He waited for an arrow to pierce his heart, but Brooke shouted down. He heard his name again, volleyed from voice to voice. He heard them calling, “Peregrine. Peregrine is back,” and his feet stumbled. Within moments people poured out of their homes and clustered together, forming a mob at the edge of the compound. Tempers churned in the passing breezes. Fear and excitement, filling the air in bold, fragrant slashes.

“Keep walking, Perry,” Reef said quietly.

Perry prayed for the right words, now when he needed them. When there was so much to explain and make right.

The frenzied whispers of the crowd fell off as he closed the final distance. He scanned the faces before him. Everyone was there. Even the children, who were half asleep and confused. And then Perry saw Vale come forward, the silver links of the Blood Lord chain flashing against his dark shirt.

For an instant relief crashed over him. Vale was free. Not a captive in the Dweller Pod. Then he remembered Vale’s last words to him. Telling him he was cursed. Telling him to die.

Perry’s legs twitched, unsteady beneath him. He didn’t know what to do. He hadn’t expected this. He could see that Vale was just as shocked as he was. Vale, always intent and cool, looked pale and shaken, his mouth set in a grim line.

Finally Vale spoke. “Back, little brother? You know what this means, don’t you?”

Perry searched for answers in his brother’s face. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“I shouldn’t be? Haven’t you got it backward, Peregrine?” Vale gave a dry laugh and then tipped his chin at Reef. “Don’t tell me you’ve come to make a play for Blood Lord with your little pack here? Don’t you think you’re a bit outnumbered?”

Perry struggled to make sense of things. “I saw Talon,” he said. “I saw him in the Realms. He said you were there. He saw you in the Realms.”

Darkness flashed across Vale’s features. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Perry shook his head, recalling the way Talon had made Perry prove his identity. Talon couldn’t have been wrong about seeing Vale. And he had no reason to lie about it. That meant Vale was lying. A sick feeling bloomed in Perry’s stomach. “What did you do?”

Vale reached down to the sheath at his belt and brought out his knife. “You better turn around right now.”

Perry sensed Reef and his men bracing behind him, but he just stared at the knife in Vale’s hand, his mind churning. The Dwellers hadn’t just been looking for the Smarteye that day on the beach. They had gone after Talon.