ARIA
Aria pulled her knees up. She’d woken hours ago in a cramped chamber, an acrid taste coating her tongue. A glove lay discarded in the corner. She’d watched the smudges of blood on the fingers fade from red to rust.
Her eye socket throbbed. They had taken her Smarteye while she was unconscious.
Aria didn’t care.
The wall in front of her had a thick black screen nearly as wide as the room itself. Aria waited for it to open. She knew who she’d see on the other side when it did, but she wasn’t afraid.
She’d survived the outside. She’d survived the Aether and cannibals and wolves. She knew how to love now, and how to let go. Whatever came next, she would survive it, too.
A soft crackling sound broke the room’s silence. Small speakers by the black screen buzzed softly. Aria shot to her feet, her hand aching for the weight of Talon’s knife. The screen parted, revealing a room behind thick glass. There were two men on the other side.
“Hello, Aria,” Consul Hess said, his small eyes pinching in amusement. “You can’t imagine how surprised I am to see you. ” He dwarfed the chair on which he sat. Ward stood quiet and serious at his side, his brow wrinkled.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” said Consul Hess.
His words carried no tone of sympathy. She would never believe him anyway. He’d put her out to die.
“We viewed the ‘Songbird’ message from your mother,” he continued. He held her Smarteye in his palm. “You know, I was unaware of your unique genetic makeup when I put you outside? Lumina kept that hidden from all of us. ”
Aria’s gaze snapped to the glass. She understood. They saw her as a diseased Savage. They didn’t want to breathe the same air she did.
“You have the Smarteye,” she said. “What do you want from me?”
Hess smiled. “I’ll get to that. You know what happened here in Bliss, don’t you? You saw it in your mother’s file. ” He paused. “You had a taste of it yourself in Ag 6. ”
She saw no point in lying. “An Aether strike and DLS,” she said.
“Yes, that’s right. A dual attack. External first. A storm weakens the Pod. Then internal, as the disease manifests. Your mother was among the first to study DLS. She was working toward a cure, along with many other scientists. But as you can see by what happened here, we don’t have an answer. And we may run out of time before we do. ”
He glanced at Ward, sending an obvious cue. The doctor spoke immediately, his voice carrying more passion than Hess.
“The Aether storms are striking with intensity not seen since the Unity. Bliss isn’t the only Pod that has fallen. If the storms continue, they will all fall. Reverie will fall, Aria. Our only hope of surviving is to escape the Aether. ”
She almost laughed at him. “Then there is no hope. You can’t escape it. It’s everywhere. ”
“Outsiders speak of a place that’s free of it. ”
Aria tensed. Ward knew about the Still Blue? How could he know that? But of course he would. He studied Outsiders, like her mother did. Like her mother had.
“They’re only rumors,” Aria said. Even as she spoke the words, she knew they might be true. Hadn’t the rumor of Bliss proved to be?
Hess was watching her closely. “So you’ve heard of it. ”
“Yes. ”
“Then you’re already on your way. ”
Aria’s stomach twisted as she realized what he wanted. “You want me to find it?” She shook her head. “I’m not doing anything for you. ”
“Six thousand people died here,” Ward said urgently. “Six thousand. Your mother among them. You have to understand. It’s our only option. ”
Grief moved through Aria, pressing down on her. She thought of the bodies on the black cart and the people on the cots in the triage room. Bane and Echo had died because of DLS. And Paisley. Would Caleb and the rest of her friends be next?
Her heart pounded as she considered returning to the outside. Was it the thought of seeing Perry that made her pulse hammer? Or maybe she felt she owed it to Lumina to carry on her quest. But she couldn’t just let the Pods crumble.
“You can’t return to Reverie,” Hess said. “You’ve seen too much. ”