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What they were really looking for, she knew—everyone knew—was people. Such a discovery would bring a host of issues to consider. Would they be welcome? Would they be enslaved? Turned away? No one knew.
Until Sable emerged from the cockpit. “It’s ours. It’s uninhabited,” he said, sounding a little breathless.
“Good fortune at last,” Hyde said softly. He stood behind her, tall enough to see over her head to the window. All of the Six were there, crowded around her. They had been since they’d crossed the barrier.
She didn’t know what to make of that. She didn’t know whether it was supposed to mean something, all of them standing around her like a wall.
“About time,” Hayden said. “I’ve got no fight left. ”
Twig let out his breath. Reef met Aria’s eyes, and she wondered if he’d been hoping, irrationally, for the same thing as her. That the instrumentation would find one human. A young man of almost twenty, with green eyes and blond hair and a crooked smile that he used infrequently, but to powerful effect. A young man with the purest heart imaginable. Who believed in honor and who never, not for a moment, placed himself over others. But of course such a person hadn’t been found. Magic wasn’t real.
Marron stepped between Hyde and Twig, joining them. “I wouldn’t call it good fortune. Millions of people lived here once. Now there isn’t a soul left. That seems far from good fortune. And we might have benefited from some compassion and some help. We are so few. ”
Aria bit her lip to stop herself from snapping at him. She didn’t know why she was suddenly so angry. It was those words: We are so few. Why had he needed to say that? They weren’t few. They were lacking. They were missing Perry.
The Hovers regrouped, and she felt their velocity slow. There was a sudden descent, which she barely felt but which made people gasp and reach for one another. Then the Hovers put down on a beach, one after another, a flock of iridescent birds alighting.
When their craft landed, Twig said, “We’re here. I can’t believe we’re here. ”
Aria wasn’t. She didn’t feel there at all.
Reef motioned Roar closer. Talon was still sleeping in Roar’s arms.
“I want the three of you to stay together,” Reef said, looking from her to Roar. “Hyde and Hayden will be watching you, starting now. ”
Watching them? She didn’t understand. Roar pursed his lips and nodded, resigned, and it began to make sense. He had been after Sable since Liv’s death. That was no secret to anyone, least of all Sable. And Talon was Perry’s nephew. Eight years of age, but a successor nonetheless. Aria wasn’t sure why Reef thought she needed to be protected, but then her mind wasn’t working right.
Reef disappeared and Aria was suddenly looking up at the brothers, at Hyde and Hayden, and then looking away, because they had bows over their shoulders. Because they were the same height and blond-haired, though not the right shade of blond. Was she going to move through the rest of her life seeing failures and deficiencies everywhere? Wishing everyone was more like Perry? Wishing everyone was him?
Sable was the first to leave the Hover, with a group of his soldiers. She only heard him leave. Everyone in the large hold had come to their feet, and with Hyde and Hayden in front of her, all she saw were their backs, and arrows poking from quivers. She listened to the soft hum of the ramp being lowered, a familiar sound now. Daylight flooded the Hover, and then a warm, gentle breeze floated in, carrying birdsong and the rustle of swaying leaves.
The crowd thinned around her as people began to disembark.
A new land.
A new beginning.
She put her arm around Roar, telling herself that she could do this. She could take a few steps.
As the crowd thinned, she could see further ahead. Marron was exiting the ramp, accompanied by some of Sable’s men. She was about to search for Loran when she caught a flash of Reef’s braids. He was leaving the Hover with Gren and Twig at his sides.
Fear shot down her back, sudden and unexplainable, yanking her from her daze.
Sable always moved first. He never waited. Never hesitated to put down a threat before it ever fully materialized.
“Reef!” she screamed.
An instant later, gunshots.
One. Two. Three. Four.
Precise sounds. Premeditated. The gunshots kept going as screams filled the air.
The crowd surged, retreating into the Hover. Hyde’s back rammed into Aria’s face, smashing her nose. She reeled back, her vision going black for an instant.
“What’s happening?” Talon cried, jarred awake.
“Roar, get back!” Aria yelled, pulling him deeper inside the Hover. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Hyde and Hayden loosing arrows. She caught a glimpse of Twig on the exit ramp, lying on his side. Bleeding. Then silence came, as sudden and loud as the first gunshots.
