Precise sounds. Premeditated. The gunshots kept going as screams filled the air.

The crowd surged, retreating into the Hover. Hyde’s back rammed into Aria’s face, smashing her nose. She reeled back, her vision going black for an instant.

“What’s happening?” Talon cried, jarred awake.

“Roar, get back!” Aria yelled, pulling him deeper inside the Hover. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Hyde and Hayden loosing arrows. She caught a glimpse of Twig on the exit ramp, lying on his side. Bleeding. Then silence came, as sudden and loud as the first gunshots.

“Weapons down, all of you,” Sable said coolly.

She heard the clatter of wood and metal as guns, bows, knives dropped.

Sable walked past them. Past Twig, who was clutching his leg and weeping. Further down the ramp, Aria saw Reef and Gren. Deadly still, both.

Slowly, Sable’s gaze swept across the Hover and found Aria. He stared at her for a long moment, his eyes sparkling and energized. Then his gaze moved to Roar.

“No!” Aria yelled. “No!”

Sable put his hands up. “It’s over,” he said. “I want no more bloodshed.” He looked pointedly at Marron, who stood just a few feet away from him, flanked by Horn soldiers. “But if any of you are interested in taking Peregrine’s position as Lord of the Tides, be advised that that position no longer exists. Any attempt to claim it will receive lethal consideration, as you’ve just seen.

“If you still think you can challenge me, I want you to remember one thing: I know everything. I know your desires and fears before they have even made themselves known to you. Yield to me. It’s your only option.” His ice-blue gaze drifted over the crowd, eliciting a silent wave of tense, held breaths. “Have I made myself clear?”

No one dared speak.

“Good,” Sable said. “This is a new beginning for all of us, but it’s not a time to throw away our past. Our traditions have worked for centuries. If we respect them—our ways, the old ways—then we will flourish here.”

Silence. Nothing but the sound of Twig’s agonized cries.

“All right, then,” Sable said. “Let’s get started. Leave all your belongings in the Hover, step outside, and form into lines.”

46. Aria

46

ARIA

Aria watched as Sable and his men sorted her friends into lines along the beach.

Roar went first, far away from her. Then Caleb and Soren and Rune. Brooke and Molly and Willow. She tried to identify Sable’s strategy in creating the groupings, but it seemed unorderly. He was mixing old and young. Dwellers and Outsiders. Men and women. Then she understood: That was the point. He was creating lines of people who would be least likely to band together in rebellion.