Under the Never Sky (Under the Never Sky 1) - Page 87

Aria appeared over him. “Perry, are you all right?”

He couldn’t speak. Perry tasted ash and blood.

“Roar!” Aria said. “What’s wrong with him!” She thrust Roar’s hand onto Perry’s forehead.

Now Roar stared down at him. “Where are you hurt, Perry?”

Everywhere, Perry thought, knowing Roar could hear him. But mostly my throat. You?

“I’m good enough. ” Roar turned to Aria. “He’s all right. ”

With Aria’s help, Perry sat up. As far as he could see, the trees were burned to black stalks of carbon. The earth glittered with embers, but he saw no fire. No bodies anywhere. Everything had already burned. Cinder had bled the life out of everything except a crow mask that lay in the ash, the silver warped. Dripping like melted wax.

Nearby a half-starved figure with a shorn head lay within a circle of fine gray dust. Perry climbed to his feet. Cinder was curled into himself. He was bare. His clothes gone to ash. Not a single hair was left on his scalp. The glow of his veins faded before Perry’s eyes, seeping back into his skin.

His eyes opened to dark slits. “Did you see what I did?”

“I saw,” Perry said, his voice in shreds.

Cinder’s gaze fell on Perry’s hand. He stared at the spoiled flesh. “I couldn’t help it. ”

“I know,” Perry said, seeing himself in Cinder’s black eyes. He understood the terror of being good at ending lives.

Cinder groaned, clutching at his stomach as he began to shake. His breath came in gasps as he convulsed in a tight ball. Perry took a blanket from his satchel and covered him. Then he stashed the rest of their things in the rocks. Aria took Roar as he had done earlier, supporting his injured side. Perry lifted Cinder into his arms, stunned by the coldness of the boy’s skin.

“I made it right,” Cinder said through trembling lips.

They came upon a pair of Croven huddled together in the shadow of a tree. At the sight of Cinder, they scurried away. Perry swallowed against the rawness in his throat. Had the boy ever known anything beyond fear and pity?

They rushed into Delphi, bursting into the courtyard. Perry set Cinder down next to Roar right on the cobbles. People were gathered inside the gate, armed with weapons, braced for war, for an invasion, for anything. The Aether continued to seal above. Whatever break Cinder had brought them was vanishing.

Marron cut through the gathered crowd. “Mark and Gage?”

Perry shook his head, then he staggered off a dozen paces, turning his back. He pressed his fist to his lips to hold back the guilt and everything else that threatened to come up. Behind him, Aria told Marron what had happened. People cried and cursed Perry. They were right. He’d brought the Croven here. Mark and Gage had died because of him. Perry saw no way of escaping that blame.

Marron came up to him. “You have to go. The Croven might return. Get home, Peregrine. Get Aria to her mother. ”

Clarity returned with those simple words. He had no time to spare. He went to Roar. “You’ll come in the spring. ”

Roar took Perry’s offered hand in a firm grip. “As soon as I can get there. ”

Perry moved to Cinder. He knew he couldn’t command the boy, whose power was far greater than his own. But he also knew Cinder needed him. Needed someone to help him make sense of what he’d done, and what he could do. Maybe Perry needed that too.

“Will you come with Roar?” It was a bigger question than what it appeared to be on the surface. The true question was whether he’d pledge himself to Perry.

Cinder answered right away.

“Yes. ”

Chapter 36

PEREGRINE

Perry and Aria stepped through the gate together. They collected their belongings from the rocks and ran. The Aether came screaming, dropping funnels that shook the ground beneath them. Smoke thickened the cool air as the woods ignited. Perry steered around the flames, holding tight to Aria’s hand.

They moved swiftly, driven by the need to put Delphi behind them. They cleared the worst of the storm in a few hours and then spent the rest of the night traveling in silence. Descending slopes with locked arms. Passing water back and forth between them, and sharing touches. Her hand holding his for a dozen paces. His, resting on the small of her back for a moment. Touches that had no real purpose but to say I’m here and We are together still.

By dawn, Perry couldn’t ignore the scents that clung to them any longer. Blood and ash crusted to their clothes and skin. The smoke from the Aether storm was thinning. He could no longer count on it to mask their scents and keep the wolves at bay. They stopped by a river that rushed over a cascade of gray boulders and washed quickly, shivering at the icy water, and then set off again. He hoped they’d done enough.

Tags: Veronica Rossi Under the Never Sky
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