1

PEREGRINE

Aria was here.

Perry followed her scent, moving swiftly through the night. He kept his stride even as he scanned the darkened woods, though his heart hammered in his chest. Roar had told him she was back on the outside, had even delivered a violet with a message as proof, but Perry wouldn’t believe it until he saw her.

He reached a rise of boulders and dropped his bow, quiver, and satchel. Then he jumped up, leaping from rock to rock until he stood at the top. The sky was coated with a thick layer of clouds that glowed softly with Aether light. He scanned the rolling hills, his gaze stopping at a barren stretch of land. Scorched, silver in color, it was a scar left by the winter’s storms. Much of his territory, two days to the west, looked the same.

Perry tensed as he spotted the tail of a campfire in the distance. He inhaled and caught the smoky scent on a cool gust. That had to be her. She was close.

“Anything?” Reef called up. He stood some twenty feet below. Sweat glistened on his deep brown skin, running along the scar that reached from the base of his nose to above his ear, dividing his cheek, and he was breathing heavily. Just a few months ago they’d been strangers. Now Reef was the head of his guard, seldom leaving his side.

Perry climbed down, landing with a soggy crunch on a patch of melting snow. “She’s due east. A mile. Maybe less.”

Reef drew a sleeve across his face, pushing his braids away and wiping off sweat. Usually he kept up without any effort, but two days at a driving pace had brought out the decade between them. “You said she could help us find the Still Blue.”

“She will help,” Perry said. “I told you. She needs to find it, just as we do.”

Reef strode up, coming to within a foot of Perry, and narrowed his eyes. “You did tell me that.” He tipped his head and inhaled, the gesture bold and animal. He didn’t downplay his Sense like Perry did. “But that’s not why we’ve come after her,” he said.

Perry couldn’t read his own tempers, but he could imagine the scents Reef had taken in. Eagerness, green and sharp and alive. Desire, thick and musky. Impossible to miss. Reef was a Scire too. He knew exactly what Perry felt right now, moments away from seeing Aria. Scents never lied.

“It’s one reason,” Perry said tightly. He picked up his things, shouldering them with an impatient tug. “Camp here with the others. I’ll be back by sunup.” He turned to go.

“Sunup, Perry? You think the Tides want to lose another Blood Lord?”

Perry froze and then faced him again. “I’ve been out here a hundred times on my own.”