Elemental Thief

by Rachel Morgan

  “Rules are rules,” Bald Guy told him. “Christa likes us to stick to them.”

  Archer hesitated, and Ridley had a suspicion he wasn’t used to people not listening to him. With someone like Alastair Davenport as his father, he’d probably learned to order people around at a young age. “Fine,” he said eventually. He stepped to the side of the passageway, reaching out to pull Ridley toward the wall as well. “Why don’t you walk ahead of us then?”

  “No thanks.” The man’s twisted smile made another appearance. “I think I’ll stick behind you.”

  Archer looked at Ridley, and they had less than a second in which to exchange a wary glance before the man lunged forward, wrapping both beefy arms around Archer’s neck.

  18

  Ridley stood frozen, trying to figure out what to do as Archer shoved his elbow backward, then wriggled free when the huge man’s grip loosened. “Run!” Archer yelled at her as he dove forward. Her feet unstuck themselves from the floor, and she turned and raced ahead of Archer along the corridor. It was bare, no rose bush against the walls, and no doors. Jumbled thoughts flashed through her mind: She could become invisible. She could fight back with magic. But Archer would see, and once they got out of here, he would hold the knowledge of her secret over her forever. Or turn her in to the police.

  The corridor ended at a set of concrete stairs, and since there was nowhere else to go, Ridley ran down them. Behind her, the men yelled to one another, and Archer shouted at her to move faster. The stairs went on and on, and she began jumping down two or three at a time until finally she saw the bottom. She cleared the last few steps with one leap, stumbled forward a few paces, then carried on running. This corridor was short and soon it opened onto a wide tunnel with a canal running along it and a ceiling so high it was probably the same level as the ground way above them. But what stopped Ridley in her tracks was how unexpectedly alive this tunnel was. Lilies at the edge of the water, moss creeping up the sides of the canal, trees and bushes rising up from the concrete, luminous pink jellyfish propelling themselves through the water. Here and there at the edges of leaves and petals, the blue glow of magic was visible, hinting at the conjurations underlying this scene. It was all crafted from magic.

  “Don’t stop!” Archer yelled behind her.

  With a jolt of adrenaline, Ridley raced toward the bridge that crossed the canal. She was halfway over it when a zigzag of brilliant blue light sizzled past her. The air gusted unexpectedly around her, almost shoving her over the edge of the bridge. She ducked down, lowering her center of gravity, and hurried across to the other side amid the relentless wind. Wonderful, she thought grimly. They definitely do use magic. Archer had said people used it safely here, but Ridley was more inclined to believe it would destroy this entire underground base. “You okay?” she called without pausing to look back.

  “Keep going!” Archer shouted, which was answer enough. “Alongside the canal. Toward the left.”

  Ridley raced off the end of the bridge and immediately turned left. Archer reached her side as they began darting between the trees. She heard a sizzle of magic and risked a glance over her shoulder. Their pursuers crashed through the bushes behind them, but their larger size slowed them down, and their magic couldn’t easily reach Archer and Ridley through the trees. “We can get out this way,” Archer panted. “Follow me.” His long legs easily moved him ahead of her.

  The trees came abruptly to an end, as did the cavernous size of the space around them. The ceiling was suddenly much lower, only just above Archer’s head, and the walkway on either side of the canal was wide enough for only one person abreast. Jellyfish illuminated the water, but other than that, all Ridley could see now was a circle of light up ahead. With Archer just in front of her, she ran toward it. Her arms pumped and her lungs burned, and eventually she raced out of the darkness. But she’d barely run another few steps before she skidded to a halt, realizing in complete horror exactly where they were.

  Outside. On the wrong side of the city wall.

  Spotlights somewhere above them cast a bright glow over the surrounding area, revealing rusted cars and crumbling buildings covered in overgrown plants. And there was that irresistible pull, so much stronger now than it had ever been while Ridley was behind the wall. The wild, dangerous power out here called to her, as if it were reaching out to touch the magic inside her. There was a part of her that longed to answer the call, but she knew it would kill her.

  “Archer, stop!” she shouted to him.

  “What?” he yelled as he slowed and looked back.

  “We can’t stay out here!”

  “It’s okay, we can. We’ll hide—”

  With a deafening crack, magic zigzagged like lightning toward them. It flashed past Archer and struck Ridley. Her eyes squeezed shut against the blinding glow, and she knew she was about to die.

  Except …

  She wasn’t dead. She wasn’t even in pain. She opened her eyes as air spun faster and faster around her, blurring everything. A vortex lifted her from the ground. She threw her magic outward, hoping to fight back, but the glow rising from her body was whipped away into the air spinning around her. Then the tornado funnel whipped back and forth, like the tail of an angry cat, until it finally lowered her—almost gently—in a dizzy, gasping heap on the ground.

  The violent winds died down as the landscape seemed to whirl around her and someone took hold of her arm. “Hey, you okay?” Archer asked.

  “Everything’s … spinning,” she managed to say as Archer helped her sit. She blinked and looked past him, convinced their pursuers would be on them within seconds. As the world slowly righted itself, she spotted them at the mouth of the tunnel. The wind that had dropped her on the ground now raged along the edge of the wall, blowing branches and sand against the arxium and into the tunnel. Though the men tried to step out once or twice, their hands up as they performed quick, complex conjurations, they didn’t seem to be able to battle their way past the magic-enforced wind.

  “We’re trapped out here,” Ridley said faintly.

  “We’re not.” Archer pulled her to her feet. “See the ladder?” He pointed to a slim metal structure attached to the wall. It stretched about a quarter of the way up and ended below a small door. “We can get back inside the bunker that way. Quickly, before the wind stops holding those guys back.”

  Still dizzy, Ridley managed to half-stumble, half-run beside Archer while holding onto his arm. Wind tore through her hair as they reached the wall though it was nothing compared to the power that had lifted her off the ground. She squinted to keep dust and other debris from flying into her eyes. Archer went up the ladder first, and she followed close behind. At the top, he pushed the door open, climbed inside, then reached back to help pull Ridley up. Though she wouldn’t normally have needed the assistance—this was easy compared to the indoor climbing she’d done—the howling wind threatening to push her off the ladder meant she was happy to reach for Archer’s hand.

  He pulled her swiftly inside and shut the door. In the stillness and quiet that followed, Ridley breathed in deeply and looked around at the narrow metal passageway lit by bare bulbs lining the center of the ceiling. “Are we back inside the same place?”

  “Not yet.” Archer hurried forward, and Ridley followed him. “You know the guys who patrol the top of the wall? This is part of their setup. Sometimes they go down the outside of the wall and patrol along the edge.”

  “They would see the canal tunnel then, wouldn’t they?”

  Archer shook his head. “There’s a panel that slides down to cover the tunnel. Someone always makes sure it’s down during patrol times.”

  “Great, so now we’re about to get caught by government employees instead of criminal magic users. And why the hell were you suggesting we hide out in the wastelands of all places? What is wrong with you?”

  “We could have hidden if we’d got out of sight of those men in time.”

  Ridely shook her head. “You’re insan
e.”

  “Hopefully not.” Archer stopped beside a doorway and peered around the edge into the next room. “Empty,” he said, stepping inside. Ridley followed him into what looked like a locker room. He moved to the set of lockers on the right, took hold of the end locker with both hands, and tugged forward. The entire row swung away from the wall, revealing a small opening into a dark space. “There,” Archer said. “The way back inside.”

  “You sure seem to know this illegal underworld pretty well considering you’ve only been there once.”

  Archer didn’t answer as the two of them slipped around the lockers and into the darkened space. He pulled the lockers back against the wall. After blinking a few times and letting her eyes adjust, Ridley found that it wasn’t entirely dark. Tiny lights at floor level lit the way forward along another metal corridor. They hurried along it, reached a square hole in the floor, and climbed down, down, down. Ridley couldn’t see the bottom through the dim light, which, she decided as she clung tightly to each rung of the ladder, was probably a good thing.

  When her feet eventually touched a solid surface, it was concrete, and she suspected they were below ground again. “Another corridor,” she muttered as Archer jumped down beside her. She looked both ways, seeing nothing particularly exciting in the light of the same old-fashioned lamps that lit the corridors of Ezra’s apartment block.

  “That way,” Archer said, pointing to her right. “Quickly. I doubt we’ll be able to get back out through the door in your dealer’s building, so our best option now is to find Christa. I know where she—”

  “There!” someone shouted, and Ridley and Archer both whipped around.

  “See?” one of two solidly built figures said. “Told you they’d come back this way.”

  The men began running, and Ridley and Archer took off once more. “This stupid … figurine … had better be worth it,” Ridley panted. The corridor ended at a door, which Archer yanked open moments before Ridley reached it. They ran through, and she found herself alongside the canal again, running between trees. Nearing the edge of the forested area, she saw the bridge, but Archer swerved away from it, heading deeper into this underground world instead of back the way they’d first come in.

  They left the yawning space behind them and raced into a smaller room, where they found another stairway, this one winding in a spiral. They raced upward, Ridley trying her best to keep up with Archer and ignore the shouts from behind her and the occasional sizzle of magic. Around and around and up and up they went, passing numerous landings. By the time they stopped and turned onto one of them, Ridley’s legs ached and her breath burned her throat.

  They both hurried forward along the passageway, which turned out to be more of a gangway. While doors lined the wall to her right, there was nothing but a railing on her left, and beyond that, open space. She veered closer to the railing and saw the steep drop to the canal far below. Just ahead of her, Archer came to a halt. “Dammit, I’ve gone too high.”

  “What?”

  “I think Christa’s place is further down.”

  Ridley looked around at the sound of footsteps on the stairs. “They’re almost here.” She ran to the nearest door and tried the handle, but the door was locked. Making sure her back was turned fully toward Archer, she bent over the handle and let her magic flood free of her body. She was about to shove it hard against the door when wind whipped her hair past her face and sent her stumbling a few paces backwards. She tripped and landed on her backside just as Archer lunged toward her. She looked up, saw the bald man at the end of the gallery with his hands raised, and felt Archer’s grip on her arm as he pulled her up.

  The air crackled around them. “Get down—” Archer began, but the powerful blast of wind sucked his words away, knocked him toward the railing and clear over the edge.

  “No!” Ridley gasped, throwing herself against the railing and looking over the edge as Archer plummeted toward the magic-made forest and the concrete it grew from. She didn’t stop to think. She threw both hands forward and hurled everything she had at the water below. The light that escaped her body almost blinded her, but the water responded instantly. A tidal wave arced up toward Archer, catching him before he hit the concrete. Ridley scooped her hands through the air, and with the power of a geyser just released from the ground, the column of water shot upward, carrying Archer straight toward the balcony.

  Ridley was vaguely aware of her pursuer shouting something at her, but a moment later, the canal water crashed over the balcony like a wave over the edge of a pier, dumping Archer on the gallery floor along with several pink jellyfish that shimmered, became blue, and dissolved into water. Utterly exhausted, Ridley slid down onto her hands and knees and crawled toward Archer. He rolled onto his side, drenched and spluttering. “Are you … okay?” Ridley managed to ask.

  But before Archer could answer, a dripping wet figure loomed over them. “I’ve never seen anyone pull such a huge amount of magic so quickly.” Ridley barely had a moment to look up before Bald Guy tugged at the air, pulling magic from it and spinning his hands once. He shoved the magic at her, and the next thing Ridley knew, she and Archer were swept backward across the wet floor and through one of the now-open doors. “Christa will be most interested to meet you,” Bald Guy sneered. Then he slammed the door shut.

  19

  Archer hauled himself to his feet and banged on the door, which was covered in arxium on this side. “Tell Christa to come quickly!” He coughed several more times before sucking in a deep breath. “It’s urgent!” When no one responded, he thumped his fist against the door one last time before moving away from it. Ridley pulled herself up and leaned against the wall, waiting for her pounding heart to slow. Archer, his breathing still heavy, slid down the wall opposite her and sat. She didn’t say a word, and neither did he, but she knew they couldn’t ignore what she’d done. At some point, she’d have to confront the fact that her secret was no longer secret.

  She mustered enough energy to pull her commscreen from her soaking wet pocket. As she suspected, the screen remained blank instead of lighting up when she tried to switch it on. She pushed it back into her pocket. Her eyelids slid shut, blocking out the dull light of the single bulb hanging from the center of the ceiling. He doesn’t know the biggest secret of all, she reminded herself as a dull pain began to throb behind her eyes. He doesn’t know the magic came from inside you. She swallowed, opened her eyes, and dared a glance at Archer. It seemed he’d just about caught his breath by now. Slowly, his eyes rose to meet hers. “You sure waited long enough to use your magic,” he said.

  A beat of confused silence passed before Ridley said, “What?”

  “Your magic. You could have used it the moment they attacked us. Or at any other point while we were being pursued. I assume the reason you didn’t was because you didn’t want anyone to see?”

  She breathed once, twice, a third time, but Archer’s words—and the fact that he wasn’t the least bit surprised at what she’d done—still didn’t make sense. “W-what?”

  He wiped one hand over his face, pushing his wet hair off his forehead. When he repeated the words “Your magic,” it seemed there was a slight emphasis on the word ‘your,’ as if he knew she hadn’t pulled it from the environment.

  Her heart thudded several painful times before she could speak. “You were expecting me to—but how did you—” He couldn’t have seen anything when she snuck into his bedroom to share the video. She’d definitely been on the other side of the door when using magic. Her mind flashed further back to the night she stole the figurine. But he couldn’t have seen any magic then either. She’d turned her body away from the cameras as she transformed one side of the glass box into air so she could stick her hand inside and remove the figurine. “You shouldn’t know,” she said. “I didn’t let any camera in your home see my magic.”

  He shook his head. “No. Long ago, before the Cataclysm. You were at the apartment visiting Lilah. You used magic. Magic that come from �
�� inside you. You were alone in a room, but I saw you. I saw the magic glowing under your skin.”

  Again, Ridley had to wait several moments for her brain to make sense of the words before she could answer. “You’ve known all these years that I’m some kind of unnatural freak?”

  Archer leaned his head back against the wall and draped one arm over his knees. “I’m not sure about the freak part, but yes, I’ve known about your magic for years.”

  “And did … did you …” Ridley was too scared to ask.

  “No,” he answered. “I didn’t tell anyone.”

  “And you won’t tell anyone now? I know we’re in this secret part of the city where people use magic freely, but it’s still nothing like my magic. No one else has this stuff inside them. I don’t need other people knowing about this.”

  “Look, I’ve kept your secret long enough, haven’t I? There’s no reason for me to give it away now.”

  “Okay. But … he might know,” she said quietly, the realization chilling her. “The bald guy. He might suspect I’m different. He said he’d never seen anyone pull so much magic that quickly. He might guess that it came from inside me.”

  “Why would he guess that?”

  Ridley rested her head against the door. “I don’t know. I just … I hope he didn’t see what you saw all those years ago.”

  Silence followed, and she let her eyes close again. The headache wouldn’t be gone for another few hours, but she could at least ease the discomfort by blocking out the light.

  “Hey,” Archer said, then waited until she cracked her eyes open to look at him. “Thank you. For saving me. I know you don’t even like me, so I appreciate you giving up the kind of secret that could get you in serious trouble.”

  It was too much effort to roll her eyes, so she simply let her gaze slide away from him. “Right, like I was going to let you die just because I don’t like you. I may operate on the dodgy side of the law, but I’m not that bad.”