She blinked and exhaled. Fear and fury eased their grip on her. With an odd sort of relief, she said, “I am. In all the ways that matter.”
“Actually,” Alastair Davenport replied, “in the only way that matters, you are not. You’re descended from an extraordinarily powerful elemental. You’re one of the heirs we hear whispers about. One of the only elementals who may be a true threat to us. And you were right here under my nose, all those years you were Lilah’s friend. I could so easily have snuffed you out of existence and made it look like a tragic accident.”
A shiver crawled across Ridley’s skin. He’d known ever since the party that she was an elemental, but how did he know she was one of these heirs Nathan had told her about? “Who told you?”
He gave her a look that clearly communicated how little he thought of her intelligence. “No one had to tell me. The stone pendant you were wearing made it obvious.”
Were wearing. Ridley had forgotten about the stone, but she realized now that the comforting weight of it sitting against her chest was gone.
Alastair lifted his commpad and tapped the screen. “I have a few simple questions for you. First, which of your parents was the powerful one?”
“Like I’m really going to tell you.” If he didn’t know that her power came from both her parents, she wasn’t about to share that information.
“Hmm.” Alastair made a note on his commpad. “And do you have any biological siblings?”
Ridley’s heart raced a little faster. She hadn’t even considered the possibility. But Dad would surely have mentioned it if Sarah and Karl Ohlson had another children. “No,” she answered. Whether it was true or not, Alastair Davenport didn’t need to know.
“I see,” he murmured, making another note. “And how many other heirs do you know of?”
“None.” Her tone was firm, her gaze unblinking.
Alastair returned the commpad to the side table with a sigh. “Ridley. You are mildly intelligent, are you not? Lilah told me you’re a scholarship student at Wallace Academy. I thought you might have realized that being unhelpful will only make things more unpleasant for you in the long run.”
“The long run?” Ridley frowned. “Not that I want to die, but I kinda thought you’d get rid of me as quickly as possible. That seems to be what you guys do with elementals.”
“Oh, in general, yes. But you’re different. The fact that you’re an heir makes you more valuable to me alive. There are certain … developments that have taken place in recent years that mean it would be a tragic waste if I killed you now.”
“Developments?”
“I would elaborate, but the details will most likely distress you.”
“And you’re so concerned about my mental state.”
“Well, it isn’t my top priority, but I’ve been informed that the subjects’ mental and emotional wellbeing do play a certain role. Too many stress hormones in the blood produce subpar results.”
Ridley’s insides tightened at the word ‘subject,’ sending what was most likely a very subpar amount of stress hormone shooting through her body. She pictured the rooms she’d seen as she fled the Shadow Society’s base. The rooms with operating equipment and beds with restraints. The laboratory. “So,” she said, trying to keep the shiver from her voice. “Too many details will distress me, but one or two vague details that suggest you’re going to experiment on me are sure to put my mind at ease.”
Alastair lifted his commpad and stood. “Well, this discussion has been less than fruitful. I think we should leave it at that.” He turned toward the door. “Someone will be here soon to—”
“I know the truth about the Cataclysm,” Ridley interrupted. “I know what you did.”
Alastair paused. He looked back at her. His cold gaze was unreadable. “Somebody told you,” he said quietly, thoughtfully, as if he were pondering the words as he spoke them.
“You turned the GSMC into an apocalyptic event.”
“I did,” he replied calmly. “It was the perfect opportunity. We couldn’t waste it. Thousands of magicists gathering together around the world. Energy conjurations plus amplification conjurations. It wasn’t difficult to get Shadow Society members positioned in the right places at the right times. Having dozens of politicians in my pocket was a great help. Jude Madson wasn’t mayor yet, but he had enough influence to pull some strings for us. And our good friend the Secretary-General is actually a good friend of mine.”
“The SG is part of the Shadow Society?” Ridley asked, despair dragging her heart down to the tips of her toes. She knew the Shadow Society’s influence went high up, but if the man who’d been elected to govern the entire world was part of it, there really was no hope for a future in which elementals could be free.
“No,” Alastair answered. “He knows nothing of the Shadow Society. But he’s easily manipulated, like many others. In fact, if I was to explain everything to him, he’d probably agree with me that it all worked out beautifully. We placed people into key positions on the day of the GSMC, and then all we had to do was cancel out the energy conjurations, allow the amplification ones to continue, and do our own provocation ones. We pressured magic into reacting, the amplification conjurations multiplied the effect, and the whole world went boom. Devastating, but perfect. Overpopulation? Solved. Magic? Confined to the wastelands. And that’s where it will stay for the rest of time.”
“Boom,” Ridley repeated quietly, feeling sick to her core. “I thought you might feel some remorse over causing such catastrophic destruction, but I guess not.”
He gave her a puzzled look. “Of course not. Remorse would imply I regret what we did. Don’t you understand, Ridley? We saved the planet.”
“You killed billions of people!” Ridley shouted.
Alastair remained irritatingly unruffled. “To save everyone else. Ridley, do you think I liked doing what I did? Do you think I wanted to kill all those people? Destroy so much of the world? Of course I didn’t. No one wants to live with that much death on their conscience. But someone had to step up and make the hard decision. No one else was doing it, so it had to be me. I will endure that burden for the rest of my days because nobody else could bear it.”
“Wait. Are you saying … do you actually expect me to feel sorry for you?”
“No.” He held his commpad near the door and it beeped before opening. “You’re an elemental. I don’t expect you to feel anything the same way humans do.”
“Is that how you justify all the heinous acts you commit against my kind? Because you think we don’t feel anything?”
“Well, the person who lived with you in that little nature reserve campsite clearly felt nothing when betraying the rest of you.”
Ridley froze, her next breath caught somewhere between her mouth and her lungs. “Who?” she whispered.
Alastair looked over his shoulder. “Apparently someone got tired of living in hiding. Living with the constant fear of being found. Someone wanted to trade up, to live the good life, to have wealth and security. Someone offered us the location of multiple elemental communities in exchange.”