Ridley’s gaze shot toward the doorway she’d walked through barely a few minutes before just as Archer said Saoirse’s name. A slight figure was standing there. Wrapped in her favorite rainbow sweater, her gray-streaked auburn hair scraped back into a tight ponytail, it was most certainly Saoirse.
Ridley let out a heavy breath as she stood, her hammering pulse still pumping adrenaline through her system. “Saoirse, what are you—you can’t just do that! You almost gave us heart failure. Mrs. Adams was about to … I don’t know, shoot you or something.” Even as the words left her mouth, she remembered appearing in Meera’s bedroom in much the same fashion. And in Lilah’s bedroom not long before that. In fact, Ridley had entered a great many homes in exactly the way Saoirse had just appeared. With a twinge of both guilt and annoyance, she forced the reminder away.
“I wasn’t very well about to knock on the front door when I had no idea what kind of situation you were in,” Saoirse said, crossing the room. A bag hung from one shoulder, and she didn’t remove it as she pulled Ridley into a brief hug. “You might have been a prisoner in here. Would have been silly to announce my arrival in that case.”
“I’m guessing I can put this away?” Mrs. Adams said, holding up the book. It was closed now, hiding the weapon that lay within it.
“Yes,” Archer answered, standing. “Mrs. Adams, this is Saoirse. Elemental, as you’ve no doubt gathered. Saoirse, this is …” He looked at Mrs. Adams. “I’m sorry, I don’t actually know your first name.”
“Blair.” Mrs. Adams slid the book back onto the shelf before moving toward Saoirse, her hand extended. “Blair Adams.” The two women shook hands. It struck Ridley that they probably weren’t too far apart in age, but Mrs. Adams looked decades younger with her perfectly dyed hair and expertly applied makeup.
“Sorry for intruding,” Saoirse said. “But we’ve all been very worried about Ridley.”
“We?” Ridley echoed. “Who else … I mean, where did you just come from? Have you seen—my dad?” She stumbled over that last bit, and Saoirse must have noticed because her eyes filled with sympathy.
“You have seen him,” Ridley said quietly. “You know that I know.”
To her side, she noticed Archer looking between the two of them. “Know … what?”
Ridley cleared her throat and turned to Mrs. Adams. “Uh, we can go now and continue all of this elsewhere. I don’t want to intrude on your hospitality any longer. But I’m very grateful for the meal and the shower and … and a safe place to hide for a bit. Thank you.”
Mrs. Adams sighed through her nose. “No rush. This isn’t what I’d planned for my Sunday morning, but you’re all here now, so you may as well stay longer if you need to. I meant what I said when I told Archer I wished Serena had had somewhere safe to hide.” She looked around. “Anyone want some tea?”
Archer seemed uncertain. Saoirse looked at Ridley as if Ridley held the answer. All Ridley could say was, “Um …”
“I’ll put the kettle on anyway.” Mrs. Adams left the room. Ridley and Archer hesitantly sat down. Saoirse followed, not bothering to remove the bag from her shoulder.
“So … magic led you here?” Ridley asked Saoirse. “To me, I mean?”
“Yes. Sorry, before I say anything else … do we trust him?” She jerked her head toward Archer. “Nathan told me about his ties to the Shadow Society. About his father being the director.” Her brows lowered in disappointment as she focused on Archer. “I don’t know you that well, but I have to admit it was a shock to discover this.”
“Saoirse, I’m on your side,” Archer insisted. “I swear. Before reaching the reserve, I had planned to never see my family or any other Shadow Society member ever again. It’s true that I once bought into everything my father told me—or at least, it was just easier not to question things—but I made my own mind up months ago.”
Saoirse looked at Ridley. “You know him better than I do. What do you think?”
Ridley sighed. “I don’t know. Everything’s become so tangled in my head. If I look back, I can see evidence to support his story, but I can also see times where things conveniently worked out in his favor. It just seems safer not to trust him.”
“I agree.” Saoirse’s magic drifted around her hands. She pulled it together between her palms, then manipulated it with a sweep and curve of her hands and repetitive flutters of her fingers.
“What are you doing?” Ridley asked.
Saorise spread her arms wide, then smacked the magic together between her palms before throwing it at Archer. It hit his chest and vanished like a puff of dust. His wide eyes shot up. “What did you do to me?”
“You can’t pull magic now. It’s basically the same effect as an AI2. I’m sorry, but I need to be sure Ridley and I have the upper hand here. You can only use your own physical strength now if you want to attack us, and our magic should help us get away from you or restrain you, should the need arise.”
Archer looked horrified. “I would never attack either of you.”
“Why do you know a conjuration like that?” Ridley asked, frowning.
“People who use magic—elemental or not—aren’t always good people. I’ve learned that the hard way. Sometimes this is the easiest method of disarming someone who’s trying to hurt you.”
“Permanently?” Archer demanded.
“Oh, no. Sorry, I should have mentioned that. It’s not permanent. There’s another conjuration to remove the effects of the one I just did.”
“So, what? I earn your trust back, and you’ll return me to normal?”
“I suppose so.”
Ridley was still frowning. This was probably the best thing to do, given that they had no way of knowing if anything coming out of Archer’s mouth was the truth. But there was still something about it that made her feel uncomfortable. There was little difference between this and the government deciding that by law, everyone would have an AI2. But this was one person deciding for another person that they shouldn’t be allowed to use magic, and that seemed a bit more like a violation of a basic human right. Or perhaps this was just Ridley’s silly heart caring more about Archer than she should. She needed to work on that.
“Back when magic was legal,” Archer said, “I assume this kind of conjuration was illegal?”
“Yes. But you’ve probably done plenty of illegal things in service of the Shadow Society, so illegal conjurations shouldn’t bother you.” Without giving him a chance to respond, Saoirse turned to Ridley. “What happened yesterday? After you left Nathan and your father—well, your … you know.” She looked uncomfortable. “I had the vague sense that you were somewhere in or near Lumina City, and then the feeling simply vanished. I thought something terrible may have happened to you.”
Ridley leaned back and folded her arms over her chest. It was just hitting her again that Saoirse had known the truth all along. Throughout every conversation, every training session—even the first moment they’d met, when it had been clear Ridley believed Dad was her father—the truth had hung there between them without Ridley being aware of it. “You knew,” she said, an accusatory edge to her voice. “And you let me believe a lie.”
Saoirse shifted her position slightly on the couch, unable to meet Ridley’s gaze now. “It wasn’t my place to say anything. I tried to convince Maverick, but he kept saying he needed more time.”
Archer leaned forward. “I think I’ve missed something. What are you talking about?”
“You’ve missed a lot,” Ridley snapped. “That’s what happens when you turn out to be part of the enemy organization. We stop telling you things.”
Archer let out a frustrated huff of breath. “I am not the enemy.”
Ridley ignored him and faced Saoirse again. “Okay. So you didn’t tell me. Fine. I guess I understand that you didn’t feel it was your place. Though you did tell Nathan, and you must have known he wasn’t going to keep it to himself.”
“I’m sorry about that. I was trying to explain to him that I have real hope for our plans, and I suppose I must have come across far more excited than I have in recent months, so he wanted to know what changed. I told him about you. And, Ridley—” she gripped both of Ridley’s hands in her own “—I do have real hope now. Having you with us changes everything. The rest of us could probably sit back and watch while you burn through all the arxium around Lumina City on your own.”
Ridley shook her head as a shiver raised the hairs on her arms. “I don’t know about that.”
“Well, if you had both your family stones you probably could. But your father’s was lost several generations ago.”
“The stones? Why would it make a difference if I had both of them?”
“As I understand it, the magic within them helps to focus your power. You know how when you fragment, you sort of … lose touch with time and place? You feel as though you’re everywhere at once? It’s very … instinctive. You give yourself over to the elements, and magic senses what you want and need. But when you’re wearing the stone I gave you—at least this is how your mother explained it to me—you’re able to focus more sharply. You’re everywhere at once, and also distinctly aware of everything at once, so you’re able to direct it more easily. Essentially, it makes you even stronger than you already are.”
“Hmm,” Ridley mused. “Is that why magic was able to warn me that we were about to be attacked? Did I have, like, a stronger connection to it because I was wearing the stone then?”
“You already have a stronger connection than the rest of us because of who you are. You can just about have a conversation with magic if that’s what you want. You can ask it for things and it will understand you in a way it will never understand the rest of us. But yes, even more so when you’re wearing the stone, I think.”
“But magic warned you too. It didn’t warn anyone else—at least, not that I gathered—but it did warn you. Wait, are you also one?”
“Oh, no, I …” Saoirse stumbled over her words as she shook her head. “With much patience and meditation over many years, I’ve honed my connection to the elements. But it’s still not as easy for me as it is for you. The warning I got wasn’t very clear.”
“Oh. So, is this why …” Ridley played absently with the ends of her hair, wondering if she should voice this part out loud. She’d wanted to ask Saoirse about it before, but it seemed too silly, like something she’d probably imagined. “The first time I fragmented, it felt to me as though magic said it … knew me. And then after I burned through that building in the wastelands, I got the sense that it was pleased with me. I thought either I’d imagined it or … I don’t know, that maybe all elementals feel like magic is telling them it recognizes them.”
“Amazing,” Saoirse murmured. “No, I don’t think magic says that to all of us. At least, I don’t remember getting that sense myself, and no one else has ever mentioned it to me. There must be something recognizable about the magic you’ve inherited. Some signature to it that’s passed along with each generation.”
“Maybe,” Ridley murmured.
On the other side of the coffee table, Archer swore beneath his breath. Ridley had almost forgotten he was there, but now she looked at him. “You’re one of them,” he said softly. “You’re an heir. You must have inherited it from your …” He trailed off, frowning as he looked at Saoirse. “But you said both. And Ridley’s father isn’t …” His eyes slid away, focusing on something in the distance, and Ridley could almost see his mind working. Then his gaze snapped up to hers again, and there was something like pity in his eyes. He’d figured it out. And he’d accepted it immediately, not arguing about it the way she had. Not saying that it was impossible, that Saoirse must have got it wrong. He was probably thinking it made a lot of sense. He was probably thinking, So that’s why she looks nothing like her father.
“Ridley …” he said slowly.
“Don’t,” she said tightly. “Whatever you’re going to say, just don’t. And actually—” she tilted her head to the side “—now that I think about it, if you know about these so-called heirs, then you should have already figured out that I’m one of them. I showed you the pendant Saoirse gave me.”
“The … oh. That’s the family stone.”
Ridley rolled her eyes. “Yes, Archer. Your father recognized it, so I assume you would too. Maybe you’re the one who told him what I am. Maybe that’s the reason he told his guys to bring me back to him instead of just killing me.”
Archer shook his head. “If someone told him, it wasn’t me. I’ve heard of elemental heirs, and I know about the family heirloom stones that are passed down from generation to generation. I’ve heard stories of siblings and cousins killing each other over the single stone passed down from their ancestors. But I don’t remember anyone ever telling me what they look like. Honestly, it never even crossed my mind that that’s what it might be when you showed it to me. Didn’t you say it was a healing stone or something?”
Ridley looked at Saoirse. “You mentioned healing properties. I’m guessing that was a lie?”
“Your mother did actually mention that she could draw power from the stone and use it to heal herself.”
“Oh. But you didn’t just happen to be wearing it when your community was discovered.”
“No, that part was a lie.” Saoirse looked appropriately contrite. “I’m sorry. When the Shadow Society found us …” She swallowed and took a deep breath. “Cam had taken Bria to the park nearby. I went to your parents’ home first, as it was the closest. But they were already … they were dead. You weren’t with them, but I hoped you were in the nursery. I knew about the stone pendant being part of your heritage and linked to your power, so I took it off your mother’s neck. I intended to search the house for you, hoping I would find you alive. But by then there was so much arxium in the air. I was so dizzy and sick, and I’d barely made it through the next room when someone returned. It took everything in me to change to air and flee.
“By the time I found Cam and Bria, fire was already raging through everything. I don’t know who started it—perhaps it was one of us, fighting back, or perhaps it was them. But everything was burning, and there was so much arxium, and we had to get out of there.”
Ridley tried not to imagine the scene. She tried not to imagine her parents’ dead bodies. “Why did you wait two weeks to give me the stone?” she asked quietly. “You could have given it to me as soon as I arrived at the reserve.”
“I thought … well, I don’t know exactly how it works. You’re supposed to be immensely powerful to start off with, and then the stone amplifies that even more. But when you arrived at the reserve, you had only just begun to embrace your own magic without restraint. I thought perhaps you needed to first stretch yourself, to discover the potential of your own natural magic, before adding a magical booster to your power.”
Ridley nodded slowly. “You wanted me to be strong on my own first, so I could then become even stronger.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re telling me that with this stone, I should have enough power to burn through the entire wall around the city and all the panels overhead?”
“I think so, yes.”
Ridley hesitated, then said, “You’re going to be rather upset when I tell you I don’t have the stone anymore.”
A heartbeat of silence passed through the room. Then another. Saoirse shook her head. “Sorry … what? Why? What happened to it?”
“I’m pretty sure Archer’s father has it. I was wearing it when someone discovered me back at my old apartment, but when I woke up, it was gone. Alastair Davenport told me that’s how he knew what I was.”
“He definitely would have taken it,” Archer said. “He’s been hoping to find an elemental heir for years. Not that it was a top priority of his, but he mentioned it every now and then, how it would be useful to find one.”
“And I’m the lucky one he eventually found,” Ridley muttered.
“Okay, so this explains why whoever caught you at your apartment didn’t just kill you,” Archer continued. “They probably saw the stone and, unlike me, they recognized it. I thought maybe my father was hoping to get other information out of you, but it’s obviously because you’re an heir.”
“Well, I guess I really am lucky then,” Ridley said, no sarcasm this time. “I’d be dead if I was just a regular old elemental.”
Saoirse leaned forward, rubbed her fingers against her temples, and groaned. “It would really help us if we could get that stone back.”
“You know, if it’s so vitally important, you probably should have told me to be more careful with it. I thought it was just jewelry with a bit of magic in it.”
“I told you it was your mother’s. I thought that would make it important enough to you.”
Ridley bristled at the accusatory edge to Saoirse’s voice. “That did make it important. But if you’d added, ‘Oh, and we need it in order to save civilization,’ then maybe I could have hidden it somewhere on myself.”
“Then we’d be back to you being dead,” Archer said quietly, “because if no one saw it, they would have killed you.”
“Look, it’s not that we need it in order to return the world to the way it used to be,” Saoirse said to Ridley. “After all, we’ve been planning this for a long time without an heir. But I think we have a much higher chance of succeeding with you on our side. With you and your family stone. There’s so much arxium around the city, and so many of those panels in the sky. We just don’t know how much power it’ll take to burn through them all. The more we have, the better.”
“Okay, so I’ll get it back then. I’ve stolen things before—I’m pretty good at it, actually—so if we need it, then I’ll get it. I want this plan to work. I don’t want the Shadow Society controlling things anymore.”
“Don’t be foolish,” Archer said. “You don’t know where my father is keeping it, and even if you did, it’s too dangerous to try to get it back. This isn’t like breaking into some random apartment. If he catches you again, he’ll make sure you can’t get away.”
Ridley pinned Archer with a level gaze. “You probably know where the stone is.”
He sighed. “If I knew—”
“Or, if you don’t, you at least have a good idea of where he might be hiding it.”
“Sure, I know of all the places we could look for it, but that doesn’t make it any safer. And what if he has it on him?”
“Well then I guess I’ll just have to get it off him. If I have magic and a gas mask, I’ll be fine. I’ll get him on his own somehow, and—”
An ear-splitting crack tore through Ridley’s remaining words. Saoirse’s hand shot out and landed on Ridley’s leg as a bolt of magic flashed outside and thunder reverberated through the building. “Just another storm,” Ridley said, though her own heart raced from the shock of the abrupt weather change. Rain began to shower against the windows.
Saorise stood and crossed the room, raising one hand to the window pane. “We’re out of time,” she said, her quiet voice barely reaching Ridley over the sound of the rain.
“No, it’s normal here,” Ridley said. “That was maybe a little angrier and more out-of-the-blue than usual—and magic itself doesn’t often make its way past the panels—but storms are common over the cities. Not like out there at the reserve where magic has learned to be calm around elementals. You’re probably not used to it.”
Saoirse shook her head. “This isn’t an ordinary magical storm. The attack has begun.”
It took a moment for the words to settle into Ridley’s brain. Then she stood abruptly. “Attack? What attack? Like … Nathan’s plan? Elementals destroying the arxium around the city?”
Saoirse turned and met Ridley’s eyes. “Yes.”
“But … now? Since when?”
“Since we were attacked and everyone decided to retaliate without waiting any longer. Since …” Saoirse took a deep breath, and there was something apologetic in her gaze. “Since I told everyone you’re an heir and that I’d be able to find you, and that we could win this.”
“You—you what?”
Saoirse pressed her hands over her face. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. So fast. But after we made it to the mountains, everyone decided enough is enough. They want to fight back now. Which is good—we’ve waited long enough—but you were supposed to be with us, and you were supposed to have the stone, and you were supposed to know exactly what you need to do.” She lowered her hands and looked at Ridley. “But they’d already decided. They didn’t want to wait even a day. So I told them about you, and then I went ahead of everyone and caught up with Nathan and Maverick. They told me about you taking off and how they were so worried about you. Nathan couldn’t sense you anymore. But now I’ve found you. You’re okay, and we can still do this without the stone. We just need to get outside the city and join everyone else.”
Archer was standing now too. “Why didn’t you tell us this the moment you got here?”
“Perhaps because I saw you,” Saoirse retorted. “And because I’d just discovered your affiliation to the Shadow Society. And because I knew Ridley had found out the truth about her parents, and I didn’t know what kind of mental state she was in. We needed to talk before I mentioned that oh, by the way, we’re doing this now. And because—” she dug her fingers into her hair and sucked in another deep breath “—because they were supposed to wait. Nathan was supposed to wait. He was supposed to trust that I would find Ridley and not begin any of this without us. But none of us could sense her anymore, and he thought that meant she might be dead, and—”
“So let’s go,” Ridley said. “Now. We can be outside the city walls in less than—”
“No.” Mrs. Adams stood in the doorway. “You’re not going anywhere until you tell me exactly what’s happening.”
“I’m guessing you haven’t been in the kitchen this whole time making tea,” Archer said.
“What were you saying about elementals destroying the arxium around the city? Do you mean all the arxium that’s protecting us? Because that sounds insane. You can’t—”
Saoirse launched toward Ridley and vanished. A rush of air swept around Ridley, and an instant later, she was invisible too. She had never done this before—disappeared because of someone else’s magic and not her own—but she let Saoirse’s elemental form whisk her away. Out of the room, through an air vent, into an air duct, racing along pipes, up and up and up, until eventually they shot out above the building.