Friends and family, thank you for cheering me on over the years as I chased a dream. I couldn’t have caught it without you. In particular, thanks to my parents for being the best role models a daughter could ask for. To my boys: pulling the pin on a love grenade and lobbing it your way.

Finally, to my husband: life is sweet, being rendered to you.

Credits

Credits

Cover art © 2012 by Gustavo Marx/MergeLeft Reps, Inc.

Cover design by Sarah Hoy

Roar and Liv

Dedication

Dedication

For Gui and Pedro

Chapter 1

 1 

I make my move when the tribe is asleep. Footsteps light, I skim across the dirt clearing, the chirp of crickets the only sound in the calm spring night. When I reach Perry’s house, I climb onto the window ledge and stretch up, grasping the rusted flashing that borders the roof.

Here goes.

One.

Two.

Three.

Swinging my legs out and up, I flip myself onto the roof. My landing is almost silent—just the brush of my knees on the stone tiles as I ease my weight down and the slosh of the jug of Luster that’s tied to my belt. People say I’m quiet as a cat. If they could hear as well as me, they’d know that cats are actually pretty loud.

Standing, I dust off my pants and scan the shadowed homes that circle the clearing. I hear a distant snore. The quiet creak of a door somewhere. Otherwise, nothing.

I head for the warm thread of light that seeps through a hole in the roof. It comes from a small gap where a tile cracked a few years ago during an Aether storm. I tread lightly and avoid the noisy spots. Perry and Liv are asleep in the house, but I’m not skulking up because of them. It wouldn’t matter if they heard me coming, but their brother, Vale, is inside as well—home only hours ago from his trip to the north—and I won’t chance waking him.

Kneeling by the sliver in the tiles, I bend down and peer through it, blinking as my eyes adjust to the light . . . and see a falcon with its wings spread wide. The tattoo on Perry’s back. He’s sprawled on his stomach in the loft, which is right below me. I try to look for Liv, knowing that if Perry is here, she’s curled up in front of the hearth, but I have a poor angle. There’s only one way to see her tonight.

I bring my mouth to the hole and raise my voice just enough. “Perry! Wake up!” He doesn’t move, so I try a little louder. “Wake up, you oaf!”

Perry rolls onto his back and starts to snore.