by Megan Curd
My mouth dropped in surprise. “So you’re a scientist, too?”
“Heck no,” Sari said with a laugh. “I attach the electrodes, run the program, and send the information to Riggs. I see the data as it comes in, and I’ve kind of taught myself what I think it means, but I could be way off. Let’s go get everyone set up.”
I followed her from her office to find that the room had filled with students. Asher, Evan, and Kloey I recognized, but the rest were new. They were milling about, but when Sari cleared her throat, they all snapped to attention.
“Listen up, guys! Riggs wants you working on your respective elements. Easy day,” she said as she pulled a lever on the wall I hadn’t noticed. “You know the drill. Head to your element, attach your electrodes, and do your thing.”
The right wall groaned and lifted, revealing a long table filled with bowls—some with dirt, and others with water. The table slid forward into the room, wobbling slightly as it came to a halt. Fans and lit candles also graced the slab of dark wood. The students made small groups around the elements, and took their materials to different areas of the room.
“Now the fun begins,” Sari said as she walked back to her office. She turned and saw me rooted to my spot. “Don’t worry, I’m sure Riggs has all kinds of things for you later. Get in here and relax while you can.”
I followed her into her office and watched her fingers fly across the keyboard as though they had a mind of their own.
A small series of musical beeps sounded, and she pulled a mic from the second level of her desk. “All right, ladies and gents. Your music for the day is brought to you by one of my favorite rock bands. Enjoy.”
Guitars and drums filled the air, followed by the crooning of a male voice. She pointed to the poster behind her. “What I wouldn’t give to have been around to see them in concert.”
I shrugged. “I haven’t heard this band, honestly.”
She shook her head, dismay in her features. “We can remedy that. Consider it my contribution to your steep learning curve.”
“Fair enough.”
She gestured for me to come to her computer and whispered, “Now for why I really brought you here.”
With a few clicks, a folder popped up on the screen, quickly replaced by the words FILE ENCRYPTED. PLEASE ENTER PASSWORD. Undeterred, she began typing away. Gibberish code filled the screen, then a ping sounded. The folder popped back up, now open, and filled with more folders. She tapped the upper right one. “This one is about Riggs. Check it out.”
A movie file began to play with a 3D version of Riggs rotating on the left of the screen. Pages of information scrolled down below the miniature Riggs’s feet, and the video depicted him shaking hands with dignitaries standing in front of the Alliance flag. “This is why I wonder how he got here,” she said. “And get this; there’s a folder for Xander I can’t get into. Eventually I will, but I’ve been digging with no luck.”
“Alice found a picture of Riggs wearing the Alliance military uniform,” I said, trying to connect the dots. “What do you think is going on?”
Sari leaned back in her chair and the front legs came off the ground as she put her hands behind her head. Her eyes shined with the challenge of uncovering truths, and I could tell she wouldn’t stop until everything was out in the open. “I don’t know, but for some reason, I’m getting a bad feeling.”
“Didn’t you already have one of those?”
The chair thudded back to the ground. “Oh, I love a good conspiracy theory, so I’ve followed along with Jaxon since I got here. Now though, let’s just say I don’t think he’s as crazy as I thought.”
“He said the journal he gave me to read is Riggs’s, and Xander gave it to him. He said Xander has taken him under his wing like a father.”
“He has, which makes me worry that maybe Riggs has had enough and wants Xander to stop trying to be the dad he’s never been.”
The words I was afraid to say were on the tip of my tongue. Sari cocked her head to the side and examined me carefully. “What are you thinking?”
“Am I that obvious?”
“You’re not subtle, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Well, I was wondering if you guys might be too focused on Riggs. You know, not seeing the forest because of the trees?”
She scratched her neck, seeming to digest my suggestion. “And what trees do you think we’re missing?”
I glanced around the room. “Are there, you know?” I nodded to the monitor that revealed Xander pacing in his study, Jaxon lying in his bed, and Alice digging in Riggs’s desk in the library. I did a double take.
“Oh crap, Sari, look.”
We both watched Alice dig through the drawers, pulling out pamphlets, blueprints, and journals. She leafed through them as she went.
Sari let out a low chuckle. “Well isn’t she Miss 007.”
“Who’s that?”
“It’s a movie character that—” She waved her hand. “Ah, never mind. He’s pretty badass. He also finds himself in a lot of trouble most of the time.”
As if on cue, the camera lens slid to where Alice and Sari had hidden when they came to visit me.
Riggs was walking toward her.
“No! Alice, move! Move now!” Sari squealed as she gripped the monitor. “Oh, this is bad. This is very bad.”
Xander rushed onto the screen and placed his hand on Riggs to turn him. He began talking to him, motioning in the opposite direction. Riggs nodded and took off in a hurry, while Xander went to Alice.
Sari let out a sigh of relief. “That was too close.”
We watched as Xander helped Alice put things back in place, and they disappeared out of the camera together. Relief flooded through me.
Sari’s expression mirrored my own feeling of relief. “Were you going to ask if there were cameras in here? No way. I rerouted the one Riggs thought he was sneaking in. Made it look like I’m always watching his cameras, no matter what I’m doing.” She smiled proudly.
I plowed ahead before I could lose my nerve. “What do you think of Xander? Where did he come from? Why is he so sympathetic to you guys but doesn’t do anything to get rid of Riggs?”
Sari looked around nervously. “Here’s the thing,” she said in a low voice. “You can’t trust many people to keep even a small secret for you. Xander, he’s kept secret after secret for Jaxon and me. He knows we leave the academy and bring back insurgents. He mends them and sends them back to their homes when they’re healed. He’s helped us find out some of the things Riggs has done. Xander’s on our side.”
“But how do you know?”
Her voice grew stronger. “Avery, did you just see the same video feed I did? How do you know you can trust me? How do you know you can trust anyone you’ve met here?”
“What do you mean, how do I know I can trust you? You’ve made it clear I can!”
“And what has Xander done to make you think you can’t trust him?”
I spluttered, unable to come up with a case. Well, he didn’t mention Alice, who he didn’t even meet until a minute ago, when he started talking about us escaping. Obviously, that makes him bad. Even in my head it sounded stupid.
She seemed mollified by my inability to come up with an excuse. “Like I said, I love a good conspiracy theory, but it needs to have some sort of truth. Riggs has lots of dirt, and I’m sure we haven’t even found all of it. ” She made it clear that the subject was closed. “We need to figure out how to get out of here and ruin his plans to reestablish the Resistance.”
Everything she said made sense, though. She flipped the screen back to the program running brain waves.
We watched the progression of blips and beeps that sounded as the students manipulated their elements. I couldn’t understand anything on the screen, but Sari pointed out little nuances between the students. She pointed out Kloey more than once. Her finger jabbed the monitor, excited as a peak in her brain activity reached an all-time high.
“See that ri
ght there? That spike was huge! If you watch the video, you’ll notice that’s when she made the water stand in a pillar. See it?” The screen flashed the replay of Kloey’s feat alongside the brain activity. “Now we need to see what you do when you’re hooked up. Want to try?”
She pushed out from the desk and rolled across the small space to a bookshelf. I barely caught the package of electrodes she tossed to me.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Try to create an element. Only try once, so we can get a look at what’s going on.” She sat an empty glass in front of me and helped as I fumbled to attach the electrodes. “I’m not taking you out there with the rest of them because of the cameras. I want to see what you can do, so we’ll have a baseline to compare to Kloey’s without it being on record.”
With everything attached, I stared at the glass, hoping water would appear. I prayed for something—anything—to happen.
“Your brain activity is off the charts,” she said, now back in her chair with her nose inches from the monitor. “I mean, it’s crazy off the charts. What are you—?”
I couldn’t hear her anymore. My limbs felt like rubber hoses. I couldn’t move, couldn’t even breathe.
Water.
Water everywhere.
I was drowning.
Sari was there in a flash. She smacked the side of my face, her eyes frantic. “Avery! Avery, come on, breathe!” She pounded my chest. “Come on, take a breath!”
On the third pound, water filled my throat, and I coughed. It tasted of salt, burning my throat and nose. I rolled over, choking as I fought for oxygen.
Sari fell back and leaned against the wall. Her eyes were wide with fright and amazement at the same time. “What the hell, Avery?”
I collapsed back on cold wet floor, which soaked through my clothes. My hair stuck to my cheek. I breathed deeper than necessary, my lungs burning from the overexertion. I croaked out a dry laugh but regretted it immediately, as it racked my already burning throat. “Well, that was fun.”
“Oh yeah, a barrel of laughs,” Sari said as she pulled me to sit beside her. She closed her eyes as she spoke, which I mimicked. “Seriously, what did you do? What did that mean?”
When I began to respond, a voice cut me off. A voice I didn’t want to hear.
“It means that we’re getting closer to figuring out Miss Pike’s talent.”
I opened my eyes to see an excited Mr. Riggs standing in the doorway of Sari’s office. He stepped forward, his eyes never leaving mine, and extended his hand. “Thank you, Sari. I think your lesson was exceptionally enlightening. I’ll take it from here.”
RIGGS’S STRONG GRIP on my shoulder steered me from the classroom, and we walked in silence. Our footsteps echoed off the marble floor, resonating in my chest—or was that my heart pounding its way out? Each turn we took led us further from the areas I had grown familiar with and deeper into the bowels of his fortress.
The narrow passageway was decorated in dark tones of burgundy and hunter green, and the flickering lights did nothing to make it feel welcoming. Assuming that was Riggs’s goal, he was doing a good job.
His voice clung to the sugary sweetness that put the rest of his persona in stark contrast. “Do you care to enlighten me on why you decided to send my dining table up in flames?”
“Do you care to enlighten me on why you decided it was necessary to hurt your students?”
Blood thrummed through my shoulder as he relinquished his grip. We stopped in the middle of the downward sloping passageway. Only then did I realize the walls had turned to cement, and the grandeur of the academy had long since disappeared. The cool fragrance of earth wafted from down the hall. Where was he taking me?
“Your allegations are nothing more than conjecture.” His voice was strained.
“Do you think that by using big words, you’ll throw me off, Mr. Riggs? Because my allegations are more than conjecture. I watched you electrocute a student at breakfast and that, sir, is not conjecture. It’s proof of your ruthlessness.”
“Did you see me touch that boy? Did I lay a finger on him?” His eyes burned with a familiar intensity—the same I’d seen in Jaxon’s. They burned as though he wanted me to believe him with every fiber of my being. “Because I didn’t. Therefore, you saying I was the one behind his misfortune is conjecture.”
“Everyone knows you have weapons in this place; why won’t you admit it?”
He recoiled but regained his composure almost instantly. “It sounds as though you’ve been poking around, Miss Pike.”
I clenched my jaw. He wouldn’t goad me into revealing information that would get us all in trouble.
His expression gave nothing away, but his words were laced with the hint of a threat. “One should note that even the tamest animals bite back when cornered.”
“Consider it noted.”
He clapped his hands, startling me. “All right, then. As I informed you when you first arrived, I’m your tutor. I don’t usually partake in the education of my students, but you, my dear, are quite the riddle to be solved.”
His mood swings were going to give me whiplash. “I’m not a Rubik’s cube for your amusement, Mr. Riggs.”
He chuckled as he circled me like a hawk riding the drafts above his prey, waiting for the opportune moment to swoop in for the kill. “Do you like your uniform? Yours was a special order.”
His tone was paternal, and I wondered if he’d ever spoken to Jaxon like that. My muscles burned from holding them at attention, and I yearned to shift my weight. Instead, I stared at him, unmoving. “Do you provide special treatment for your own son?”
He slumped, which surprised me. “So you’ve heard all of the academy’s gossip.”
“I don’t think it’s gossip since Jaxon told me.”
His tone was acidic as he clenched his fists at his sides. “He’s always been a sucker for a pretty girl.”
I pulled the collar of the jacket higher against my neck.
The throaty chuckle that bubbled out of him indicated the gesture hadn’t fallen on blind eyes. “Miss Pike, that was a compliment. There aren’t many girls that catch my son’s eye, although there are plenty that would love to have their affection reciprocated.”
“Well, I’m not one of those girls.”
“No,” he said, stroking his chin. “I recall you telling me another time you weren’t like other girls. You haven’t let me down. I saw you turn my son down in that darkened corridor. You’ve earned my respect.”
Without another word, he continued down the dank hallway. I stood there in the semi-darkness, thankful he didn’t see my scarlet face. He watched the tapes! Did he see Legs? Fear filled my veins.
As I watched his retreating back, I realized how alone and lost I’d be if he disappeared. The sound of a metal door grating against cement echoed from a distance, and I wondered if he was taking me to a subterranean prison. It was hard to tell what sinister things lay beneath the grandiose exterior of Chromelius Academy. I finally moved to follow him, my footsteps muted.
“Wise decision, Miss Pike,” he called out.
A light flickered ahead. As I neared, I saw the low hum of electricity surge through the thin filament at the center. The bulb hung from its cord in the ceiling. Inside was a half-burnt dead fly, its legs bent grotesquely. My eyes watered from staring into the filament for too long.
“Welcome to my office,” Riggs said as he swept his hand around the small space. He slid his thin frame behind a metal desk and sat in a cracked leather seat so worn, it gave the appearance of veins spreading across the fabric.
The room felt like a bomb shelter. Cement walls covered in water stains surrounded us with no outside light source. The wall behind him was covered in books, pamphlets, and spare pieces of paper with scrawls of math problems and the like. A statue of three monkeys, each covering either its eyes, ears, or mouth, sat as a bookend in the middle of the center bookcase.
How perfect for him.
Riggs fa
stened on an assuredly disingenuous smile and gestured to the simple black chair residing in front of his desk. “Please, have a seat.”
I swallowed hard and forced myself to follow his direction. It didn’t make sense why his personal office was in such disrepair while the rest of the academy was immaculate. I would have imagined his personal quarters to be the epitome of grandeur.
“You’re probably wondering what we’re doing here.”
I couldn’t help myself. “I was actually trying to figure out why your office is a dive.”
A hearty chuckle escaped his lips—the first time he’d seemed human. He leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head, reminding me of Jaxon.
“You really are a piece of work, Miss Pike. I did well to bring you here.”
There were a thousand smart-alec comments I wanted to make, but I refrained. Instead, I gazed around the dingy hovel in search of more information about Riggs.
“I brought you here to learn.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“Do you feel that you’re ready to pursue that goal?”
“I suppose it depends on what you plan to teach me. It’s become clear that I can’t create elements like you thought.”
“Yet,” Riggs added.
“Or ever, since every time I’ve tried it ended in near-death.”
He leaned forward, his eyes boring into mine. “I plan to teach you everything. All the secrets this place possesses will be yours. As for your inability to create elements, as I said, it’s only a matter of time. After watching you in Sari’s office, I believe you’re channeling the ability but holding it within you. You need to release it, let it go, or else yes, you will continue to have near-death experiences. I wouldn’t have brought you unless I was confident in you, Miss Pike.”
“And why are you so confident?”
His eyes were clear and sincere. “Because your mother can channel her abilities outward, as I’m telling you to.”
My mind reeled, and I sat back to increase the space between us. “My mom…”
“Is what you call an elementalist.”