Shen shook his head. “That would certainly be the easier way out, but I think I owe it to her to explain everything myself. We’ve been friends for years. I can’t just disappear forever without saying goodbye in person.”
Ridley nodded, relieved. She happened to agree with him.
“I, uh …” Shen straightened. “I’m heading over to see her now actually. I just wanted to come and tell you and say goodbye in case you’re out later and I miss you.”
“So—so this is it? This is goodbye? I … this …” Ridley shook her head. How had this moment of great significance come out of nowhere? “Shen, you’re my oldest friend.”
“Yeah, and I turned out to be a pretty terrible one.”
“No, you didn’t. You just—”
“I messed up. I was so intent on protecting you and everyone else like you that I went too far and I messed up. Anyway, this probably isn’t goodbye forever.” He stepped closer and pulled her into a hug. “You can race across the continent on the wind if you feel like it. I’m sure we’ll see each other again.”
After a final goodbye, Ridley leaned against the window again, watching as Shen’s long-legged lope carried him back across the street. When he was gone, she turned back to the shop’s front door. She opened it, then froze as something pressed against her ankle. Looking down, she found a black cat with one white paw, four ears, and eyes that glowed magic blue. “Ember?” she said in utter astonishment. She hadn’t seen the magic-mutated cat since she’d first escaped into the wastelands and Ember had helped Archer to find her.
Ridley reached down to run her knuckles across Ember’s head, which Ember allowed for approximately two seconds. Then, shoulders back and tail held high, she sauntered past Ridley and into Kayne’s Antiques as if she’d been here all along and had merely gone out for a brief jaunt.
“Wow, I thought that conversation was never going to end.”
Ridley straightened in fright, looking around at the figure who’d suddenly appeared on the sidewalk behind her. “Lilah? How long have you been here?”
Lilah pointed a perfectly manicured fingernail at Ridley. “You’re supposed to be the super powerful one. Didn’t you notice I was here?”
Ridley hadn’t noticed a thing outside of her oldest friend announcing he was leaving and then her peculiar pet showing up out of the blue. What she did notice, now that Lilah was standing in front of her, was that while they were similarly dressed—jeans, T-shirt, jacket—Lilah managed to look like she’d stepped off the pages of a fashion magazine, and Ridley looked … well, average. “I was a little distracted, okay? Was that you moving the soda can? I knew that gust of air didn’t seem entirely natural.”
Lilah grinned, like she was proud of the fact that she could roll a piece of tin across a street without touching it. She flicked her sleek dark hair over one shoulder. “That was me.”
“You’re supposed to use your powers for good, not for eavesdropping.”
“I didn’t eavesdrop. I watched from up there.” She gestured to the roof of Ridley’s building. “And I know you’ve done plenty of eavesdropping in your time, so get down from that high horse of yours before you fall off.”
Ridley rolled her eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s almost five. You’re supposed to meet us, remember? Sunset drinks in the wastelands? Toasting to something epic? With wine, because you and I used to do pretend wine tasting with our kiddie grape juice pouches?”
Ridley smiled at the memory. Six-year-old Lilah and Ridley had thought they were so sophisticated copying their parents’ wine tasting ways. “I haven’t forgotten. But last I looked, it was barely four.”
“Right, and four is almost five, and this way you get an extra hour with Archer.”
Ridley had to admit, that was an appealing prospect. “Okay, either you’re bored, you’re overexcited by your magic again and can’t wait to use it, or things with your mom are becoming too much and you had to get away.”
Lilah sighed. “All of the above?” She scraped the tip of her designer tennis shoe back and forth across the sidewalk. “Okay, maybe mostly Mom. Things are … hard. You know, because of—” she waved her hands in the air “—everything. Dad and the arrest and everything becoming public and now she’s suddenly being shunned by everyone who used to suck up to her. And Archer’s not around because she refuses to see him, so she takes everything out on me.”
“She still doesn’t know you were the one who leaked the video of the conversation your dad had with me? About the Cataclysm?”
Lilah shook her head. “No, things would be way worse if she knew about that. She’d probably kick me out. Anyway, let’s go.” She reached for Ridley’s arm and tugged it. “Hanging out on the sidewalk in a dodgy neighborhood is fun, but hanging out on the remains of a ruined building in the wastelands is funner—which, by the way, is a real word.”
“Oh, trust me, ‘funner’ is not what I was about to object to. It’s the ‘dodgy neighborhood’ I take issue with.” Ridley opened the door to Kayne’s Antiques, and leaned inside. “Dad?” she called. Alone now—Grandpa must have gone back upstairs—Dad looked up from the desk. “Still okay if I go out with Lilah and Archer? I’ll be back later this evening.”
Dad opened his mouth, then paused. Ridley could tell it was on the tip of his tongue to say something like ‘Be careful’ or ‘Don’t stay out too late’ or ‘Don’t take off on your own and do something crazy.’ But then he smiled and said, “Have fun. I’ll see you later.”
Lilah grinned at Ridley. “Can we go burn something?”
Ridley laughed. “When did you turn into a pyromaniac?”
“Pyromania has nothing to do with it. I’m just a tiny bit obsessed with the fact that I have magic. Seriously, Ridley, this stuff is awesome.”
“It is, isn’t it.” Ridley tilted her head as she eyed Lilah, who probably hadn’t shown this much excitement about anything since they were children.
“So, lead the way,” Lilah prompted.
They flew above the city, beyond the area where the wall used to be, and into the wastelands. On a buckled suburban street where nothing but rubble and overgrown vegetation remained of the homes that once filled this area, Lilah leaped from shrub to shrub, burning through the tangle of weeds and grass. Ridley dove into the earth, confronting what little remained of her fear, pushing up the foundations of ruined buildings and sending faint shudders through the ground.
As the sun inched toward the horizon, Ridley convinced Lilah to return to human form. “You can hang around here longer if you want, but I should probably go back and fetch Archer.” Until Archer made a more permanent plan, he was staying at the bunker, which had survived the destruction of the city wall with barely a broken brick. Ridley liked to think she’d been super focused with her earthquakes and with asking magic not to destroy the bunker, but the fact that it had survived probably had more to do with the magic users living there who knew how to protect their home with conjurations.