39 
Aria watched Perry as he spoke with each of the Six.
Gren and Twig first. Then Hyde, Hayden, and Straggler. He went to Reef last, and then moved on, speaking with Molly and Bear.
She didn’t hear anything they said. Their words were lost to her. Their clasped hands and fierce embraces seemed unreal. Brooke came over, linking arms with her. Aria felt surprise and gratitude, faint and quickly fading away.
Some time later she found herself in front of a Dragonwing. It was like someone had flipped a switch to shut her off, carried her there, and powered her back on.
Cinder, Willow, and Talon sat on the edge of the Hover, legs swinging as they took turns tossing a ball to Flea. Aria blinked, recognition filtering through her dulled mind. It was a tennis ball, the lime green bright as a shout in the gray dawn. She stared at it, marveling over the artifact, this thing that had been absent. Preserved for hundreds of years. Had the owner decided it wasn’t worth bringing on the journey to the Still Blue? Had it been carefully guarded for lifetimes only to end up in Flea’s mouth?
She heard Roar’s voice behind her, and turned.
“I never should have introduced you to Cinder,” he said to Perry.
“You didn’t,” Perry replied.
They stood alone, some twenty paces off. The crowds had thinned; most everyone had loaded into the Hovers already. Aether clawed down across the sky, the sound of the funnels loud in her ears. They were leaving just in time. The funnels were almost on top of them.
“But you met him because of me,” Roar said.
“Yeah.” Perry crossed his arms. “I did.”
They both looked over, noticing her. Neither of them looked away. They watched her, their faces grave and worried, like they thought she might blow right off the edge of the bluff. Nearby, one of the Hover engines buzzed to life. Then another and another, until her ears filled with the sound, and she didn’t hear the Aether shrieking anymore.
Her attention moved to a group coming toward them.
Horn guards. Her father. And Sable.
It was almost time to leave.
As Roar spoke again to Perry, Aria found herself shutting out the sounds of the Hovers, the wind and the surf below, and the storms, focusing solely on them.
“I don’t like this idea, Perry.”
“I knew you wouldn’t.”
Roar nodded. “Right.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “We’ll be waiting for you.”
Perry had told Aria that he’d return, but he made no such promise to Roar now. As the pause stretched out between them, she wondered if Perry had only said what she’d wanted to hear.
“All right then, brother,” Roar said at last.
They embraced—quickly, firmly—something Aria realized she’d never seen before and never wanted to see again. It made them look scared and breakable, and they weren’t. They were magnificent, both of them.
Perry moved closer and called to Talon, who jumped down and met his uncle. Kneeling, Perry took Talon’s face in his hands, and then Talon was crying and she had to look away.
Her father and Sable were almost there. Wind pushed Loran’s black hair into his eyes, but Sable’s was just a shadow over his skull.
As she watched them approach, her conversation with Perry played over in her mind. He had told her that he would come back. Hadn’t he? What had she said to him? Had she been rude or ungrateful, like the last time she’d seen her mother?
The last time.
This couldn’t be.
Was it?
She could have lived every minute she’d had with him better. She should have always spoken the best words she could to him.
Sable arrived, his face flushed, his eyes full of energy. He stood talking with Loran, but Aria knew he was watching everything.
Perry hugged Talon and then sent him with Roar to board a Hovercraft. Then he came to her side and she took his hand, her weak hand somehow clinging to his scarred one. She wanted to firm her grip, to create an unbreakable grasp that would keep him close forever, but he’d chosen a path. And though she ached to stop him, she wouldn’t.
They watched Roar pick Talon up like he was a child of four instead of eight. Tears streamed down Talon’s face as he wrapped his arms around Roar’s throat. He was shouting, but Aria couldn’t hear a word he was saying. Willow ran ahead with Flea. Without seeing her face, Aria knew that she was crying too.
“Ready, Cinder?” Sable’s voice was like a hook pulling her back to reality.
Cinder tugged his black hat lower and drew his legs up into the Hover. He glanced at Sable, and then away, to Roar and Willow and Talon, who were boarding another Hover farther down the bluff.
Cinder appeared grown to Aria then, more a man than a boy. At some point in the course of his being kidnapped and held prisoner, the bones in his jaw and cheeks had widened, taking on more heft. He had a handsome face, an appealing mix of broodiness and confidence that sat just right on his features.
When she’d met Cinder, he’d lashed at her and Perry and Roar while trailing after them like a lost child. That time in the woods seemed so long ago. He fit now. He had achieved the same thing she wanted herself. Cinder had found Perry. He’d found Willow and Flea and Molly. He had a place. A family.
Aria understood why Perry was going with him. And she hated that she understood.
“Thank you for what you’re doing,” Sable said.
Aria glanced at Loran. Did he hear Sable’s falseness? He was an Aud; surely he had to.
“I’m not doing anything for you,” Cinder snapped. He stood and disappeared into the craft.
“So long as he does it,” Sable said, with a small shrug. He turned to Perry. “We went through a good deal of trouble getting here, didn’t we? Suffered a few bruises along the way, but the important thing is that we made it. Everything is prepared. The Dragonwing will be controlled remotely by one of the pilots on my craft. We’ll get you close, Peregrine. All you and Cinder have to do is the rest.”
He had the nerve to make it seem as if he were doing the difficult part. She could hear Perry’s breath beside her, fast and irregular. As hard as this was for her, it was so much worse for him.
Sable inclined his head. “Good luck.”
Aria didn’t even see Perry’s face before he hugged her. “I’ll be thinking about you,” he said, lifting her off the ground. “I love you.”
She said it back, and that was it.
All that mattered. Everything there was to say.