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“Two hours and fifty-five minutes, Roar. ”
Roar dropped his head, peering at Aria through a fringe of brown hair. “I knew he was going to say that. ”
She forced a smile, feeling restless too. Three more hours until she was free of this room and back with Perry.
The Komodo was moving again, but at a slower pace. She imagined what the caravan would look like from outside: uncoiled, stretched out like a centipede under a sky full of Aether funnels. Every few minutes, the room shifted without warning and she braced, expecting it to stop, but the Komodo kept grinding along.
“You know what I want to know?” Soren said from the other bunk. “Why neither one of you is talking about Perry. Is torture normal out here? Is it like, ‘Yeah, I was brutalized today. Kind of boring. What about you—what did you do?’”
“I told Roar about it earlier,” Aria admitted.
“Did you keep it from me because of my father? Was he part of it?”
“No, Sable did it. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t think you’d care. You always act like you hate Perry. ”
Soren nodded. “True. I do hate him. ” He leaned over his legs and shoved his hands into his hair. “What am I thinking? What are any of us thinking?”
“I’m thinking about getting out of this room,” Aria said.
Roar pointed between them. “Our thoughts are in harmony. ”
“I’m thinking this,” Soren said, ignoring them. “Sable killed Perry’s sister. Perry killed his own brother. My father and Sable both left thousands of their people to die. I’m dependent on drugs to keep me sane. And we’re the ones who are trying to start over? How are we the best hope for a new world?”
“Because we’re the only ones left,” Aria said. Then she realized she could to do better. “We all have the potential to do terrible things, Soren. But we also have the potential to overcome our mistakes. I don’t know . . . I need to believe that. What point is there otherwise?”
She had to believe Hess was capable of redeeming himself. They were depending on him.
Soren lay back on his cot. He crossed his arms over his head, sighing dramatically. “What point is there indeed. ”
Roar also lay down, resting his head on Aria’s lap. He closed his eyes, a small line of tension forming between his dark eyebrows. That line was new, since Liv’s death.
Aria wanted to smooth it with her finger, but she didn’t. It wouldn’t make him feel any better, and what she gave to Roar could only come up to a point. No matter how much she loved him, that line of tension wasn’t hers to fix.
Her thoughts turned to Loran. In hours, she’d be leaving him behind. That didn’t feel right, but as Sable’s closest adviser, he couldn’t know what they planned to do, either. She shook her head at herself. Why did she care? She didn’t owe him anything.
“If we get to the Still Blue,” Soren said, “we should look at how to make more people like you, Aria. ”
She laughed. “Make more people like me? You mean half-breeds?”
“No. I mean people who are forgiving and optimistic and things like that. ”
Aria smiled at the irony. Her thoughts about her father hadn’t exactly been forgiving or optimistic. “Thank you, Soren. That is the nicest indirect compliment I’ve ever received. ”
Roar smiled, his eyes still closed. “I’m going to miss these talks. ” The line between his eyebrows was almost, almost gone.
He sat up at the sound of voices out in the corridor.
The door opened, revealing a pair of Horn soldiers. “Come,” said the shorter man. “We have orders to bring you to Loran. ”
Aria didn’t remember making a decision to follow them. One second she was sitting on the cot next to Roar; the next she was moving through the halls.
The sound of people running drifted to her ears, echoing from somewhere distant. Were Hess and his men organizing the overthrow? Something didn’t feel right.
“What does Loran want from me?” she asked.
“He gives us orders. We follow them,” said the shorter Horn soldier. A casual answer, but tension laced his voice.
Up ahead, two Guardians came into view. They paused, doing a double take when they saw her.
