Through the Ever Night (32 page)

Pixie startled when she ran up, blinking in confusion. “Aria?” A smile spread over her face. “It’s so good to see you! Soren told us you were alive, but I thought he was just acting strange again.”

“Reverie is breaking! You need to get out of here, Pixie. You have to leave!”

“Leave to where?”

“To the outside!”

Pixie shook her head, fear flashing across her features. “Oh, no … I’m not going
there
. Hess told us to stay here and enjoy the Realms. He’s fixing everything.” She smiled. “Sit down, Aria. Have you seen the Atlantis Realm? The kelp gardens are champ this time of year.”

“We’re running out of time, Aria,” Perry said beside her.

Pixie seemed to notice him for the first time. “Who’s he?”

“We need to find Soren,” Aria said quickly. “Can you message him for me?”

“Sure, I’ll do that right now. But he’s not far. He’s just in the southern lounge.”

Aria turned to Perry. “This way!” As she ran to the other end of the atrium, an explosion shook the air and sent her staggering. Pieces of concrete fell around them, disintegrating as they struck the smooth floors. She covered her head, fear pushing her on. The only solution—their only hope of surviving—was to get out of there.

Up ahead, she saw a group running toward her. She spotted a familiar face, and then several others. She wanted to cry at the sight of them. Caleb was there, his eyes wide and disbelieving. Rune and Jupiter, running together. She saw Soren at the center of the pack, and then the boy beside him.

Perry broke away from her side. He covered the distance in long, powerful strides and swept Talon into his arms. Over Perry’s shoulder, she caught a glimpse of Talon’s smile before he buried his face in Perry’s neck.

She’d waited for months to see that sight. She wanted to savor it, if only for an instant, but Soren barreled up, his gaze boring into her.

“Took you long enough,” he said. “I kept my part of the bargain. Now you keep yours.”

I
’m all right. Really, I’m all right,” Talon said. Perry held him as tight as he could without hurting him. “Uncle Perry, we have to go.”

Perry set him down and grasped his small hand. He took in his nephew’s face. Talon was healthy. And
here
.

Brooke’s younger sister, Clara, ran up and hugged his leg. Her face was red, and she was crying. Perry knelt. “It’s all right, Clara. I’m going to get you both home. I need you and Talon to hold hands. Don’t let go of each other, and keep close. Right next to me.”

Clara ran a sleeve over her face, wiping away tears, and nodded. Perry straightened. Aria stood with Soren, the Dweller who he’d fought months ago. Dozens of people had run up with him. They were alert and terrified, unlike the dazed people he had seen moments ago. He noticed they weren’t wearing Smarteyes.

“You brought the
Savage
?” Soren said.

Across the atrium, a sudden burst of flames spewed from a corridor. A second later, the wave of heat hit him. “We need to move, Aria. Now!”

“The transport hangar,” she said. “This way!”

They raced back to the Panop door, Soren and his group following. Aria called out as she ran, yelling to anyone who would listen to leave Reverie, but the peal of fire alarms and the thunder of smashing concrete swallowed even her voice. The people sitting in groupings on the ground floor didn’t move. They stayed blank-faced, oblivious to the chaos around them. Aria stopped in front of the girl she’d spoken to before and grabbed her by the shoulders.

“Pixie, you have to get out of here now!” she yelled. This time the girl didn’t respond at all. She stared ahead, unresponsive. Aria turned to Soren. “What’s wrong with them? Is it DLS?”

“It’s that. It’s leaving her for the outside. It’s everything,” Soren answered.

“Can’t you shut off their Smarteyes?” she asked desperately.

“I’ve tried!” Soren said. “They have to do it themselves. There’s no getting through to them. They’re scared. This is all they’ve ever known. I did everything I could.”

An explosive boom filled Perry’s ears. “Aria, we have to leave.”

She shook her head, tears spilling from her eyes. “I can’t do this. I can’t leave them.”

Perry stepped toward her, taking her face in his hands. “You have to. I’m not leaving here without you.”

He felt the truth of his words settle like cold over him. He’d do anything to change it. Give anything. But no matter what they did, they couldn’t save everyone.

“Come with me,” he said. “Please, Aria. It’s time to go.”

She looked up, her gaze moving slowly across the crumbling Pod. “I’m sorry … I’m sorry,” she said. He put his arm around her, his heart breaking for her. For all the innocent people who deserved to live, but wouldn’t. Together they ran for the exit, leaving the Panop behind.

They raced back into the outer corridors, leading the pack of Dwellers. Black smoke poured from air ducts, and the red emergency lights pulsed slowly, stuttering on for a second, off for a few more. Perry kept track of Talon and Clara, but Aria worried him more. She held her arm close and was struggling to keep up.

They reached the transport hangar and darted inside. It looked abandoned, nothing like the teeming hub Perry had seen earlier. He didn’t see any soldiers, and only a handful of Hovers remained.

“Can you pilot any of these?” Aria asked Soren. The color had drained from her face.

“I can in the Realms,” Soren said. “These are
real
.”

People streamed in around them. Through the vast opening at the other end, the desert still flashed with the full power of the storm.

“Do it,” Perry said. He and Aria had barely survived the journey there. He saw no way of leading dozens of scared people—Dwellers who’d never set foot outside—into the wrath of an Aether storm.

Soren wheeled on him. “I don’t take orders from you!”

“Then take them from me!” Aria yelled. “Move, Soren! There’s no time!”

“There’s no way this works,” Soren said, but he ran to one of the Hovers.

The ship was immense up close, the material of the body seamless and pale blue, with the shimmer of a pearl. Perry grabbed Talon’s and Clara’s hands, pulling them up the ramp.

The cabin inside was a wide, windowless tube. To one side, through a small doorway, he saw the cockpit. The other end was packed with metal crates. A supply craft, he realized, though one that had only been partially loaded. The middle of the hold where he stood was empty, but quickly filling with people.

“Move all the way back and sit down,” Aria instructed them. “Hold on to something, if you can.”

He noticed the Dwellers wore the same gray clothes Aria had when he’d first seen her that night in Ag 6. They were fair-skinned and wide-eyed, and though he couldn’t scent their tempers through the smoke, their reactions to him were blatant, plain on their stunned faces.

He looked down at himself. He had blood and soot covering his battered clothes, and a gun in his hand. Besides that, he knew he’d look hard and feral in their eyes, just as they looked soft and terrified to him.

He wasn’t helping anything by being there.

“In here,” he told Talon and Clara, ushering them into the cockpit.

He bumped his head on the door as he entered and flashed on Roar, who would’ve made a wisecrack. Who should be there. Who Perry had treated awfully earlier. He couldn’t believe he’d questioned Roar’s loyalty. Suddenly, he remembered Liv. The air rushed from his lungs and his stomach twisted. At some point he’d think about his sister and end up on his knees, but not now. He couldn’t now.

The cockpit was small and dim, no bigger than Vale’s room, with a rounded window that curved along the front. Perry saw the exit at the far end of the hangar. Outside, thick black smoke flashed with Aether, concealing the desert.

Soren sat in one of the two pilot seats, cursing as he swiped at a smooth bank of controls. He must have sensed Perry’s attention, because he glanced back, hatred in his eyes. “I haven’t forgotten, Savage.”

Perry’s gaze went to the scar on Soren’s chin. “Then you remember the outcome.”

“I’m not afraid of you.”

A small voice spoke up beside Perry. “Soren, he’s my uncle.”

Soren looked at Talon, his expression softening. Then he turned back to the controls.

Perry glanced at his nephew, surprised at the influence he had over Soren. How had that happened? He stashed the gun on a shelf beside a handful of other weapons, and had Talon and Clara sit against the back wall. Then he crouched, studying his nephew’s face. “You all right?”

Talon nodded, smiling tiredly. Perry saw traces of Vale in his deep green eyes, and noticed his front teeth had grown in. Suddenly he felt all the months they’d lost, and the full weight of his responsibility. Talon was his now.

He straightened as the engines buzzed to life. The panel in front of Soren lit up, the rest of the cabin falling into darkness.

“Hold on!” Soren yelled.

A murmur of alarm came from the people in the main cabin. Aria slipped through the door beside Perry, stepping into the cockpit just as the Hover rose with a lurch. He grabbed her by the waist, catching her as she stumbled. The craft surged forward, pushing Aria’s back against his chest. He locked his arms around her, holding tight as the walls of the hangar blurred past, the Hover gaining speed by the second. They shot outside and plunged into the smoke. Perry couldn’t see anything through the window but noticed that Soren navigated by the screen on the console in front of him.

In seconds they broke into clear air, and he stared in awe at the earth streaking past. He’d taken his name from a falcon, but never in his life had he thought he’d fly. Funnels lashed down across the desert, but they were fewer now. The pale light of dawn spread across the sky, softening the glare of the Aether. He felt Aria’s weight relax against him. Because he could, he rested his chin on top of her head.

As the Hover banked west, adjusting its course, Perry spotted Hess’s fleet, a trail of lights moving across the valley in the distance. He recognized the shape of the immense craft he’d seen earlier. Reverie came into view next, crumbling, consumed by smoke.

Aria watched, silent in his arms. His gaze trailed over the curve of her shoulder, the slope of her cheek. The dark flick of her eyelashes as she blinked. His heart filled with hurt. Hers. His. He understood exactly what she felt. He’d lost his home as well.

“Whenever you’re ready, Aria, maybe you could tell me where I’m going.”

Perry’s hands curled into fists at Soren’s tone. Aria turned and peered up at him in question. The bandage on her arm had bled through. She’d need medical care—and soon.

“The Tides,” he said, not as much suggesting it as saying what felt right. He had plenty of shelter to offer. And after what he’d just seen, he had a feeling the Dwellers would adapt to the cave faster than the tribe.

Aria’s gray eyes sparkled in the dim cabin. “The crates in the back are loaded with supplies. Food. Weapons. Medicine.”

He nodded. It was a simple decision. An obvious alliance. They were stronger together. And this time, he thought, the Dwellers would be welcome. Perry glanced at Soren. Most of them would be, at least.

“Head northwest,” Aria said. “Beyond that range of hills.”

Soren adjusted the steering control, pointing the craft toward the Tide Valley. Perry glanced down, eager to finally bring Talon home to the tribe. His nephew’s eyes were just drifting closed. Beside him, Clara slept.

Aria took his hand, leading him to the open pilot seat. Perry sat and pulled her into his lap. She turned and nestled against him, resting her forehead against his cheek, and for a moment he had everything he needed.

A
re you trying to make me crash?” Soren glanced at her from the other seat. The light of the controls made his face look sharper. Crueler. More like his father’s. Soren’s gaze moved to Perry. “Because that’s disgusting.”

Aria’s arm throbbed with pain, and her eyes burned from smoke and tiredness. She wanted to close them and fade into unconsciousness, but they’d reach the Tides soon. She had to stay focused.

Behind her, she heard the murmuring of the others in the cabin. Caleb was back there. She hadn’t even had a chance to talk to him yet. Rune and Jupiter were also there, and dozens of others—every one of them scared.

They needed her. She’d brought them out of Reverie. She knew how to survive on the outside. They’d need her guidance. It was her responsibility to watch over them now.

Perry brushed her hair over her shoulder and whispered by her ear, “Rest. Ignore him.”

The sound of his voice, deep and unhurried, traveled through her, settling warm in her stomach. She lifted her head. Perry watched her, his face drawn with worry. She brushed her fingers over the soft scruff on his jaw and then buried them in his hair, wanting to feel all the textures of him. “If you don’t like what you see, Soren, then don’t look.”

She saw the flash of Perry’s smile just before their lips met. Their kiss was gentle and slow, and full of meaning. They had hurried through every moment since he’d met her in the woods. While they’d been at the Tides’. On the race to Reverie. Now they finally had a moment together without hiding or rushing. There was so much she wanted to say. So much she wanted him to know.