Ridley’s insides lurched in hopeful anticipation. He couldn’t possibly be asking about Archer, could he? No way was life ever that easy.
A woman sitting a few seats away said, “Late. Something came up. But he said he’ll be here soon.”
Not Archer then. As the door began to swing closed, Ridley’s invisible heart beat out an agitated rhythm. She’d planned to follow the mayor inside, but instinct made her hesitate. If this was a meeting of the Shadow Society—and it was entirely possible, of course, that it wasn’t—then there would probably be some form of anti-elemental security. Arxium in the air, perhaps. She had a gas mask on, but would it work properly if it was invisible just like the rest of her? Probably, since the rest of her still seemed to work the same, and it wasn’t as though anything else she wore disappeared when she became air. And most of the elementals at the reserve had escaped wearing gas masks. Still, she hadn’t tested this one, and she wasn’t keen to do so in the midst of a possible Shadow Society meeting.
The door clicked shut, cutting off the mayor’s irritated response. Still in her air form, Ridley spun around, looking for a panel on the wall or ceiling that might lead to a ventilation duct. Bingo, she thought, spotting a metal grille above her. Surely the room the mayor had disappeared into would have a similar air vent she could spy through. There were no windows below ground, so there had to be some way to ventilate the rooms down here.
Her air form slid easily through the gaps in the grille and into the metal duct. It was large enough that she could have squirmed through it in human form if she had to, but remaining invisible was both easier and safer. She followed the sound of voices and came to a stop in front of another grille. Peering through the gaps, she confirmed she’d found the correct room.
Mayor Madson, chairman of the Lumina City chapter of the Shadow Society—and possibly the director of the entire organization, if Nathan’s guess was anything to go by—remained at the head of the table, glaring down at a man who was saying, “… complete disaster. They all got away. Every single group. It’s like they were all warned ahead of time. And the director’s latest experiments didn’t even make it there, so that was extremely disappointing.”
Ridley became as still as possible, intent on catching every single word. No one had said ‘elementals,’ but unless it was a major coincidence, that’s who this man was talking about. And he’d spoken about multiple groups, meaning the reserve wasn’t the only community of elementals they’d found.
“Seems your information wasn’t reliable,” the man continued.
“If you thought my informant couldn’t be trusted,” the mayor said icily, “you shouldn’t have voted yes when we decided to act.” He paused, then added, “I think we all know who warned them.”
The man he’d been speaking to chuckled as he leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. “Why don’t you tell the director about your suspicions? The rest of us will sit back and watch the show.”
So it’s not him, Ridley thought, and at the same moment, a hiss loud enough to have been scarily close to the air vent startled her. She wasn’t the only one surprised by it. In the room below, one of the women pressed a hand to her chest.
“That stupid thing gives me a fright every time,” she said.
“Stupid but necessary,” the mayor snapped at her. “And don’t start going on again about how it makes you feel faint. All the research says that’s nonsense. It passes through our bodies without any side effects. It’s only elementals who react to it.”
Finally. Confirmation, just in case Ridley still had any doubts, that this was indeed a meeting of the Shadow Society. She waited anxiously for the effects of the arxium particles to hit her. But there was no nausea, no dizziness. It seemed the gas mask worked after all.
In the room below, the lock on the door clicked and the handle turned. The murmurs quietened, and all heads turned toward the door as it swung open. Without consciously deciding to, Ridley held her breath.
“Good evening,” the newcomer said from the doorway. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”
That voice, Ridley thought as a chill crept across her skin and fear clamped a fist around her throat. The mayor moved out of her line of sight, away from the head of the table, and the newcomer stepped into the room.
Alastair Davenport.
Ridley almost stopped breathing at the sight of him, but it was the person who strode in behind him who stole her breath away entirely.
Archer.
8
“No,” Ridley whispered. Something solid and cold pressed in around her. The ventilation duct. She was human again, though she hadn’t consciously let go of her magical form. “Nonononono.” Her face was hot. Cold sweat dampened her palms. Her thoughts stalled, rammed into one another, like cars in a pileup. This didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense. Archer was on her side. He had helped her escape the city. Helped her escape the Shadow Society’s base. He had lived with elementals for months.
Her mind raced back to everything that had happened, every incident that proved Archer couldn’t possibly be part of the Shadow Society, but everything was becoming too tangled for her to clearly examine.
“This isn’t happening,” she whispered, pressing her cold hands against her cheeks. They had spent hours—hours upon hours upon hours—talking, daydreaming, kissing, planning. He cared about her. She knew it. She’d felt it in the depths of her being. And yet there he was, dropping casually into a seat right beside the director of the organization that wanted to slaughter her kind, his dark gaze utterly devoid of the gentle warmth she’d become accustomed to seeing whenever his eyes found hers.
He was supposed to be on her side! But he had somehow avoided capture when she, Callie and Malachi ended up inside a cell in the Shadow Society’s base. He was the only one who’d been ‘taken’ when the Shadow Society attacked the reserve. An attack that happened now, mere weeks after Archer had joined them, when their location had remained hidden for years.
Ridley’s wild thoughts stilled, leaving a cold, empty space for the horrible truth to finally settle into place. She had always known what an excellent act Archer Davenport could put on. But somehow, she’d been foolish enough to fall for it anyway.
I warned you not to throw yourself at my brother’s feet.
“First,” Alastair Davenport said to the room, “there’s something I need to address.”
What excellent timing you have.
“A question of loyalty.”
They’re going to catch you.
Lilah had not been talking about the cops. She knew what Ridley was. She knew about elementals and the Shadow Society. The whole Davenport family obviously knew. It made sense now that the button Lilah pressed had produced no sound. It probably wasn’t an alarm. She wouldn’t have wanted to alert security. She didn’t want the cops to catch Ridley. She wanted the Shadow Society to catch her. That button was probably what had released arxium into the air.
“My son’s loyalty, to be specific,” Alastair Davenport continued. “Some of you have been spreading rumors about betrayal—” his hard gaze fell on Jude Madson for a moment “—but Archer has proven himself time and again. He has remained close to the elemental girl who revealed herself at a party several weeks ago. Pretended to assist in her escape so he could travel with her to one of the elemental communities further north. You fools already screwed things up once when you went after them in the wastelands after you were told to let them go—”
“That was because my son discovered—”
“—and now you’ve further messed things up,” Alastair said loudly, speaking over the mayor as if he were a child, “by convincing us to act too soon. If you want to talk about betrayal, Jude, then perhaps we should be looking at you.”
The mayor’s face reddened. “How dare you.”
“Well, either your informant fed you misinformation, or you’re secretly acting against us. Which is it?”
“My loyalty lies with the society,” the mayor gro
wled.
“As does Archer’s,” Alastair replied. “But you seem to have forgotten that while he’s been busy with his long-term undercover operation. This isn’t about finding a handful of communities and getting rid of them. This is about learning their plans to fight back and taking them all out before—”
“Information your son was taking far too long to pass on,” the mayor interrupted. “If I hadn’t heard from that other—”
“You’re aware communication is a little difficult when there are no networks out in the wastelands, Jude,” Archer said to the mayor, speaking up for the first time. Part of Ridley had been desperate to hear his voice, but now his disrespectful drawl sent another crack running through her barely held-together composure.
“Clearly not impossible, since I heard from someone else,” Jude Madson answered.
“Forgive me for waiting until I had all the information we required before acting. You convinced the rest of the society to attack all those communities, and where did that get us? Nowhere. Clearly someone warned them what was coming, and most of them got away. You should have let me go too. Now you have no one on the inside.”
“Because I believed you had betrayed us. I still think you’ve turned. You were certainly convincing,” the mayor sneered, “when you broke into our base, attacked your fellow society members, and freed those elementals.”
“Of course I was convincing. That was the point. And I’m ready to be convincing again if I have to be.”
The mayor shook his head. “I don’t buy it. Lawrence gathered plenty of evidence of your betrayal before he was murdered. That evidence was mysteriously destroyed soon afterwards, but my wife will happily sit here and tell you all about it. Lawrence told her—”
“The evidence that all points to the fact that I was doing what I was asked to do?” Archer demanded, leaning forward as he raised his voice. “We want to wipe them out, don’t we? All of them—and their disgusting, unnatural magic. If a few of us end up as casualties along the way, so be it.”
Ridley physically recoiled from his words, almost banging her head on the ventilation duct surface just above her. Archer was so callous, so cold. So full of hate. How had he hidden this from her? How had she been so blind?
Something seemed to tighten around her throat, making it harder to breathe. She felt smothered, suffocated. The gas mask was too uncomfortable. The backpack was too heavy. The metal tunnel she hunched inside was too small.
She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t stay and listen. Couldn’t be still. Couldn’t be silent. She had to move, had to get out, had to get OUT! She managed to focus enough to become air once more, and then, in a desperate rush, she was gone.
9
Ridley soared to the very top of Aura Tower. The moment she was human shaped again, she tugged the mask free and screamed into the buffeting wind. How could she have been so, so, so stupid? How could she have fallen for Archer Davenport and all his lies? She should have listened to her head and not her ridiculous heart.
She thought of their first kiss beneath a stormy sky in the wastelands. Of Archer saying that her magic was beautiful. Of the way he’d held her gaze when she asked him to confirm he wasn’t part of the Shadow Society. That is the absolute truth, he’d said.
She screamed into the wind again.
Then she became air once more, let herself fragment, and whirled, directionless, amid the shimmering skyscrapers of Lumina City’s Opal Quarter. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Archer was hidden within an arxium cloud in a secret room below ground, but eventually, he would come out. Magic would find him and magic would tell her.
An indeterminate amount of time later, as a fine mist of rain began to fall, that’s exactly what happened.
Ridley was near enough that she sensed Archer’s presence somewhere in the lower part of Aura Tower. She sped back, rushed through the open doors, and spotted him waiting in front of the private elevator reserved for the penthouse level. His father stood beside him, speaking into a commscreen, but Ridley didn’t care. She soared past security, wrapped her air form swiftly and tightly around Archer, and whisked him away. Whether or not Alastair Davenport noticed his son’s sudden disappearance—whether anyone in the Aura Tower foyer noticed—didn’t concern Ridley. She was beyond caring what anyone else knew or saw.
Archer fought back instantly, struggling and cursing. Ridley tightened her magical grasp on him and let him continue, the city lights becoming a blur around them as she spun around and around. She slowed near the top of a building where a lush rooftop garden was illuminated by low, hidden lighting and the nighttime glow of the city. The Boards24 Building, from which Lumina City’s vast network of billboard screens was controlled. Probably run by a Shadow Society member, Ridley thought bitterly. Someone who could make sure all the lies about the wild wasteland magic were continually spread to everyone.
She dropped Archer in the middle of the garden, letting go a moment sooner than necessary so that he staggered forward as he landed and took a few clumsy steps before catching his balance. She lowered herself a few paces away and released her magic.
Archer started, then blinked. “Ridley.” He let out a long breath and moved toward her. “You—you’re okay. Thank goodness. When did you—”
“I always knew you could put on a great act,” she said, stepping quickly out of his reach, “but I had no idea you were this good.”
His brow furrowed. “What are you talking about? What’s wrong?” He reached for her again, but she snatched her arm away. A wisp of magic detached itself from her hand, and with barely a thought, it snapped tight and lashed out, striking him across the face.
“Don’t touch me.”
Eyes wide and one hand pressed over his cheek, Archer said, “Ridley, what the—”
“How could you lie to me like this?” she shouted, hating the way her voice cracked before she finished speaking. Tears burned behind her eyes. This wasn’t the way this conversation was supposed to go. She was supposed to show no emotion. Hide how deeply he’d hurt her. Never let him see the kind of power she’d allowed him to have over her.
“What are you—”
“You’re one of them!” she spat. “I saw you, sitting there with your father. The director. All this time, Archer—all. this. time—you’ve been going on about protecting elementals when you’re actually one of the people who hunts us down and kills us.”
Archer was silent, barely moving except for the rising and falling of his chest. Then a whispered curse fell from his lips.
Ridley let her eyes slide shut for a moment as the terrible truth caved in on her all over again. It wasn’t as though he could deny it, but the fact that he didn’t even try somehow made this worse. “Yeah,” she answered. Her face was wet now, not with tears but from the fine droplets of rain in the air.
“It was you,” Archer said quietly, lowering his hand, and Ridley was perversely pleased to see the angry welt on his cheek. “In our apartment earlier. Lilah sent an alert, but she didn’t say who—”
“Did she tell you I was worried about you? That I came to her for help? That I thought you’d been taken?”
“Ridley—”
“Actually, you know what? I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to have this conversation after all.” She turned and started walking away. “I don’t want to hear anything from you ever again.”
“Wait, stop. Ridley. Stop, stop, stop.” When she didn’t listen, Archer shouted, “Stop! Please! I’m not one of them anymore! I was, but not now. I’ve been pretending for months. Please just listen to me!”
Ridley paused but didn’t look back. She focused on the giant red blossom crowning the top of a leafy plant that reached almost to her shoulders. If not for the whine of a siren and the nearby buzz of a scanner drone, it was possible to imagine she wasn’t in the center of a city.
“Please don’t leave without hearing me out,” Archer begged. “Please. I don’t want you believing a lie.”
At that, Ridley swung a
round. “Are you kidding? You’ve been letting me believe a lie since the moment this all began.”
“I know! But it’s—it’s part of my past. Of course I wasn’t going to tell you about it in the beginning. And since then, since we got closer, I’ve …” He pushed a hand through his hair. “I knew I had to tell you. I’ve been trying—”
“Oh, right,” she sneered. “You haven’t been trying very hard.” Though he had tried—sort of—to tell her something the last evening they’d spent together. Stupidly, she’d thought he might have been about to confess that he loved her. A pang radiated through her chest as she realized this was what he’d been trying to say instead.
“I know. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I knew it would hurt you, and I didn’t want …” He took a deep breath. “I told you I wanted you to know everything, and I meant it. I knew it would probably ruin things between us, but I also knew we couldn’t have a solid future together with all these lies piling up between us. I’ve just … I’ve been trying to find a good moment, and there hasn’t been one.”
“There was never going to be a good moment for something like this, Archer.”
“I know. I know. That’s why I kept putting it off. I wanted just one more day with you before everything fell apart between us. And then one more, and one more.”
Ridley shook her head and settled her gaze somewhere over his shoulder. On the purple bell-shaped flowers. On the plant with spiny leaves and blossoms like large pink sea urchins. Anywhere but directly on Archer’s pleading, desperate face. Part of her wanted him to be able to explain everything away, while part of her flat-out refused to fall for anything he said ever again. Still … could she really walk away without hearing the full story? If she was going to hate him, it would be because of everything he’d done, and not just part of it.
“Fine,” she said, removing the backpack and lowering it to the paved pathway between the plants. She folded her arms and met his gaze. “This is your chance. Tell me everything.”
Elemental Heir (Ridley Kayne Chronicles Book 3) Page 7