Perry shook his head. “Talon and Clara are gone because of what Vale did. He betrayed the tribe. I’ll never do that.”
“What was last night? I swear those were your fists on Gray’s face. You’re a fool, Peregrine. But we were bigger fools to think you could lead us.”
He spat in Perry’s direction and strode off. Wylan’s mother followed after him, staring straight ahead, her gait slow and uneven. Perry wanted to stop her. With a lame leg, she wouldn’t survive the borderlands for long.
Then Wylan’s cousin came through the crowd. A strong Aud of fourteen who Perry liked. One of Wylan’s uncles followed. And then the rest of his family.
They kept leaving, one after another. Ten, then twenty, and still more. So many that Perry began to imagine himself standing in an empty clearing. The idea filled him with giddy relief, gone in an instant. He was meant to be there. He was meant to lead the Tides.
When they finally stopped leaving and the clearing settled, he looked around, waiting a few moments to be sure he hadn’t imagined what had just happened. The crowd looked thinner, like it’d been pruned.
At least a quarter of his tribe was gone.
He looked at the faces of all the people loyal to him, who had stayed. Among them he saw Molly, Bear, and Brooke. Rowan and Old Will. He searched for the right words, wishing for Vale’s ease with speeches, but failed to find them.
He’d look weak if he thanked them for their loyalty, though he was grateful. And he wouldn’t apologize for what he’d done. This was his land. It was his duty to protect everyone there: Dweller, Outsider, or anything in between.
When the tribe—what was left of it—settled into their regular work, Perry met with Bear and Reef in the cookhouse. They sat at the table closest to the door and listed the names of everyone who had dispersed and the tasks they’d handled for the tribe. Bear wrote slowly—the pen looking like a piece of straw in his massive hands as he moved it over the page. Every name felt like a fresh betrayal.
Perry didn’t know how he’d gone wrong. Was it diving in after Old Will during the storm? Fighting Gray last night? Was it his plan to go north to find the Still Blue with Aria? Everything felt justified. Right. He didn’t understand how he’d failed them.
When they finished the tally, they sat in silence. Bear had written the names of sixty-two people, but the number didn’t tell the whole truth. As Perry had suspected, a large share were Marked. Even the Unmarked who’d dispersed were able-bodied, trained fighters. The young, old, and weak seldom left by choice.
Reef sighed, crossing his arms. “We culled the dissidents. I’m damned glad to be rid of a few of them. It’ll make us stronger in the long run.”
Bear set down the pen and ran a hand over his beard. “It’s the short run I’m worried about.”
Perry looked at him. What could he say? It was the truth. “We’ll be more open to attack once news of this spreads. Shade’s probably out there now, telling whoever he comes across what happened.”
“We should double the night watch,” Reef said.
Perry nodded. “Do it.” He looked across the hall. In two days, the Tides had seen a rogue Aether storm, an attempt on Aria’s life, and a rebellion. Was a raid next? He knew it would happen. Double the night guard or not, they were too vulnerable. It wouldn’t surprise him to see Wylan return to make a play for the compound.
The clearing felt too quiet and empty as Perry returned home. He was anxious to check on Aria. Was she well enough to go north? Reef’s words from last night echoed in his mind. The Tides need you here. How could he leave them now? How could he stay, when the answer to their safety might be out there?
He entered his house and found Gren and Twig yelling at each other in front of Vale’s bedroom. They quieted when they saw him.
“Per …,” Twig said, guilt flashing across his face. “We searched everywhere—”
Perry shoved past them, bursting into the room. He saw the bed. The rumpled blanket. He looked to the nightstand and didn’t see the falcon carving. Didn’t see Aria’s satchel. Didn’t see her.
“Roar’s gone too,” Twig said. He stood at the door with Gren, both of them watching him.
Cinder slipped between them, his hat dropping to the floor. “I saw them leave. They said to tell you they’d take care of Liv and the Still Blue.”
Perry stood, absorbing the truth, his ears roaring with the sound of rushing blood.
They had left without him, but he could track them. They’d only be hours ahead. If he ran, he’d catch up to them, but he couldn’t bring himself to move.
Reef shouldered his way inside. He looked around the room, cursing. “I’m sorry, Perry.”
Unexpected and sincere, the words snapped Perry out of his trance.
She was gone.
Pain edged in past the numbness. Perry pushed it back. Pushed with everything in him, until he’d buried it. Until he was back to numbness.
He walked to the door and picked up Cinder’s hat.
“You dropped this,” he said, handing it back.
Then he went outside and stepped into the clearing, heading nowhere.
16
ARIA
Here. Have some water.”
Aria shook her head, pushing away the water skin. She took breath after breath through pursed lips until the urge to vomit passed. The grass rolled in waves before her eyes. She blinked until it stopped. She didn’t know how she could feel worse than just hours ago, but she did. With poison still flowing through her veins, her body rebelled against every step.
“It’ll be all right soon,” Roar said. “It’ll leave your system.”
“He’s going to hate me.”
“He won’t.”
Aria straightened, keeping her arm tight to her side. They stood on a hill that overlooked the Tide Valley. More than anything, she wanted to see Perry striding toward her.
That morning, she’d woken to the tribe’s shouts in the clearing. The Tides were splintering. People were leaving, yelling at Perry. Yelling obscenities about her. She’d stepped out of Vale’s room, panicked to get out of there quickly, before Perry lost everything. She’d found Roar with his satchel packed. Liv was at the Horns. He was leaving, too. It’d been easy to escape unnoticed. With dozens of people streaming out of the compound, she and Roar had simply crept the other way.
She wished she could’ve seen Perry before she’d gone, but she knew him. He wouldn’t have let her leave without him. That decision would’ve cost him the Tides. She couldn’t let that happen.
“We should keep going, Roar.” If they didn’t keep moving, she’d change her mind.
She walked in a daze through the afternoon, her legs shaking, her arm burning beneath its bandage. This is for the best, she told herself over and over. Perry will understand.
At night they found shelter under an oak tree, a steady rain creating a blanket of quiet noise around them. Roar offered her food, but she couldn’t eat. Neither could he, she noticed.
He moved next to her. “Let me check that.”
Aria bit her lip as he took the bandage off her arm. The skin at her bicep was swollen and red, crusted with dried blood and smeared with ink. It bore the ugliest Marking she’d ever seen.
“Who did it?” she asked, her voice shaking with anger.
“A man named Gray. He’s Unmarked. He’s always been envious of us.”
A face appeared in Aria’s mind. Gray was the stocky man she’d seen in the woods during the Aether storm when she’d found River. “A Mole was getting Markings and he couldn’t bear it,” Aria said. “He couldn’t let that happen.”
Roar rubbed the back of his neck, nodding. “Yeah. I guess that’s about it.”
Aria touched the scabbed skin on her arm. “A half Marking for a half Outsider.” She’d meant to make light of it, but her voice wobbled.
Roar watched her in silence for a moment. “It’ll heal, Aria. We can have it finished.”
She pulled her sleeve down. “No … I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be Marked.”
She had no idea where she belonged. Out here? In Reverie? Hess had banished her in the fall, and now he was using her. The Tides had tried to kill her yesterday. She didn’t fit anywhere.
She scooted closer to the fire and lay down, pulling her blanket around her shoulders. She’d been cold all day, racked with chills. Time would help, she told herself. The poison would work itself out of her blood, and her skin would heal. She needed to focus on her goal now. She had to get north and find the Still Blue. For Perry and Talon. For herself.
As tired as she was, she couldn’t stop thinking of the way Perry had felt against her that morning, warm and safe. Was he sleeping on the roof tonight? Was he thinking about her? After an hour, she sat up, giving up on sleep. Though Roar’s eyes were closed, she could tell he wasn’t asleep either. His expression was too strained.
“Roar, what is it?”
He looked over, blinking tiredly at her. “He’s a brother to me … and I know how he’s feeling right now.”
Aria gasped as it struck her: by running away with no explanation, she’d done exactly to Perry what Liv had done to Roar. “It’s different … isn’t it? Perry will know I left to protect him—won’t he? You saw how many people left the Tides because of me. None of this would have happened if I hadn’t been there in the first place. I had to leave.”
Roar nodded. “It’s still going to hurt.”
Aria pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes, keeping back the tears. Roar was right. When it came to pain, reasons didn’t matter. She took her hands away. “I did the right thing.” She wished she could convince herself.
“You did,” Roar agreed. “Perry needs to be there. He can’t leave now. The Tides can’t afford it.” He sighed, resting his head on his arm. “And you’re safer out here with me. I can’t watch you come that close to dying again.”
The rain had stopped when Roar woke her at dawn for another day of walking. They’d had a reprieve from the Aether after the storm, but now she saw thick streams of it running behind a scrim of gray clouds. The blue light filtering down gave the day an underwater quality.
“We’ll keep an eye on it,” Roar said, looking up beside her. They were traveling in the open. If another storm built, they’d need to find shelter in a hurry.
Apart from the soreness in her arm, Aria had recovered. They’d leave Perry’s territory behind soon, and she needed to be alert to danger. Every step took her closer to the city of Rim. To what she needed.
Late in the afternoon, she stood at the lip of a valley and looked south to the rolling hills stretching to the horizon. Last fall, she’d camped with Perry somewhere out there. She’d worn book covers for shoes. She’d lost her best friend. And she hadn’t known it yet, but she had lost her mother, too.
Aria reached into her satchel and found the falcon figurine. She’d grabbed it as she left Perry’s house, needing something real to remind her of him.