32 
Perry saw everything.
Taller than everyone in front of him, he had a clear view of Sable as he flayed Hess open.
Time came to a stop as Hess crumpled, his blood darkening the dusty earth. The moment of absolute silence felt familiar, reminding Perry of when he’d slain Vale. Power felt tangible. Its shift unmistakable. Something had just ended, and something had just begun, and every person there sensed it: a change as startling and inevitable as the first drops of rain.
Soren’s scream broke the spell, a deeper sound than his father’s final cry, low and anguished, springing from his gut. Then gunfire broke out, sudden and everywhere.
Perry shot forward, sprinting toward Aria and Roar. Horns and Dwellers fired at each other as they ran for the Komodo, for Hovers, for any place to take cover. Bodies fell lifeless to the ground. Ten, then twenty, cut down in seconds.
“Aria!” he yelled, pushing through the stampede. She stood at the center of what was quickly becoming a bloodbath.
In a break in the crowd, he spotted Sable surrounded by a dozen of his men, who protected him in a human shield.
Roar’s words rang in Perry’s mind. Cut off the head of the snake.
Perry could do it. He only needed one clear shot.
Roar’s whistle cut sharply through the gun battle.
Perry’s head whipped to the sound. Roar stood fifty paces away. A Horn soldier held him by the arm, shuttling him to the Komodo. Perry saw Soren and Aria beyond Roar, both of them also under the gun.
Perry slowed and set his feet. He aimed the pistol, finding his mark, and pulled the trigger.
He hit the Horn soldier who had Roar—a square shot to the chest. The man flew back, falling to the ground, and Roar lunged free.
Perry sprinted again, bullets flinging past him. He’d lost sight of Aria and Soren, but Roar ran ahead of him, charging forward on the same path.
Roar reached Soren first, leaping at his captor. He fell on the Horn soldier, who careened into Soren, and all three went crashing to the ground.
Perry ran past them, seeing Aria. Then seeing Kirra.
“Stop, Perry!” Kirra yelled. She yanked Aria around.
Perry skidded to a stop as Kirra pressed a gun under Aria’s chin. He was only twenty paces away, but not close enough.
Aria tilted her chin up, her face strained with anger. She was breathing fast, her gaze on Perry but her focus elsewhere.
“Drop the gun, Perry,” Kirra said. “I can’t let you leave. Sable needs—”
Aria rammed her elbow into Kirra’s throat, quick and sudden.
She spun away, grabbing Kirra’s arm and twisting it behind her. With a hard shove, she forced Kirra down in an arm lock, sending her face smashing to the dirt. Snatching the pistol from the ground, Aria slammed the butt into the back of Kirra’s head. Kirra went limp, knocked unconscious.
Aria jumped to her feet and ran over. “I hate that girl.”
Stunned, impressed, Perry felt his mouth pull into an idiotic grin.
“We have to get out of here,” Roar said. Soren swayed behind him, ashen, his eyes unfocused.
“This way,” Perry said, leading them to the Dragonwing he’d been in earlier.
As they raced down the runway, he noticed battles waged over Hovers—and the Horns quickly gaining control. Every Dweller seemed to be challenged by three of Sable’s men. Some were Guardians, already showing allegiance to their new leader. Bodies lay strewn across the field, most of them dressed in gray.
He reached the Dragonwing and jumped inside, Aria, Soren, and Roar right behind him. Cinder waited in the cockpit, exactly where Perry had left him.
“Go!” Perry yelled.
The Dweller pilot was ready, just as they’d planned. He had the craft off the ground before the hatch closed.