He took a sip. When he set the cup down, it struck with a clack. He raised his eyes to hers. “I’m disappointed, Aria. You’re late. I thought I had impressed the urgency of your task upon you. Now I wonder if you need to be reminded of what’s at stake if you fail.”

“I know what’s at stake,” she said tightly. Talon. Reverie. Everything.

“And yet you’ve taken a little detour. Do you think I can’t tell where you are? You’ve gone to see the boy’s uncle, haven’t you? Peregrine?”

Hess was tracking her movements through the Smarteye. It didn’t surprise Aria, but she felt her pulse pick up anyway. She didn’t want him to know anything about Perry. “I can’t go north yet, Hess. The pass to the Horns is frozen.”

He leaned forward. “I could have you there tomorrow on a Hover.”

“They hate us,” she said. “They haven’t forgotten the Unity. I can’t go charging in as a Dweller.”

“They’re Savages,” he said, waving a hand dismissively. “I don’t care what they think.”

Aria became aware of how quickly she was breathing. Roar sat up. He watched her intently in the real, sensing her tension. Savages. She’d once thought of them that way too. Now Roar’s presence anchored and calmed her.

“You have to let me do this my way,” she said to Hess.

“I don’t like your way. You’re late reporting in. You’re wasting time with some Outsider. I want that information, Aria. Get me coordinates. A direction. A map. Anything.”

As he spoke, she noticed the shiftiness in his small eyes and the red flush creeping up his collar. In all their meetings over the winter, he’d never been this nervous and combative. Something had him worried.

“I want to see Talon,” she said.

“Not until you get me what I need.”

“No,” she said. “I need to see him—”

Everything stopped. The cherry blossoms froze, suspending in midair around her. The sound of the wind vanished, and a sudden dead silence fell over the Realm. After an instant, the petals rose up in reverse, then seemed to catch and flitter down again, normally, floating to the ground as sounds returned.

Aria saw the shocked look on Hess’s face. “What was that?” she asked. “What just happened?”

“Come back in three days,” he snapped. “Don’t be late, and you’d better be on your way north by then.” He fractioned out, disappearing.

“Hess!” she yelled.

“Aria, what’s wrong?”

Roar’s voice. She shifted her focus. His eyebrows were drawn with concern.

“I’m all right,” she said, quickly running through the commands in her mind to take off the Eye. Aria gripped it in her hand, rage blurring her vision.

Roar moved closer. “What happened?” he asked.