They flew between the skyscrapers, over the poorer districts, and beyond the wall. Saoirse’s magic lowered them both to the ground where the ruins of the wastelands began. “I’m sorry,” she said as they reappeared, her voice barely audible above the storm. The ground shuddered beneath them, and they were drenched within seconds from the pelting rain. “I should have gotten you out of there the moment I found you. It’s just … all of this—attacks and search-and-rescue missions—it’s way outside my comfort zone.” She dropped her bag to the ground beside her feet. “I don’t know what I’m doing half the time.”
“We … we left Archer,” Ridley said, her mind still racing to catch up.
“I thought you didn’t trust him anymore?”
“I … yes. You’re right. I don’t. He’ll be fine.” She shook her head. She wasn’t supposed to care anymore whether Archer was fine or not. “Okay, so—Whoa!” She ducked as the front half of a truck soared overhead and crashed into the ground nearby. “Holy freaking—”
“It’s fine,” Saoirse assured her. “We’ll be fine. Magic knows us. It’s not going to hurt us.”
Ridley remembered the first time she’d ended up out here, when magic had whipped her up and flung her back and forth before returning her, unharmed, to the ground. It had figured out then that she was no threat. She sincerely hoped it hadn’t forgotten her.
“Um, okay.” She tried to gather her scattered thoughts. “Just … just hang on.” Her skin glowed and her magic rose to the surface, and in the next moment she was air, picturing those she knew—Dad, Nathan, Callie, Malachi—and pushing her questioning thoughts out to the magic around her. The answers came back instantly, from every direction. Elementals were all around her, mostly in the ground. Not Callie, which made sense—she had always seemed too nervous to take part in all of this—but everyone else was nearby. Except Dad. It took Ridley longer to sense him, and when she did, she felt herself drawn toward the city, somewhere on the other side of the wall.
“My dad—he’s in the city,” she said the moment she resumed her human shape. “That’s where he’s supposed to be, right? That was part of the plan?”
“Yes. Along with everyone else who isn’t elemental. They’ll use conjurations to protect people, if necessary.”
“Risking getting caught,” Ridley said, “and unable to get away like one of us.” Why hadn’t that occurred to her before, when they were going over these plans?
“Possibly, but once this is all over and magic isn’t forbidden anymore, they’ll be freed. And that’s if they’re caught. There’ll probably be too much chaos for that.” They were both shouting now to be heard over the storm, but the wind still seemed to sweep their words away almost the moment they’d been formed.
“Okay, but also …” Ridley wrung her hands together. “He doesn’t know I’m all right. I just—I just left yesterday. I was angry with him. And when you last saw him, you said you couldn’t sense me anywhere, so he’s probably worried, and he probably thinks I hate him now, and—and what if he’s looking for me instead of—”
“That’s fine, Ridley. He’s in the city, which is safer for him than if he was out here. I’ll find him and let him know you’re okay. Right now, you need to focus.” Saoirse gripped Ridley’s shoulders as the earth trembled again. “Are you ready?”
“I—I …” Ridley shook her head, though she didn’t mean ‘no.’ She wanted more than ever to rid the world of all its smothering arxium and the Shadow Society’s influence, but, as Saoirse had said only minutes ago, everything was happening faster than anyone expected. “Just tell me exactly what’s happening right now. Is this—is this the part where everyone’s in the ground doing the earthquakes to break those arxium gas machines?”
“Yes. I assume that’s why the storm is so bad now. If the machines are broken, all the arxium gas is probably escaping into the air.” Saoirse looked behind her. “If we were a little further into the wastelands, or up there—” she turned her gaze to the sky “—I don’t think we’d be able to change form without gas masks on.”
“They know where the bunker is, right? They know which section of the wall to avoid?”
“Yes, Malachi told Nathan exactly where it is.”
“So we wait for the storm to calm down—so it won’t damage the city—and then we burn through all the arxium protection?” Ridley asked.
“Yes. You go up to the panels, and you do exactly as we practiced. Just on a bigger scale. You were already more powerful than everyone else the last time we practiced this. I know you saw that. Now you know why. Now you know you can push yourself even further.”
“Okay, but …” Ridley wiped a hand across her eyes, clearing them of the raindrops that stuck her lashes together. A futile exercise, since more rain streamed down her brow and into her eyes within seconds. “Archer mentioned there are arxium panels in the ground around all the cities. They were put there before the Cataclysm. We never knew about those, so we didn’t plan—”
“That’s fine. The others will sense any additional arxium down there. It’ll crack because of the earthquakes, and then they’ll burn through it. They’ll move on to burning the wall, and if they’re not done by the time you’re finished with all the panels, you can take down the rest of the wall.” She squeezed Ridley’s shoulders again. “It’s happening, Ridley. We have you, and this is finally, really happening.”
The knot of anxiety that had begun to form in Ridley’s chest jerked a little tighter at the reminder of the responsibility that rested on her. “But … what about the rest of the details? We haven’t done that video recording Nathan wanted to broadcast across the city to explain everything. And what about all the other cities across the world? I thought we wanted this to be a synchronized event. Happening everywhere at the same time, so the Shadow Society chapters everywhere else don’t have a chance to fight back. It’s not that I don’t want to do this. I really, really do. I just don’t want us to end up failing.”
Saoirse paused, then said, “Change has to begin somewhere, Ridley. There are others ready to act. When they see that the revolution has begun, they’ll follow suit. The Shadow Society won’t have time to stop anything.”
A shiver crept across Ridley’s skin at the word ‘revolution.’ It was so huge, so dramatic, so … historical. The kind of event that belonged in textbooks, not in everyday life. But that’s exactly what this was, wasn’t it? They were overthrowing the current order of things. Ridley had just never put the label ‘revolution’ onto it before.
“And Nathan’s probably done the recording by now,” Saoirse added. “I know we mentioned in passing that perhaps Archer should do it, but we can’t trust him with anything anymore. I’m sure Nathan’s already sent whatever he’s recorded to various news networks. He would have done that once he was close enough to the city to get signal. Hopefully someone will be brave enough to broadcast it once this is all done and everyone wants to know what’s happening. They’ll be scared at first, but Nathan’s message will help everyone understand.”
A bolt of magic zigzagged down from the sky and struck somewhere in the distance. “And the Shadow Society?” Ridley asked. “You never came to an agreement on that particular detail, and it’s kind of a major one. We’ll never be safe as long as they’re around.”
“We know who the director is now. We also know the mayor is one of them. Nathan can name them in his recording and the proper authorities will take care of them.”
Ridley frowned. “The authorities that are probably under the Shadow Society’s thumb and have been stuck there ever since the Cataclysm? Have you actually spoken to Nathan about this recording? Do you know for sure what he’s telling everyone? A moment ago you said he’s probably done it already.”
“Ridley, just—” Another tremor shook the earth, and Saoirse threw her hand out to grab Ridley’s arm. “I don’t know, okay? The only thing I know is that we all have our part to play in this. Yours is to burn through as much arxium as you possibly can. You need to leave the rest to other people. I don’t know the details, but Nathan’s been planning this for a long time. I’m sure he’ll do whatever’s necessary to make the world a safer place for all of us.”
“So … he’s going to kill them.”
Saoirse wiped rain from her face. She looked past Ridley toward the city. “I don’t know what Nathan’s going to do. But at some point, you have to trust everyone else involved in this.” She fixed her green gaze on Ridley once more. Firm and steady, yet still … gentle. “I know you’re used to acting on your own, relying only on yourself, but you’re not alone anymore. We’re all in this together.”
“I—I know I’m not alone—”
“Do you? Several days ago you took off on your own to find Archer.”
“Because nobody else wanted to help!”
“That’s not true. If you’d had a little more patience, you—” Saoirse cut herself off, shaking her head. “Trust, Ridley. That’s my point. The responsibility of this operation isn’t entirely on your shoulders. Yes, you can probably do all the arxium burning on your own, but there are other parts to this equation, and it’s okay for you to not be in control of all of them.”
Ridley blinked at Saoirse through the relentless rain—which was beginning to slow from deluge level to shower proportions. She couldn’t deny that her anxiety level was pretty high not knowing exactly what Nathan had said on his recording or what the plan was for the Shadow Society or where Dad was and whether he would stay safe. But Saoirse was right. They each had their own role to play and, just like with her magic, she had to let go of the control she so badly wanted to hang onto. It’s not my plan, she reminded herself as she wiped rain from her eyes yet again. I don’t have to know everything about it.
“Okay,” she said eventually. “I focus on my part, you focus on your part.”
“Exactly.”
“I’ll wait for the storm to calm—which might actually be starting to happen—then head up there and burn as fast and far as possible.”
“Yes. It would be better if you had your mother’s stone—I think magic would understand you more clearly if you did—but you still have plenty of power without it. You can fragment and send your fire self as far as possible, but it’ll be a bit wild and all over the place, and I don’t know if you’ll be able to control where all the burning arxium ends up.”
“Which is why my dad and the others will be waiting down below.”
“Yes. And I’ll find Maverick and tell him you’re okay before I join the others.”
Ridley turned her gaze to the sky again, blinking through the rain that was no longer falling as fast. Magic and lightning flickered intermittently in the clouds, which were a lighter gray now and even allowed a streak of sunlight to crack through every now and then. “It’s definitely starting to quieten. Probably almost time for me to head up there.”
“Put this on,” Saoirse said, crouching down and opening her bag. She straightened and handed Ridley a gas mask.
“What about you?”
“I brought two. I was hoping to find you, remember?”
“Right. Thanks.” Ridley pulled the mask on and secured the straps behind her head. “Okay, I think I’ve—” The earth heaved beneath her feet, throwing her entirely off balance. She tumbled backward, shoving her magic outward a second before she would have hit the ground. She splashed onto the rocky earth as water, then returned to human form and sat up. She sucked in a breath at the sight of the jagged rift racing through the ground toward Lumina City’s wall. It struck—Ridley tensed—and a crack splintered its way up the wall.
“Crap, this is really happening.” She reached for Saoirse’s hand as they both stood. “Right now. On a random Sunday morning. We’re …” She looked at Saoirse through the mask. “We’re changing the world.”
Saoirse held her gaze. “We’re changing the world.”
Ridley looked up again as a larger gap appeared between the clouds, allowing bright sunlight to stream down. The earth shook again, and she almost lost her balance a second time. She focused forward instead, eyes pinned on Lumina City. “Time to do this,” she whispered.
Then she started running. Her form melted into fire and she launched herself upward, shooting into the sky as a mass of flames. As she neared the city wall, she wondered vaguely if anyone was watching her fiery form hurtling across the sky. If so, were they afraid? Would they assume it was another manifestation of the wild wasteland magic? Whatever they believed it to be, they probably thought the shield of arxium panels above their city would protect them. She knew they’d be afraid once those began burning. Their fear would only increase when they realized their wall was burning too.
Only for a short time, she assured herself. Nathan will explain everything. If no one wanted to broadcast his message, they could put it on all the social feeds instead. Soon there would be no more fear. Only a world that was free to use magic.
She flew higher and higher. The panels grew nearer. Near enough to make out their true size. Impossibly thin, but at least the footprint of a bus, if not bigger. Squarer. Even as a magic-powered fireball, Ridley felt tiny in comparison. She imagined a deep breath, urged her magic faster, and slammed into the first panel.
She half expected to be instantly and violently repelled by the arxium, but Nathan was right: elemental fire ate through arxium as if it were paper. Fragment, she told herself, but she was still too nervous to fully let go. Her flames leaped across the panel, then across the empty space to the next one. She urged herself further and faster—as fast as she could go without fragmenting.
It isn’t about control, she reminded herself. It’s about trust. Trust everyone else. Trust yourself. Trust the magic around you.
She felt her elemental form relax and begin to—
Something hit her. Not a panel, not the gusting wind. Something … else. Something invisible. Some … one. She could sense an elemental form in the air around her, and for a second she thought of—but that definitely wasn’t possible. The someone wrapped around Ridley’s fire form, and for a moment she blazed even brighter. Then everything went instantly dark. Solid, earthy, suffocating. The flames were gone. She couldn’t move. Panic choked her.
Then the world reappeared and she was human again, falling down, down, down, hurtling toward glinting skyscrapers and a maze of criss-crossing streets. Terror stole her breath. She pushed her magic outward—or tried to, but someone else wrapped air around her a second before she could access her own magic. Together, they spiraled down between two buildings, the ground rushing dizzyingly toward them until—
They halted barely an inch from the road. Whiplash probably would have killed them if they’d been in human form. Then Ridley was dropped. She landed face down, her gas mask banging on the tarred surface of the road. She groaned and rolled over, her magic already pulsing beneath her skin and rising into the air to—
She froze at the sight of the girl standing in front of her. Yellow magic—yellow?—flickered beneath her skin. Ridley’s eyes rose, and the familiar face was as much a shock as the unnatural color of magic.
Lilah pulled her arm back before throwing it forward, releasing a mass of sparking yellow magic. “Payback,” she said, before pain radiated across Ridley’s head and everything vanished.