Hess nodded. “He’s a danger. He has history with Sable.”

She couldn’t hold back a laugh. “We all have history at this point, Hess—don’t you think? And it’s not just me and Roar. There are hundreds of innocent people out there. Some of them are the people you left behind in Reverie. This is your chance. You can still help them. You can correct your mistake.”

Red patches bloomed over his neck and his cheeks. “You are being naive. There’s no way for me to accommodate any of them. Sable is accounting for everyone. There simply isn’t enough room. Besides, I cannot ask him for anything else. I can’t afford to give him anything more. He is not dealing with transitioning his people to a new environment. I am. Everything is different out here. Do you know what it’s like to feel hunger for the first time? To lose everything you’ve ever known?”

He spoke in an impassioned rush, as though a floodgate of worries had opened. But he stopped himself abruptly, like he’d said much more than he’d intended.

“Yes,” she said softly. “I know what those things are like.”

In the pause that followed, Aria’s heart thumped heavily in her chest. This was her chance to bring him over to their side. Perry’s words echoed in her mind. Let’s give him another option.

“There’s another way to the Still Blue, Hess.” She leaned forward. “You have the advantage. You have the ships. You don’t need Sable for the coordinates—”

“I have the coordinates. That’s not the issue. Control over the boy is the only thing we lack.”

“Cinder is Peregrine’s . . . not Sable’s.”

Hess drew a slow breath. She could almost hear his mind opening to other possibilities, fanning out like a deck of cards.

He wanted to believe her. She could do this. She could convince him.

“Peregrine’s tribe is roughly the same number as Sable’s. Four hundred. Think about it. Anything you need to know about being out here, about the outside world, Peregrine can help you—and you can trust him. You don’t have that with Sable. Think about afterward. When you get to the Still Blue, what do you think will happen? Do you think the two of you will suddenly become friends?”

Hess scoffed. “I don’t need friends.”

“But you don’t need an enemy, either. Don’t fool yourself into thinking Sable is anything other than that. As much as I hate you, I won’t double-cross you and neither will Peregrine. Sable will.”

Hess thought for a long moment, his eyes holding steady on her. “Tell me,” he said. “How is it that you’ve come to trust the Outsiders, and they you?”

Aria shrugged. “I started with the right one.”