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"You’re weak"

He rong Perry wasn’t weak That had never been the problem The problem was that he couldn’t help them all No matter what he did, people he loved would still suffer and die and leave But Perry couldn’t do it He couldn’t stay down He didn’t kno to give up

He swept his legs beneath hi to his feet Braids leaped back at his sudden ht him by the collar He yanked Braids toward hi his head backward Perry jammed his elbow into his nose Blood burst frorip, dodging a punch and driving a fist into his sto onto one knee Perry wrapped an arm around his neck and wrestled him to the dirt

Perry snatched up the serrated blade froainst thefrom his nose Perry knew this was the e to me or die

He inhaled deeply Braids’s temper was red fury, all directed at Perry He’d never submit Braids would choose death, just as he’d have done

"You owe me a bottle of Luster," Perry said

Then he stood, reeling The other athered around He breathed in their te He looked for the next e hiut had hiht there in front of them He held on to the knife in case any of the, like Braids had They didn’t Everything cahtened

"Probably don’t need any more Luster"

He tossed the knife aside and stu It didn’t matter

He wanted to hear her voice He wanted to hear her tell hi the dark

Morning came His head felt like a door slammed closed on it, over and over His body felt worse Perry peeled off the shoddy dressing he’d tied around his arht-headed as it bled freshly

He ripped a strip off his shirt and tried to bandage it again His fingers were too shaky Still too cluravel and closed his eyes because it was too bright Because darkness was better

He woke to a tugging on his arht Braids crouched beside hi The other men stood behind him

Perry looked down at his ared, tied off neatly

"You didn’t ask e to you," Braids said

"You’d have said no"

Braids nodded once "I would have" He took Talon’s knife fro you want this back"

Chapter 43

ARIA

Aria pulled her knees up She’d woken hours ago in a cralove lay discarded in the corner She’d watched the sers 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 kneho 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 kne 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 roolass There were two men on the other side

"Hello, Aria," Consul Hess said, his sine how surprised I am to see you" He dwarfed the chair on which he sat Ward stood quiet and serious at his side, his brorinkled

"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’ e from your mother," he continued He held her Senetic makeup when I put you outside? Luaze 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 froet to that You knohat 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