Into the Still Blue (7 page)

Jupiter’s eyes went wide, but Soren held his ground.

He crossed his arms. “If Jupiter goes, I go.”

“Done,” said Reef. “Good-bye to you both.”

“Can any of you fly a Hover?” Soren asked, looking around him. “I didn’t think so. We
can
. Isn’t that what we need? A way out of here? And I want equal representation on this pathetic team.”

“Equal?” Reef said. “There are forty Dwellers in that cave. You are one tenth our count.”

“We speak technology, which makes our tenth a hundred times more valuable.”

A few paces away, Twig turned to Gren. “So are they more valuable or are we?”

“I don’t know,” Gren answered. “I’m lost.”

“Get in there, Jupiter,” Aria said, gesturing to the Belswan.

A dozen heads whipped to look at her. No one stared more intently than Reef.

“Soren has a point,” she said. “It’s smart to bring someone else who can fly the Hover. We should have an alternate pilot in case something incapacitates him during the mission.”

Soren’s expression went from smug to shocked as he realized what she’d said.

Reef’s face underwent the same transformation, in reverse. He broke into a wide grin, tipping his head at her in a gesture of respect.

“Don’t just stand there,” he said to Soren and Jupiter. “Your first-in-command just gave an order. Load up.”

Aria hugged Caleb, promising she’d see him soon, and boarded with them.

The bay doors opened to the cargo hold, a wide, bare space that stretched across the middle of the Hover. She moved to the cockpit at the front with Soren and Jupiter, who dropped into the two seats and immediately began to argue about which button controlled what.

It didn’t inspire confidence.

Leaning against the threshold, she watched them while keeping her ears tuned for Perry and Roar.

She wasn’t worried about bringing Jupiter. He was harmless, and she liked the idea of having another Dweller on the team. The more they could integrate, the better. But Soren was another matter.

Could she trust him? He had come through for her with Talon. But then he’d also attacked her in Ag 6. And she’d trusted his father, Hess, and look where that had gotten her. Then there was Soren’s attitude and his history with Perry. The only thing he really contributed were his piloting skills, and those were shaky.

Soren sensed her watching him and broke off with Jupiter. “What?”

“Are you ready?” she asked.

His lip curled up—a dead giveaway that he was nervous. “What kind of question is that? Is there a way to prepare for this that I’m unaware of?”

“You’ll do fine. You’ve flown it already. Just don’t crash.”

She caught him by surprise. His smirk softened into a more natural smile. “I’ll try not to.”

Aria heard Perry walk up behind her. His hand settled on the small of her back.

“Get this ship moving, Soren,” he said, over her shoulder. “Put us ahead of that storm.”

Through the windshield she saw that the fog had begun to burn off, revealing a patch of sky to the south. There, the Aether wheeled in spirals, a sight both terrifying and familiar. The red flares were brighter than she’d expected, shocking as fresh blood. Seeing them stole her breath away.

“I was just waiting for you to show up, Outsider,” Soren said.

Perry had already left, heading back into the cargo hold, leaving a fading warmth where his hand had rested.

Soren’s mouth pulled into a sneer. “Aria, please explain to me how you can—”

“I’m not explaining anything to you, Soren,” she said, and left.

She knew what he was going to say. Perry had shattered Soren’s jaw that night in Ag 6. She knew he found the idea of her and Perry together repulsive.

At the far end of the cargo hold, she saw Perry duck through the door that opened into a stowage room. Earlier, when she’d first arrived on the bluff with Caleb, she had left her things in the supply lockers back there. She’d found food, medicine, and camping supplies, along with a small kitchen. Most importantly, the room stored their weapons.

An entire wall of lockers contained pistols, stun guns, bulkier weapons she suspected were for long-range, and other arms used by Guardians. Perry’s and Brooke’s bows would be added as well, along with a few full quivers.

A packed arsenal, but it didn’t feel like enough. Together, Sable and Hess had at least eight hundred people. She’d seen Hess’s forces as he’d fled Reverie. He’d taken all the Guardians, choosing soldiers over regular civilians. But Sable worried her even more. Maybe he didn’t have the technological prowess Hess had, but he was cunning and completely ruthless.

They were facing the most capable fighters from both worlds. To succeed, they’d need much more than the weapons stored in the back.

The engine thrummed to life, startling her. She pulled one of the jump seats down from the wall and sat, drawing the thick harness straps over her shoulders.

Brooke came in from outside, followed by Roar. Aria heard them walk up the ramp and into the hold, but she didn’t look up. With only one hand, snapping the heavy closure of the harness was impossible. She fumbled with it, trying not to scream.

Roar knelt in front of her. “Do you really need help or are you just trying to get my attention?”

“Very funny.”

He buckled the harness, hands quick and sure; then he looked up, staring at her thoughtfully.

His eyes were bloodshot, and fine dark stubble covered his cheeks. It wasn’t him. Unlike Perry, Roar didn’t like scruff. He looked like he hadn’t slept in a week. Like he’d never sleep again. The sorrow in his eyes seemed to go on forever.

“It’ll heal, Ladybug,” he said.

Roar was always giving her nicknames.
Ladybug
had come just over a week ago. They had been on a boat together, moving down the Snake River, when the ship’s captain had called her that. With this memory came others that made her stomach clench. Roar with tears running down his face. Roar unspeaking, buried under thick layers of grief.

He was speaking now. He was a dark, shifting force.

Would
he
ever heal?

Aria rested her hand on his, wanting to say something that would help. Wanting him to know that she loved him and was sorry about the tension between him and Perry.

Roar’s mouth lifted, a flicker of a smile that didn’t reach his dark eyes. “Got it,” he said.

He had listened to her thoughts and heard everything.

Her gaze moved over his shoulder. Perry stood by the entrance to the cockpit watching them, his expression unreadable. Roar turned and they froze, locked in a hard stare that had no place between friends.

A prickling feeling crawled up Aria’s spine. Somehow she felt like a barrier between them, and that was the last thing she ever wanted to be.

Buckled in the seat on the opposite wall, Brooke watched Perry watch Roar. The cargo doors closed with silent finality, and the sound of Soren and Jupiter’s bickering over the Hover’s controls grew louder, breaking the quiet spell that had trapped them.

Roar moved to the cockpit to guide them back to where he’d seen the Komodo. Perry followed, watchful and focused.

Soren lifted the Belswan off the ground with a stomach-dropping lurch.

Across the cargo hold, Brooke scowled. “I thought he could fly this thing.”

“He can fly it,” Aria said. “Landing is the problem.”

Brooke gave her an appraising look. Aria met it evenly, trying not to wonder what Perry had seen in her. What he’d acted like with her. She had no reason to be envious. She didn’t want to be.

“Roar said you met Liv,” Brooke said.

Aria nodded. “I knew her only for a few days, but . . . I liked her. Very much.”

“She was my best friend.” Brooke glanced toward the cockpit. “We were like them.”

Perry and Roar stood inside, leaning against either side of the access opening. From her angle, she could only see half of each of them, and the open space between.

They were so different, inside and out, but they stood exactly the same way. Arms crossed. Ankles crossed. Their posture somehow both relaxed and alert. It was as close as they’d come to each other since Roar’s return.

“Like how they
used
to be,” Brooke amended.

“Has this ever happened before?”

“Never. And I hate it.”

Incredible. They actually agreed on something.

Aria rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes. The Hover hummed along, and the journey had turned smooth, but she knew it wouldn’t last.

A team, Reef had called them earlier. But they weren’t. Not even close.

They were six people with at least a dozen different agendas between them.

It didn’t matter. It
couldn’t
matter.

They needed to rescue Cinder. They needed a heading, and they needed Hovers to reach the Still Blue.

Her eyes fluttered open, finding Roar.

They needed revenge.

8

S
oren set the Belswan down in a clearing with a distance of about thirty miles between them and the Komodo. They decided to hike to a vantage point and observe from a safe distance.

Perry asked Roar to watch over the Belswan. Someone needed to guard it, and Perry needed Brooke for her eyes.

Roar agreed with a shrug, and Jupiter offered to stay as well. Perry waited outside, hoping Soren would stay too, but he emerged from the Belswan, jogging down the ramp behind Aria and Brooke.

Soren still wore his pale gray Dweller clothes, which would make him stand out like a whale in the woods, and he had a forty-pound pack taken from the supply room slung over his back.

Perry shook his head. “We’ll be back by tonight. You know that, right?”

Soren shot him a seething look and marched on.

They climbed to a cluster of stone outcroppings at the top of a hill. The spot would give them plenty of cover. Most importantly, it offered a clear view of the valley. The Komodo itself lay hidden behind a small slope in the distance. Hess and Sable would surely have sentinels posted along that ridge, and possibly also a patrol.

Perry sat beside Aria on the same rock, settling in to watch. They planned to assess their options from afar before moving closer.

They’d left the Aether storm behind at the coast, and the Aether flowed more calmly here, rolling in waves instead of turning in eddies. He didn’t see the red sparks, but he had a feeling he would soon. Thick clouds drifted across the sky, casting wide shadowed patches across the plateau, and he smelled rain coming.

“What was it your father used to say about patience?” Aria said after a little while.

Perry smiled. “It’s a hunter’s best weapon,” he said, happy she remembered something he’d told her months ago. Her temper was low and cool, at odds with her lighthearted comment.

“You all right?” he asked.

She hesitated, the shadowed look in her eyes reminding him of their argument. “I’m fine,” she said, a little too brightly. She tipped her head. “But Soren might need some help.”

Perry saw him and laughed. Soren had gutted his bag, emptying all its contents. Supplies spilled everywhere around him, and he was looking through a pair of binoculars, searching the distance.

“Perry, due east,” Brooke called from behind them.

He searched the low hills there. A Hover like the one that had taken Talon skimmed over the plateau.

Soren shot to his feet in excitement. “That’s a Dragonwing. Fastest Hover in existence.”

“It’s circling,” Brooke said. “It’s following a specific route around the Komodo.”

“A patrol,” Perry agreed.

They kept up their surveillance into the afternoon as massive thunderheads moved in, clotting the sky. The patrol followed the same route every two hours. Armed with that information, they returned to the Belswan and gathered in the cargo hold to discuss their options.

“We can’t outrun a Dragonwing,” Soren said. He rapped his knuckles twice on the metal floor of the Belswan. “Not with this slug.”

At the center of their circle was a light stick from the Belswan’s supplies. Perry turned the dial down to limit its brightness. In less than five minutes, the glaring light had given him a headache.