18 
The ceiling was different. No more pipes and wires.
It was the first thing Perry noticed when he opened his eyes. The second was the prickling sensation of the Aether, deep in the back of his nose.
Cinder.
Perry turned and saw him in the next bed. Cinder lay strapped down by thick plastic cuffs, his eyebrows knitted in concentration like he’d been willing Perry to wake up. He was dressed in a loose gray shirt and pants, and tubes fed liquid into his arms.
Perry wanted to shoot to his side, but bindings held him down as well; he couldn’t move an inch.
Cinder licked his cracked lips. “You came here for me?”
Perry swallowed. His throat ached fiercely. “Yes.”
Cinder winced. “Sorry.”
“No . . . don’t be. I’m sorry I didn’t get you out of here.”
Every word took effort. The scent of the medicines hung heavily in the room. Perry tasted the chemicals on his tongue. He felt sluggish and slightly dizzy, but the urge to move, to get off the cot and stretch his muscles, overwhelmed him.
Cinder fell silent, his breath wheezing, his eyelids drifting closed for a few seconds.
“I tried too,” he said, finally. “To get out of here, I mean. But they’re giving me this medicine. It makes me so weak, and I can’t call the Aether. I can’t reach it. . . . I don’t feel very well.”
Perry glanced at the long glass wall that divided the room in two. It looked almost exactly like the room where he’d found Cinder earlier, except larger. The other side was empty—just a long table and a dozen chairs.
“We’ll find another way out of here.”
“How?” Cinder asked. “They’re doing the same to you.”
He was right. Perry couldn’t help anyone in his condition.
“Was Willow . . . was she . . . has she said anything about me being gone?” Cinder asked. “Forget it. I didn’t mean to ask that. I don’t want to know,” he added in a rush.
“She’s said a lot, Cinder. Too much, actually. She took up cursing the day you were taken. Nobody can get her to stop. She’s got Talon swearing too. . . . I think . . . I think even Flea is barking swear words. Probably it’ll be that way until we get you home.
“Molly misses you, and so does Bear. Gren feels terrible Kirra’s men got past him. He’s told me so a dozen times, and he’s told Twig and the rest of the Six a hundred times more than that. . . . That’s how it is. Everyone misses you. Everyone wants you back.”
The effort of saying so much gave Perry a pounding headache. He wanted Cinder to smile, though. Now that Cinder did—a shaky, teary grin—Perry felt tears well in his own eyes.
“I liked being there, with the Tides.”
“You’re one of us.”
“Yeah,” Cinder said. “I am. Thanks for coming for me, even if it didn’t work.”
Perry smiled back. “Sure . . . glad to be here.”
That got them both laughing—or hacking and coughing in an attempt at laughter that was probably the sorriest sound ever made.
The doors in the other room slid open, and they fell silent.
Hess entered with Soren and took a seat at the table.
Others entered behind them. There, escorted under guard, he saw Roar and Aria.