“Oh. Great.” Silently, Ridley added, I’ve always wanted to be able to teach people things so they can use them to kill the rest of my kind. Out loud, she asked, “What’s the bad news?”
“Well, at this point it seems you are unfortunately no different from the other elementals. Your magic is no different, even though you are an heir. So there is no sense in keeping you around. Mr. Davenport has allowed me to run a few more experiments, mostly involving the heirloom stone, but if there is nothing to be gained, then we will dispose of you. He says you are more trouble than you’re worth.”
“Dispose of me.” Fear dragged an icy finger up Ridley’s spine. “Yeah, that—that is bad news. But … how do you know I’m no different? Does that mean …” Ridley shook her head. “Wait, is Lilah—did she …”
“Lilah Davenport is dying,” Doc said.
An odd ache sucked Ridley’s breath away. She and Lilah may have disliked one another for many years—even hated each other at times—but Ridley had never wanted her dead. She repeated the words in her head—Lilah Davenport is dying—but they sounded a little ridiculous. Lilah wasn’t the sort of person to simply … die. None of the Davenports were. If there was an obstacle in their way, it had no choice but to move. Plain and simple. It seemed as though death shouldn’t be any different.
“But she was fine last night,” Ridley argued.
Doc frowned. “Last night?”
“Yes, she … she was here, wasn’t she? You were here too. Or … did I dream that?”
Doc’s frown remained in place. “The sedative is strong. She should not have been able to wake you, and you should not remember if she did.” He shook his head. “Not that it matters. She may have seemed fine last night, but she is dying now. Slower than the others, but the same symptoms. The magic is visible just beneath her skin. She cannot pull it back within herself. Soon it will consume her.”
Ridley stared at him. The detached manner in which he listed Lilah’s symptoms made her shiver. “Can … can I see her?”
“No. You cannot see her. One of my colleagues will bring you some food soon and move you to the containment chamber. You will wait there until the arxium is gone from your system, and then you can begin experimenting.”
Lilah was dying. She was dying. Ridley couldn’t quite wrap her mind around the concept. Guilt crept in at the edge of her mind. It was her magic that was killing Lilah. It wasn’t her fault Lilah had used the serum on herself, but she still felt some sense of responsibility.
She thought of Archer, and the ache in her chest intensified. He loved his sister. Though his family wanted nothing to do with him now, he would hear of Lilah’s death soon enough. Would he ever know what had really killed her? If Ridley ever saw him again—if she ever managed to get herself out of here—would she be able to tell him? My magic killed your sister. Even in her head, the words were difficult to formulate.
Doc turned and strode toward the door, commpad in hand.
“Oh, wait,” Ridley said. “What about the stone? I need it so I can test things out.”
He let out a single laugh through his nose. “I’m not going to leave it with you now. It will remain locked up with all our important samples until you’re safely within the containment chamber and ready to use it.” He shook his head, laughing to himself as he left the room.
Well. So much for ending up alone with her mother’s stone so she could heal herself and get out of here. She’d have to figure something out once she was inside the containment chamber. Doc would probably flood it with arxium gas once he decided they were finished experimenting, forcing her to return to human form. She would have until then to figure out just how powerful she could be. She would explode her way out of there if she had to. Or burn the place down like she did last time. She had no idea how this containment chamber was supposed to be able to contain her—presumably Alastair Davenport would have put every possible precaution in place—but she would test it to its absolute limits.
Doc’s colleague, the woman in the lab coat and gas mask, walked into the room—minus the mask this time. Except … it wasn’t the same woman. It was—
“Christa,” Ridley said, so shocked to see the woman who’d given her up to the Shadow Society that her voice lacked all emotion. A moment later, an appropriate amount of rage boiled its way to the surface. “You!” she hissed as Christa disappeared from view behind the bed. “Wow. You know what? I’m actually not surprised. You were happy to leave us for dead, so I should have guessed you’d be happy to experiment on us as well.”
“Yep,” Christa said quietly. “That’s exactly right.” Something clicked loudly behind the bed, and then Christa wheeled it toward the door.
“You are one serious piece of work,” Ridley told her as she strained against the straps securing her wrists to the bed. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with her fists, exactly, but she couldn’t stand being so helpless while Christa wheeled her toward her fate. Everything inside her screamed to fight back. “You pretend to help people who just want to live a quiet life the way they used to before magic was banned, and all the while you’re secretly in league with the Shadow Society.”
“Will you shut the hell up?” Christa whispered. They were out in the hallway now. “I’m trying to get you out of here.”
“Oh, sure you are.”
“You know, Ridley, your survival instinct is impressive. I have to admit, I was surprised to see you alive.”
“No thanks to you.”
Christa steered the bed around a corner. “It wasn’t personal,” she said quietly.
“It sure felt personal when I woke up on the wrong side of the wall with a bunch of Shadow Society members trying to kill me.”
“I did what I had to do to protect the people in my bunker.”
“I was one of those people, Christa. As were Callie and Malachi and my dad. And however many other people you’ve handed over to the Shadow Society.”
The bed stopped in front of an elevator. Christa stepped around it and jabbed the button on the wall. She crossed her arms, saying nothing.
“So you’re ignoring me now?” Ridley demanded. Christa looked up toward a corner of the ceiling. Ridley followed her gaze. Was that a camera? Christa’s eyes slid to Ridley, then returned to the elevator doors. She continued staring in silence. Ridley continued seething.
Ping. The elevator opened. Christa pushed the bed inside, then squeezed around it to press the button for the fifth floor. The doors slid shut. Christa turned immediately to face Ridley. “Can you at least try to imagine the impossible situation I found myself in before you judge me too harshly?” she snapped. “Alastair Davenport discovered the bunker. He threatened to reveal us all unless I swore to hand over any elementals who happened to cross my path. So yes, I gave up a few to save the rest of us. There aren’t that many of you elementals, so I knew I wouldn’t be sentencing too many to their deaths. I know that doesn’t make it any better, but that’s how I managed to sleep at night: Knowing I was responsible for the death of only a handful of people instead of the dozens and dozens who just wanted to live in peace beneath the city, using magic the way we should all be allowed to use it. Right and wrong isn’t always as easy as black and white, Ridley. Sometimes there’s no right answer, just two wrongs with you stuck in the middle trying to choose the wrong that sucks less.”
Ridley stared at her. She was seething less now. In fact, the seething was almost gone, replaced by a hollow hopelessness. She could never condone the choice Christa had made, but the alternative was unimaginable too. If Alastair Davenport had revealed the bunker, everyone living within it would have been sentenced to death. It was indeed an impossible choice. “I guess that does suck,” she said quietly.
Ping. The elevator doors reopened. Christa pushed the bed into the corridor.
“Are you really getting me out of here?” Ridley asked quietly.
“That’s the plan. Couldn’t very well leave you to die a third time.”
; “Thanks. I’m feeling the love.”
“Look, you probably find this difficult to believe, but I do actually care. I gave you as little sedative and arxium as I could without that monster of a doctor figuring out I was messing with things, and now—”
“You did? When? Oh, wait, was that you in the gas mask? Doc was laughing at you because he thought you were afraid of me.”
“I was wearing the mask,” Christa grumbled, “so you wouldn’t recognize me and reveal that we knew each other. I was hoping to avoid you altogether until breaking you out, but Doctor Schulze asked me to come in and change the IV bag. I was aware I looked like an utter idiot, but I figured it was necessary.” She rammed the bed into a door, which swung open to reveal a storeroom. Shelves on either side were lined with lab equipment and jars and bottles of whatever reagents were necessary for Doc’s research. Between the shelves was a gap just wide enough to accommodate the bed. The door swung shut behind them.
“Are you sure there’s no camera watching us right now?” Ridley asked as Christa began to undo the buckles that secured the straps around her wrists.
“There’s one at the other end of the corridor out there,” Christa said, “but it’s angled so it can’t quite see this door. We should be fine. And there aren’t that many people who work here anyway.” She moved to the straps around Ridley’s ankles.
With her arms free, Ridley was finally, finally able to sit up properly and twist her upper body from side to side. She stretched her arms above her and asked, “How’d you end up here?”
“Well, as you might be aware because you’re probably the one responsible for this, I was thrown out of my own home by my own friends. I didn’t have much left to lose, so I figured it was time to get rid of Alastair Davenport and his Shadow Society friends for good.” Christa tugged the straps away from Ridley’s feet, and Ridley pulled her knees up to her chest, still turning her body this way and that to relieve the stiffness in her muscles. “Here, put this on.” Christa tossed a lab coat at her. “Once you’ve changed into your clothes, I mean.” She retrieved a pile of neatly folded clothes from the back of a shelf, and Ridley recognized the jacket Dad had conjured. Her sneakers sat on top.
“I managed to get some information from one of the lab techs who escaped their last experimentation facility,” Christa continued. “A building in the wastelands that was burned down.”
“Oh, yeah, that was me.”
Christa gave Ridley an appraising look. “Nice. Well done.”
Ridley eased herself off the bed, unsure if she could trust her legs to properly hold her up. Turned out it was her head she should have been worried about. Everything went white for several moments. She blinked, holding tightly to the edge of the bed. “Definitely been lying down for too long,” she muttered.
“Oh, this is also for you,” Christa said. As Ridley’s vision cleared, she saw Christa lifting a tray from one of the shelves and placing it on the bed. On it sat a sandwich, an apple, and a glass of juice.
“Real fruit?” Ridley said. “They treat their prisoners well here.”
“I may have swiped the apple from Doc’s section of the fridge in the tea room,” Christa admitted with a self-satisfied smile. “We’ll be gone by the time he notices.”
“Thanks.” Ridley took a large bite of the sandwich and reached for the pile of clothes. Christa turned her back as Ridley began changing.
“Anyway, the lab tech lady was too frightened to continue working for Davenport,” Christa continued, “but he wasn’t about to give her the option to step away. Not after everything she’d seen. I offered to help her disappear—something I’ve helped numerous people with over the years—in exchange for information. You may have burned down one building, but I knew they’d just set up shop somewhere else. I figured if I could get myself on the inside, I could learn as many names as possible and start picking them off one by one. I managed to convince Doc that his other lab technician had run away and that I already knew everything she’d been working on and was just as excited about it as he was. He’s so damn besotted with his research. Not to mention egotistical. I basically begged for the honor of working alongside him as he makes groundbreaking discoveries that will change the world, blah blah blah. It was easy after that. I’ve been here a week now. Just have to make sure to avoid Davenport when he visits.”
“And have you discovered anything useful?” Ridley asked. “Learned any names?” She finished pulling her shoes on and took another bite of the sandwich. Her stomach protested—thanks, arxium—and she almost gagged. But a deep breath helped her recover, and she forced herself to keep chewing. She’d been fed through a needle in her arm for days now, and she wasn’t sure how long that would keep her going once she got out of here.
“A few,” Christa answered. “I’m hatching plans to deal with those people. Hey, are you okay? Sounds like you’re about to lose your lunch.”
Ridley forced herself to swallow. “Yeah. All good.”
“Ready to go then?” She turned back to face Ridley.
“Yes, but there’s something I need to get before we leave.”
Christa’s eyebrows climbed. “Don’t be stupid. We need to get out of here before someone discovers what I’ve done and kills us both.”
“There’s a magical item—a stone—that is extremely important. I need it.”
“The heirloom thing?”
“Yes. Right, sorry, you know all about Doc’s research so obviously you know about this.”
“I do, but I don’t know where he’s keeping it, and it’s too dangerous to try to find it.”
“But it could change everything! Seriously, Christa. If there are even fewer elementals than there were before, then I need as much power as I can get to burn through all the arxium protecting this city.” She reached for the glass of juice and added, “That stone will make a difference. You know it will.”
“You’re going to try that stunt again?” Christa asked doubtfully. “It already failed once.”
Ridley took a swig of the juice and shuddered at the sweetness. She swallowed and said, “It’s not a stunt. It’s a revolution. We’re changing the world.”
“Look, I don’t know anything about this ‘revolution’ other than what happened two days ago when there was that huge storm and all the earthquakes and you were brought here, but I don’t think the heirloom stone is going to help you.”
“Christa, it doesn’t matter what you think.” Ridley forced herself to take another few sips of juice before returning the glass to the tray. “There are way bigger things going on than you know about, and I need that stone to be able to do my part.”
“Fine. Fine.” Christa took a deep breath. “Doc’s busy in the basement lab for at least another hour because he expects it’ll be that long before the arxium’s out of your system. So I guess we can take a few minutes to try to find this thing.”
“Great. He said something about it being locked up with all the other important samples. Do you know where that might be?”
“Fortunately this is a small facility, so there’s only one place where samples are stored. I’ll need to get Doc’s spare access card from his office. I’ll find the stone and then return here. If I’m not back in ten minutes, stay hidden until you can use your magic and then get the hell out of here.”
“But I’ll still need to get the—”
“Seriously, Ridley!” Christa hissed furiously. “If I blow my cover for you and you wind up dead, I will be extremely pissed off. So many people have died because of me. I will not let you add yourself to that number. You will get out here alive, so sit back down and don’t do anything stupid.”
Ridley leaned back against the edge of the bed, too surprised to say a word.
“Thank you,” Christa finished. She squeezed around the other side of the bed, almost knocking a few glass beakers off the shelf. She opened the door.
And there stood Doc, his hand outstretched as if he’d been reaching for the handle. He looked up
from the commscreen in his other hand. The device slipped from his fingers and hit the floor with a thwack.
“Crap,” Ridley said.
22
Doc stepped backward, grabbing what looked like a two-way radio device from his pocket. “I need backup on the—”
Christa swiped the nearest object—a brown glass jar full of a powdered substance—and hurled it at Doc’s face before he could finish speaking. He cried out as his head jerked backward. The jar hit the floor and shattered as Doc staggered to the side and fell. He groaned and cursed as he slowly found his way onto his hands and knees. Christa kicked him, and Ridley, who couldn’t figure out why Christa wasn’t using magic, pulled shakily at the air. She rolled the wisps of magic into a ball between her palms.
“Christa, get back!” she shouted. Christa gave Doc one more good kick before stumbling out of the way. As Ridley pulled her hands back, magic glowing between them, Doc sat up with another groan. His eyes met hers for an instant. Then she threw the magic. It struck his forehead, knocking him out instantly. She stared at him, breathing heavily.
“Thanks,” Christa gasped. “I can’t pull magic. Had to get an AI2 under my skin before coming to work here. I knew he’d check.” She crouched down, stuck her hand into Doc’s shirt pocket, and removed a slim, silver card with his face on it. Then she patted his remaining pockets. “Just checking he doesn’t have it on him.” She straightened. “Come on, let’s find this stupid stone and get out of here.”
“Sounds like he called security or something before we knocked him out,” Ridley said as they hurried along the corridor.
“Yep. Part of me was hoping I might actually break you out of here without anyone knowing it was me, but that plan’s gone down the drain now.”
“Sorry, but I don’t think that plan was ever likely to work out.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
Elemental Heir (Ridley Kayne Chronicles Book 3) Page 17