He pulled himself up, clutching the back of the seat for balance. The Hover was tilting wildly. Waves pounded the windshield, covering them completely, each torrent of water so thick that it plunged the cockpit into darkness.

Perry lumbered back into the hold, unsteady, nauseous. He swiped at his stinging eyes and came away with blood on his hand.

Through the open doors, he saw the sea. Thirty-foot swells of white and silver and Aether blue. The craft pitched, and water rushed up to his ankles.

The Hover had become a boat—with a missing side. Miraculously it was still afloat, but that was changing with every wave that surged inside.

“Cinder!” he yelled. “Cinder!”

He could barely hear his own voice over the waves. Yelling was useless, anyway. His eyes swept across the small hold. There was nowhere for Cinder to hide. To have gotten lost. Perry staggered to the door, almost pitching forward into the ocean as the Hover hurtled down the face of a wave.

“Cinder!”

He fell against the cabin wall as the Hover rocked again and stayed there, pressed against the wall, the air rushing out of his lungs. Out and out and out. He didn’t think it would stop, the expansion of emptiness inside him.

“You survived, Peregrine,” crackled through speakers. “But not Cinder, from the sounds of it. I’m very sorry.”

Perry shot back into the cockpit. The nose of the Hover dipped suddenly, sending him flying against the windshield. The water in the craft surged forward, soaking him completely.

“Get me out of here!” Perry yelled.

The doors began to close as soon as the words left him. Across the cockpit, the dashboard controls flickered on.

Sable said, “What are you doing?”

A terrified voice answered, “Bringing the ship back up—”

“I issued no such order,” said Sable.

“Sir, if we don’t act now—”

“Shut it down.”

A beat of silence.

“I said shut it down.”

Perry cursed, turning in time to see the bay doors pause for an instant, and then open again to the raging sea. In the cockpit, the controls fell dark.

“This pains me, Peregrine. I like you very much and this isn’t what I wanted. But I can’t take any chances.”

Then Perry didn’t hear Sable any longer, only the waves pounding against the Hover.

45. Aria

45

ARIA

Do something!” Aria yelled. “They’re still out there!”

Loran stood at the door of the cockpit, blocking her way inside. It was the first she’d seen of him in the Hover. “I can’t let you in there,” he said.

“You have to! You have to help them! Help me!”

Loran stared into her eyes. He said nothing, but she could tell he was battling with himself.