“Don’t say another word, Roar. Don’t make me doubt. Don’t make me want to leave with you.”

He stepped closer, his voice dropping to a desperate whisper. “Then just say yes. Come with me. Don’t go back there.”

She pushed her sleeves at her blurry eyes, hating how easily she felt like crying now. It was a reflex. Any small thing that reminded her of Perry brought the urge. She couldn’t let the tears go, but she felt them. She carried them with her everywhere she went. She imagined holding them there for the rest of her life. An ocean of tears, existing inside her.

“Aria . . . ,” Roar said.

She shook her head and backed away. “I can’t.” She had promised Perry. She had to look after Talon. No matter the cost. “I have to go,” she said.

Then she raced back to Sable’s camp.

48. Peregrine

48

PEREGRINE

Is he breathing, Roar? Is he alive?”

“Shut up. I’m trying to listen to his heart.”

Perry forced his eyes open. Through a bleary film, he saw Roar leaning over his chest. “Off. Get off me, Roar.”

Perry’s throat was so dry that the words were no more than rasps. All he could think about was water. He ached for it. Every fiber of his body demanded it. His head pounded. It hurt so badly he was afraid to move.

Roar’s head popped up and his eyes flew wide. “Ha!” he yelled. “Ha!” He shook Perry by the shoulders. “I knew it!” He leaped to his feet and shouted that he knew it, over and over, until he finally sprawled on the sand. “That was horrible. That was so horrible,” he said between pants.

Soren, who’d been watching Roar in silence, appeared over Perry. “Want some water?”

They gathered by a fire as the sun set, surrounded by foreign scents and sounds. Every breath was like hearing a new language—a process of recognizing soil and plant and animal scents, but also learning them as new. This land was green and young, and even as spent as he felt, his heart thudded with the desire to explore it.

After drinking enough water to make his stomach cramp, Perry learned that Roar and Soren had escaped from Sable’s camp two days ago. They’d been familiarizing themselves with the terrain, finding freshwater and food, while trying to devise a plan for taking Sable out. Then it was Perry’s turn to talk. He told them what had happened with Cinder on the Hover.

“That was the last time you saw him?” Roar said. “Before you blacked out?”

Perry considered that, remembering those final moments. Saying he blacked out didn’t feel right. He’d seen only white. But he nodded and said, “That was it. I didn’t see him after that.”