The recording froze and the screen faded to … black. Nothing. No mayor. No advertisements. No propaganda. When had there ever been nothing on the billboard screens? But there is was. Nothing but space and silence for people to contemplate exactly what Alastair Davenport, one of the world’s wealthiest and most influential people, had just confessed. He had planned the Cataclysm.
“Lilah did this,” Ridley murmured. “Lilah showed everyone the truth.” Then she straightened, urgency rushing through her. “Where is she?” She reached out with her magic. Where are you, Lilah?
The answer came at the same time as the sound of a banging door. Ridley raced through the garden, pushing aside leafy branches and exotic flowers. And there, hidden behind a hedge of red roses, was a brick structure and a door. Standing wide open. A body slumped across the threshold. A body with threads of gold glowing beneath every visible inch of her skin.
“Lilah!” Archer exclaimed, rushing past Ridley. He knelt and scooped her up so she lay across his lap, while Ridley crouched beside her, tugging the necklace off. She looped the chain over Lilah’s head, lowering the stone pendant to rest against the bare skin at the hollow of her neck. Lilah’s eyelids fluttered open and closed, revealing her glowing eyes.
“What the actual … Is this magic?” Archer asked.
“Mm hmm,” Lilah mumbled. Then she managed a weak smile. “Told you I know more of Dad’s secrets than you do. Also … he’s an asshole, and you were right about everything.” She lifted a shaky finger and pointed it at him. “Hope you were listening closely. Not gonna say that last bit again.”
Ridley almost laughed in relief—Lilah was going to be just fine—but the sound of voices sent her heart tripping over itself again. No one else should be up here. No one else should be close enough for her to hear. She rose to her feet and peered around the hedge, her eyes darting across the exquisitely expensive vegetation, her magic ready to hide her in an instant. She would take Archer and Lilah too, of course. Lilah might not be strong enough to use her own—
“Dad!” Ridley blurted out as he stepped around a tree with hundreds of tiny white blossoms. With no thought for how he could possibly be here, she launched past the roses and threw her arms around him. “Dad, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I just left. I’m sorry I called you a coward. I was so shocked and hurt and just … overwhelmed, but I should have stayed and talked to you. I shouldn’t have left like that. When I thought I might never see you again, I—”
“Rid, it’s okay. It’s … I’m the one who’s sorry.” Dad hugged her tightly. “I am a coward. I should have told you the truth long ago.”
Ridley sucked in a shuddering breath as tears gathered in her eyes. “You’ll always be my dad,” she whispered. “Always.”
Dad stepped back and took her face in his hands. “I’m so proud of you, sweetie. So, so proud of you. Look at what you’ve done. You always wanted to make a difference, and now you have.”
Ridley blinked as the tears slipped down her cheeks. She sniffed and wiped them away. “It wasn’t just me. I couldn’t have done it without help.” She noticed Nathan then, standing a few paces away, and suddenly she understood how Dad had come to be up here. “You’re okay,” she said with relief. “You got away from them. The fake elementals.”
“Yes. We were surprised and confused the first time, which is how we ended up losing people. But we were prepared this time. Just had to make sure they didn’t force us into human form.” He walked closer. “Malachi and I came back to search for you. He’s somewhere else in the city, still looking. I sensed your father before I sensed you, and he insisted I take him with me.”
Ridley gave Nathan a grateful smile. “Thank you for everything today. Thank you for drawing those other elementals away from the city.”
“Sure,” he said with a shrug. “Thank you for taking care of everything else.”
Ridley mimicked his shrug. “Easy peasy.”
“Well then.” He grinned. “Ready to get out there and liberate some more cities?”
31
The tiny living room in the apartment above Kayne’s Antiques had always been perfectly adequate for Ridley and her father. They didn’t exactly entertain much. Sometimes Meera and Shen were there too, but that was about as far as they pushed the limits of the living room’s size. But that evening, as most of Lumina City tried to figure out what the heck had just happened—while also gazing in wonder at a perfectly clear, star-studded night sky for the first time in years—seven people crowded into the Kaynes’ living room.
As tubs of Chinese takeout from across the road were passed around the room, Ridley slowly pieced together everything that had happened over the past few days.
As she was already aware, Dad had wound up at the Lins after Revolution Attempt Number One had failed. Knowing that something had gone terribly wrong and suspecting the Shadow Society had Ridley, he’d decided he couldn’t simply sit at the Lins and do nothing. Though he knew it was probably foolish, he went to Aura Tower to confront Alastair Davenport.
That, of course, hadn’t gone down well. Dad figured he could take care of himself—with no AI2 and a bunch of offensive and defensive conjurations up his sleeve—but Alastair had bench-pressing minions on his side, plus the ability to smoothly lie about taking Dad straight to Ridley—and then throwing him into an empty containment chamber instead. The next day, Grandpa had joined him there.
He hadn’t received the message Dad had sent him just before the reserve was attacked. The message that said Dad and Ridley had left Lumina City and were safe. He had, however, received a message from Mei Lin informing him that Ridley had accidentally revealed her magic and she and her father were on the run. He’d received the message days after it was sent, but as soon as he knew what had happened, he began making his way back to Lumina City. He was much further away than the last time he’d returned though, and the journey took him a number of days.
After entering the city via the bunker, he’d gone to Kayne’s Antiques, hoping to find a clue of Ridley or Dad’s whereabouts. Unfortunately, this was just after Ridley and Christa had escaped the research facility, and Alastair Davenport had people watching the apartment in case Ridley showed up there. They took Grandpa by surprise—meaning he didn’t get a chance to use any of those ancient badass conjurations he knew—and carted him off to Alastair to ask what to do with him. Alastair recognized him and figured it would be worth hanging onto him along with Ridley’s father. That was when he ended up in the containment chamber with Dad.
Archer had left Mrs. Adams after Ridley and Saoirse abandoned him and tried to contact Ridley’s dad. Either because of a signal problem or because Dad didn’t trust Archer anymore, he didn’t answer. Figuring he was on his own and should try to help in any way he could, Archer planned to look out for falling pieces of arxium and deflect them so no one got hurt. But when the fire in the clouds vanished soon after it began and the earthquakes outside the city came to an end, he realized something had gone wrong. With no one left who trusted him, he decided to go to the bunker.