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He sprang up Vale drew his knife Perry brought out his own blade People cried out and pushed away fro Talon should be here, not hiet hiet Talon I swear I will"

Rage burned in Vale’s eyes "You can’t get hio after him, the Dwellers could destroy all of us!"

Perry tensed He hadn’t thought of that, but Vale was right The Dwellers could have dozens of Hovers like the two he’d just seen Hundreds ofit sooner Then worse for not caring

"It’s Talon," he said "We have to get hirine! You did this! Father was right You’re cursed You destroy everything!"

Perry’s legs shuddered beneath him He couldn’t mean it Perry had survived his father’s tirades because of Vale After all the thrashings, it was Vale and Liv who’d saved hi him he wasn’t to blareatest mistake of his life Until now

"I didn’t knowIt wasn’t supposed to happen" There wasn’t anything he could say that would help He just needed to find Talon

Vale pressed the back of his hand to his ht be sick

"I’ed at hied to the side For the first time in months, he knew exactly what he needed to do Perry shoved Vale as he blew past, buying a few feet of space Then he plunged into the crowd

People cried out in surprise For all his flaws, he’d never been accused of being a coward He bore the sha people down as he fled

Vale wouldn’t fight for Talon, but he would He was Talon’s only hope now

Chapter 11

ARIA

Aria walked toward hills in the distance until night forced her to stop She looked around her What now? What spot of dirt should she choose to rest against? Would she just end the day where she was?

She sat down, shifting onto her side Propping herself onto an elbow and then laying on her back She wanted a pillow and a blanket Her bed Her room She wanted her Smarteye so she could escape into the Reals The Medsuit, at least, was keeping her warhter than it had earlier It knotted on the horizon in glowing blue waves She watched the sky until she was sure The waves were rolling toward her Aria closed her eyes and listened to the flap of the wind blowing past her ears, rising and falling There wasit, on slowing her racing pulse

She heard a crunching sound She tensed, her eyes desperately searching the darkness The Aether churned in eerie whirlpools above her now, casting rippling blue light across the desert She’d been in a daze, but she knew she hadn’t iined the sound

"What are you?" she said, straining to see in the shifting light No answer came back "I heard you!" she cried

A flash of blue lit up the distance Aether dropped fro doard in a funnel It struck the earth with a treht spread across the eed toward her

Aria slithered back on her hands, trying to get her feet under her The funnel spooled back into the sky Darkness returned just as an iht pushed her down The back of her head struck the dirt and then a hand gripped her jaw

"I should have let you die I lost everything because of you"

The Aether flashed again, showing a fearsonized But she knew that wild hair, snarled and streaked through with blond, and those glea And don’t try to run Understand?"

She almost didn’t understand him Words sounded pulled and stretched the way he spoke the for an answer She stuht of him in the marbled darkness Another funnel caht, she saw that he was only a few feet away

"Move, Mole!" he yelled, then turned away froust rushed past Aria’s face The Outsider collided into her again, crashing into her back and wrapping his arh her as he muscled her forward She tried to shove back, but he trapped her in a crouch

"Don’t move," he yelled in her ear "Close your eyes and put--"

This funnel was ht blinded her but the sound when it struck the earth was an unbearable horrid shriek Aria pressed her palms over her ears and screamed as the skin on her face seared with heat Every er than her

When the noise and light faded she peered up, blinking furiously as she tried to regain her senses Wherever she looked, eruptions of light lashed down fro trails of fire across the earth She had feared Aether storht in the o He turned one way and another, hisand precise Aria stepped away from him unsteadily, her s or the earth trembled Her ears felt like they had burst The horrible scream of the Aether strikes waswarlove shone with dark liquid She was oddly disappointed Blood was supposed to be bright red, wasn’t it? She suddenly realized she shouldn’t be taking inventory of her wounds She needed to get away