“Activate the standby subjects,” Alastair was saying into his commscreen as one of the minions launched toward a button beside the door and slammed his palm over it. Nothing happened. “Why isn’t it working?” Alastair barked at the minion. Ridley assumed there was supposed to be arxium gas filling the room now, but she wasn’t about to stick around to see if the malfunction corrected itself. She soared toward the gap beneath the door—
—just as two gunshots sounded somewhere out in the passageway. Ridley hesitated, which was silly because, in her current form, arxium was far more of a threat to her than gunshots.
The door flew open.
Crack! Down went the first minion. Crack! The second. And then crack! Alastair Davenport jerked backward, hit the wall, then slid to the floor.
27
Ridley was so shocked she didn’t make a move to slip out of the doorway. A figure stood there, gas mask concealing his or her face, arms raised, a small, black gun gripped between hands that shook ever so slightly.
Ridley’s first thought was Nathan. He was the one who’d spoken about getting rid of the director and the rest of the Shadow Society leaders. He knew where Alastair Davenport was right now. But that thought was replaced almost instantly by another when Ridley noticed the knitted, rainbow-striped sweater.
“Saoirse,” she gasped. Shock had forced her back into human form. Startled, Saoirse swung the gun toward her. Ridley ducked, but Saoirse stumbled backward and lowered the gun, stuttering something Ridley couldn’t make out behind the gas mask. “What the hell, Saoirse? Seriously, what the …” She gestured at the three bodies. “What did you just do?”
Saoirse tugged the gas mask off. “I … I did what had to be done. You weren’t … I didn’t know you were here. I didn’t know where anyone was after our attack on the wall failed. So I … I …” The floor shook again and something rattled above the ceiling. Saoirse grabbed hold of the doorframe as Ridley reached one hand toward the wall.
“It was you,” a strained voice said from across the room. “You were Jude’s informant.” Saoirse swung the gun back up to point at Alastair, who was slowly pushing himself up to sit against the wall. He had one hand pressed against the area just below his left shoulder. Blood seeped into his clothing.
“No,” Ridley said, launching herself forward and tugging Saoirse’s arm down. Another gunshot pierced the air, and she gasped in fright. But the bullet had gone through the floor. “Saoirse!” she exclaimed, squeezing Saoirse’s wrist until the gun clattered to the floor. “What are you doing? You’re not a killer!”
“He’s the director, Ridley. He wants to kill you!”
“I know.” A small part of Ridley was thinking she should just let Saoirse do it. Why was she trying to save the man who’d killed so many of her kind? But she’d decided this already, when they were first discussing all the details of this revolution. There would be casualties, and Ridley had accepted that, but she wasn’t okay with standing face to face with someone and ending his or her life.
“I thought Jude got rid of you,” Alastair said between labored breaths.
Ridley looked at him, his words only now beginning to sink in. You were Jude’s informant. I thought Jude got rid of you. “Wait,” Ridley said, releasing Saoirse’s wrist and stepping away from her. “You … you were the one who …” She shook her head and swallowed, but there was no denying the puzzle piece that had just slipped into place. “You told the Shadow Society about us? About the reserve. And all those other communities that were attacked.”
Saoirse pulled herself a little straighter and lifted her chin. “Because they needed a push,” she insisted. “They needed a reason to act. We couldn’t keep living like that, in our perfect little sanctuary out in the wastelands. It wouldn’t have lasted.”
“Are you … are you kidding?” Ridley’s hands were clammy, her skin hot and then cold and then hot again. “How could you do that? You got the reserve destroyed—you got people killed—because you wanted action? You wanted change?”
“We needed change. The society would eventually have found us and destroyed the reserve anyway.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do know that. I’ve lived through this before, Ridley. So did you, though you don’t remember it. You don’t remember the way everyone else was—was slaughtered.” Her voice hitched, and she took a deep breath before continuing. “At least this way, we were able to save almost everyone. I sent anonymous messages to the other communities, and I warned ours as well. I was already there, ringing the bell, when you arrived. It wasn’t like before. Last time, when your parents were killed, we were taken completely by surprise. And that’s what would have happened again one day if I didn’t act.”
“You warned us?” Ridley repeated. “Are you joking? You gave us like five seconds warning. You were at the bell at the same time I was. In fact, if I’d listened clearly to what magic was trying to tell me earlier in the day, I would have warned everyone before you did. Your warning barely gave us a head start.”
“Because they were faster than I realized! I was listening carefully all night, sending out my intention to magic and trying to get an idea of exactly where they were. But I couldn’t sense anything until it was almost too late.” She shook her head. “I told you before, Ridley. I can’t communicate with it the way you do. Even after years of meditation and listening and trying to converse with magic … it’ll never be easy for me the way it is for you.” The envy in her tone was unmistakable.
Ridley let out a shaky breath. “When did you do it? When did you tell them where to find us?”
Saoirse was quiet a moment. Then she sighed. “A day or two after you arrived at the reserve. I knew what kind of power you could wield, and I knew then that we had a real chance. We couldn’t continue hiding. We had to act. I had to make sure of it.”
Ridley’s mouth fell open. “That long? You knew for that long that the Shadow Society would be coming? You could have warned us days before the actual attack. Why did you wait?”
Saoirse pushed her hands through her hair. “Because it … it needed to be real. The fear. We had to be running from them, not just the idea of them, otherwise nothing would change.”
“You’re unbelievable.”
“You can judge me, Ridley, but I don’t regret what I did. I’ve been living the fugitive life far longer than you have. It was time for change. Time to get rid of them—” she jerked her head toward Alastair “—and time to change the world.”
“You’re the one who tried to get me a few days ago,” Alastair said, struggling to sit a little straighter. “Outside Aura Tower.”
“Yes. That was me. We never knew who the director was before, otherwise I probably would have come for you sooner. But Ridley learned the truth from your son, and I knew then that I’d be getting rid of you myself.”
“This is crazy,” Ridley murmured. “How did I not know this about you? I thought you were so … peaceful. Instead you’ve been running around with firearms for days, trying multiple times to kill someone.”