AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She never doubted it. For all the trouble he was, Soren had one skill she could always count on. In a way, it was what had started everything.
Soren stood. The glazed look in his eyes was gone, replaced with fevered anticipation of the challenge. “I’m going to run a basic vulnerability analysis to get a look at the Komodo’s attack surface. ”
Aria had no clue what that meant. Judging by the blank faces around her, she wasn’t alone.
Soren rolled his eyes and wiggled his fingers in the air. “You know. Feel the security system up a little to see what I’m dealing with. ”
A laugh burst out of Jupiter, but he muffled it when Perry stood.
“Uh, sorry,” Jupiter said.
She forgot how commanding Perry could be. How he could quiet people with a look when he chose to.
“Get to work, Soren,” he said, and then turned to Brooke and Roar. “Let’s start outside. I want a full sweep of the terrain. If we’re going to draw them to us, I want to be in the strongest position possible. ”
Brooke looked at Soren and wiggled her fingers in the air, parroting his gesture. “That means we’re going to feel up the surrounding area a little, Dweller. See what we’re dealing with. ”
Soren’s eyes never left Brooke as she grabbed her bow and headed outside with Perry and Roar.
“What was her name again?” he asked when she was gone.
Aria stood, trying to hide a smile. “Laurel,” she answered on a whim. Soren irritated everyone else. Let him be on the receiving end for once. Inspired, she added, “I think she likes you, Soren. ”
Then she jogged outside.
Perry was buckling a black belt with a Dweller pistol in the holster. He seemed comfortable with carrying the weapon, though he’d held it for the first time only a week ago. His bow and quiver also rested at his feet. Aria smiled to herself. Instead of choosing a weapon from her world or his, he’d decided to take both.
“Do you need me?” she said. She could scout as well as Roar and Brooke, who had already disappeared into the darkness.
Perry looked up. His hair was tied back with a leather strip, but a piece fell forward, a blond wave coming to rest at his eyebrow. “You want the truth?”
Aria braced herself for a comment about her arm. “Always. ”
“That’s my answer. But it’s probably better for you to keep an eye on things here. ” He grinned, sweeping his bow and quiver over his shoulder. “I’d do it, but I’m worried my fist might find Soren’s face. ”
As she watched him walk away, she tried to shake off the feeling that he’d left too quickly. He’d just said he needed her always. Why couldn’t she focus on that?
When he reached the edge of the woods, she called out, “Be careful. ”
She knew he would be. It was just a way to stall. To feel close to him a little longer.
He looked back, still walking, and pressed a hand to his heart.
In the cockpit, Soren had put on his Smarteye.
“I brought it out of Reverie,” he said. “Thought it might come in handy. ”
She leaned against the threshold and pursed her lips, disliking his choice of words.
If something handy was useful, what did that mean for her, with her lame hand?
Soren mistook her expression, thinking she objected to his use of the Smarteye. “I don’t need it or anything. But I can work ten times faster with it. ”
“I know,” she said, dropping into the other seat. “It’s fine. Use whatever you have to. ”
Aria watched him for a while. Soren alternated between periods of inward focus when he was working through the Smarteye and bursts of frantic swiping at the commands on the Belswan’s controls. He was completely different when he had a task in front of him, a puzzle to solve.
She stared through the windshield at the trees tossing back and forth as anxiety began to build inside her. There were dangers in those woods. Bands of violent drifters. Aether storms that struck suddenly. She couldn’t get the image of Perry with his hand over his heart out of her mind.
