“We had a deal. Allies, remember?” he heard himself say.
“Our deal was to come here and fix the Smarteye.”
“It was to find Talon and your mother. We haven’t done that yet.”
“Bliss is south, Perry.”
“It’s not far. Another week. Doesn’t matter. I’ll get you better shoes this time. And I’ll carry your rocks for you. I’ll even answer all your questions.”
Perry didn’t know what he had just done. Where was the wisdom in heading a week out of the way when his tribe needed him? There was no sense in it, and recognizing that, his blood went cold.
“Will you answer a question now?” Aria asked.
“Yes.” He suddenly couldn’t keep still. He had to leave. He needed to think.
“Why did you really offer to take me to Bliss?”
“I want to,” he said. Even as he spoke, he wasn’t sure if he’d told the truth. It hadn’t felt like a want. It felt more like a need.
Aria smiled, turning toward him, her eyes dropping to his mouth. The room sweetened with her violet scent, drawing him in, becoming everything, and he felt it. A shift deep within him. The seal of a bond he’d only known once before. And suddenly he understood why he’d promised something he shouldn’t have.
Perry pressed a hasty kiss to her hand. “I need some time,” he said, and then bolted out of the room. Perry shut the door and fell back against the wall, stifling a curse.
It happened.
He had rendered to her.
Chapter 31
PEREGRINE
“We might be able to handle a dozen,” Roar said, “but fifty?”
Perry paced in front of the glass cases in the common room, eyeing the image of the Croven’s camp on the wallscreen. In morning light, the image was much clearer than when he’d seen it last. Black-cloaked figures moved around the cluster of tents in the plateau. Red tents. A fitting color. He wanted to draw his bow and fire at them right through the screen.
“There are more than fifty Croven out there, Roar,” he said. The camera only showed some of them. Early that morning, he and Roar had been up on the wall, moving from tower to tower, using all the power of their Senses. It had taken them hours, but they’d detected another dozen Croven scattered around the perimeter. Sentinels, there to sound an alarm should he try to escape.
Roar crossed his arms. “Sixty Croven then.”
Marron turned a ring around his finger. “One of the old mining tunnels looks promising, but it’ll take weeks to excavate safely.”
“That’s well into winter,” Perry said. By then the storms would be moving in constant sets across the sky. Travel would be too dangerous.
“I can’t wait that long,” Aria said.
She’d been quiet, her legs tucked beneath her on the couch. What a fool he must seem to her, peeling for the door with barely a word in parting. She had no idea what had happened last night. Perry pinched the bridge of his nose, remembering the weakness rendering had brought him with Talon. Not being able to choose with freedom. Thinking of his needs as an afterthought. He couldn’t have that spell cast over him now. He’d do what he promised. He’d take her to Bliss, then do what he should and get to the Tides. They’d part ways soon enough. Until then, he’d just keep his distance. And try not to breathe when he was around her.
“I can give you some of my men,” Marron said.
Perry looked up. “No. I can’t have your people dying for me.” He’d put Marron through enough. “We won’t meet them head-to-head.” On the screen, the plateau spread around the Croven, wide and open. He wanted to be there. Outside. Moving free under the Aether. That was when it hit him.
“We could leave during a storm.”
“Peregrine,” Marron said. “Leave during an Aether storm?”
“The Croven are out in the open. They’d need to take shelter. It would put them off their guard. And I can keep us away from the worst of the Aether.”
Roar pushed himself off the wall, his smile eager. “We could clear the sentinels and head east. The Croven won’t follow us.”
Aria’s eyes narrowed. “Why won’t they follow us east?”
“Wolves,” Roar said.
“Our best choice is to leave during an Aether storm and head toward wolves?”
Roar grinned. “That or sixty Croven.”
“All right,” she said, lifting her chin. “Anything but the Croven.”
That afternoon, Perry strode across the roof with Roar. They’d spent the morning plotting their route and readying their packs. Now there was nothing to do but wait for a storm to build. The Aether moved in steady streams above. They wouldn’t see a storm today, but maybe tomorrow. It couldn’t come soon enough.
How was he going to wait? Waiting meant stopping. It meant thinking. He didn’t want to think about what was happening to Talon and Vale, stuck inside the Dweller Pod. How could Talon want to stay there? How had Vale been captured? Why was Liv roaming the borderlands when she knew what the cost was to the Tides?
Roar caught him hard across the shoulders, tackling him. Perry thudded onto the cement before he knew what had happened.
“One to nothing,” Roar said.
“You jaggy bastard.” He pushed Roar off and the game was on.
He usually had the upper hand when they wrestled, but he took it easy because of his hand, and that kept them more evenly matched.
“Talon wrestles better than you, Ro,” he said, helping Roar up after earning a point. Perry’s mood had begun to lift. He’d been idle too long.