed. Two. Three.

  Soren tensed, his fingers digging into the armrests. “I’m in.” He sat up, his shoulders rolling with a small shudder, his knee still bouncing up and down. “Here we go. Where are you? Where am I? Where are you? Where am I?”

  Soren’s chant stopped when an image appeared, floating in the air before the front windshield.

  It was an avatar of him from the waist up, the image three-dimensional but translucent, the likeness complete down to the thin scar on his chin. Down, even, to an almost exact replica of the clothes he wore—the clothes they all wore: a pale gray Guardian flight suit with blue reflective stripes along the sleeves.

  There was no context to the image. No room or cockpit. Soren’s avatar floated in midair like a ghost.

  “Oh, come on,” Soren said, running a hand over his head. “My hair looks better than that. The approximation algorithms the military uses are really substandard,” he muttered as he entered a series of commands into the Belswan control panel.

  Aria had never seen anyone so focused and manic at the same time. Perry watched in silence, but she wondered what he scented in Soren’s temper.

  “Sorry you can’t stay, Soren,” said Soren, “but I’ll see you later, handsome.”

  The three-dimensional avatar blurred and flattened like it had been pressed between glass. Another figure expanded and sharpened before them: Hess, lifeless, staring straight ahead.

  Hess was fuller in build than Soren, with a chiseled face and sleek, combed-back hair. Only his eyes, dull and sunken, revealed the decades between him and his son.

  Soren sat motionless in the pilot’s seat, staring at his father’s avatar. Hess had left him behind in Reverie. He had to be thinking about that now.