by Megan Curd
Sari scratched her neck as she seemed to digest my suggestion. “And what trees do you think we’re missing?”
I looked around the room. “Are there, you know?” I nodded to the monitor that revealed Xander pacing in his study, Jaxon lying in his bed, and Alice digging in Riggs’s desk in the library.
I did a double take.
“Oh crap, Sari, look.”
We both watched as Alice dug in the drawers, pulling out pamphlets, blueprints, and journals. She leafed through them as she went.
Sari let out a low chuckle. “Well isn’t she Miss 007.”
“Who’s that?”
“It’s a movie character that,” she waved her hand, “ah, never mind. He’s pretty badass. He also finds himself in a lot of trouble most of the time.”
As if on queue, the camera lens slid to where Alice and Sari hid when they came to visit me.
Riggs was walking toward her, oblivious to her at the moment.
“No! Alice, move! Move now!” Sari squealed as she gripped the monitor. “Oh, this is bad. This is very bad.”
Xander appeared on the screen in a rush and placed his hand on Riggs. He turned Riggs and began to talk to him, motioning in the opposite direction. Riggs nodded and took off in a hurry, while Xander went to Alice.
Sari let out a sigh of relief. “That was too close.”
We watched as Xander helped Alice put things back in place, and they disappeared out of the camera together. Relief flooded through me.
Sari looked at me, her expression as relieved as I felt. “Were you going to ask if there were cameras in here? No way. I rerouted the one Riggs thought he was sneaking in. Made it look like I was always watching his cameras, no matter what I’m doing.” She smiled proudly.
I plowed ahead before I could lose my nerve. “What do you think of Xander? Where did he come from? Why is he so sympathetic to you guys, but doesn’t do anything to get rid of Riggs?”
Sari looked around the room nervously, then back to me. “Here’s the thing,” she said in a low voice, “you can’t trust many people to keep even a small secret for you. Xander, he’s kept secret after secret for Jaxon and I. He knows we leave the Academy and bring back insurgents. He mends them and sends them back to their homes when they’re healed. He’s helped us find out some of the things that Riggs has done. Xander’s on our side.”
“But how do you know?”
Sari’s voice became stronger. “Avery, did you just see the same video feed that I did? How do you know that you can trust me? How do you know that you can trust anyone you’ve met here?”
“What do you mean, how do I know I can trust you? You’ve made it clear I can!”
“And what has Xander done to make you think you can’t trust him?”
I spluttered, unable to come up with a case. How could I say, Well, he didn’t mention Alice, who he hadn’t even met until a minute ago, when he started talking about us escaping. Obviously that makes him bad. Even in my head it sounded stupid.
Sari seemed mollified by my inability to come up with an excuse. “Like I said, I love a good conspiracy theory, but it needs to have some sort of truth. Riggs has all kinds of dirt and I’m sure we haven’t found all of it,” she made it clear that the subject was closed. “We need to figure out how to get out of here and ruin his plans to reestablish the Resistance.”
Everything she said made sense.
Sari flipped the screen back to the program that was running brain waves. We watched the progression of the blips and beeps that sounded as the students manipulated their elements. I couldn’t understand anything on the screen, but Sari pointed out little nuances between the students. She pointed out Kloey more than once. Her finger jabbed the monitor, excited as a peak in Kloey’s brain activity reached an all-time high. “See that right there? That spike was huge! If you watch the video, you’ll notice that’s when she made the water stand in a pillar. See it?” The screen flashed the replay of Kloey’s feat alongside the brain activity. “Now we need to see what you do when you’re hooked up. Want to try?”
She pushed out from the desk and rolled across the small space to a bookshelf. I barely caught the package of electrodes she tossed to me.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Try to create an element. Only try once, so we can get a look at what’s going on.” She sat an empty glass in front of me and helped as I fumbled to attach the electrodes. “I’m not taking you out there with the rest of them because of the cameras. I want to see what you can do so we have a baseline to compare to Kloey’s without it being on record.”
With everything attached, I stared at the glass and hoped water would appear. Prayed for something—anything—to happen.
“Your brain activity is off the charts,” Sari said, now back in her chair with her nose inches from the monitor. “I mean, it’s crazy off the charts. What are you—”
I couldn’t hear her anymore. My limbs felt like rubber hoses. I couldn’t move, couldn’t even breathe.
Water.
Water everywhere.
I was drowning.
Sari was there in a flash. She smacked the side of my face, her eyes frantic. “Avery! Avery, come on, breathe!” She pounded my chest. “Come on, take a breath!”
On the third pound, water filled my throat and I coughed. It tasted of salt, burning my throat and nose. I rolled over, choking as I fought for oxygen.
Sari fell back and leaned against the wall. Her eyes were wide with fright and amazement at the same time. “What the hell, Avery?”
I collapsed back on the floor. The cold wet floor soaked through my clothes and my hair stuck to my cheek. I breathed deeper than necessary, my lungs burning from the overexertion. I croaked out a dry laugh, but regretted it immediately as it racked my already burning throat. “Well, that was fun.”
“Oh yeah, a barrel of laughs,” Sari said as she pulled me to sit beside her. She closed her eyes as she spoke, and I mimicked her. “Seriously, what did you do? What did that mean?”
When I began to respond, a voice cut me off.
A voice I didn’t want to hear.
“It means that we’re getting closer to figuring out Miss Pike’s talent.”
I opened my eyes to see an excited Mr. Riggs standing in the doorway of Sari’s office. He stepped forward and extended his hand to me. He never looked at Sari, but his words were directed to her. “Thank you, Sari. I think your lesson was exceptionally enlightening. I’ll take it from here.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY
Riggs’s strong grip on my shoulder steered me from the classroom, and we walked in silence. Our footsteps echoed off the marble floor and resonated in my chest—or was that my heart pounding its way out? Each turn we took led us further from the area I was familiar with in the Academy, and deeper into the bowels of Riggs’s fortress.
The narrow passageway was decorated in dark tones of burgundy and hunter green, and the flickering lights did nothing to make it feel welcoming. That was Riggs’s goal, probably; if it was, he was doing a good job.
His voice clung to the sugary sweetness that put the rest of his persona in stark contrast. “Do you care to enlighten me on why you decided to send my dining table up in flames?”
“Do you care to enlighten me on why you decided it was necessary to hurt your students?”
Blood thrummed through my shoulder as Riggs relinquished his grip. We stopped in the middle of the downward sloping passageway. It was only then that I realized the walls had turned to cement, and the grandeurs of the Academy had long disappeared. The cool smell of earth began to waft from down the hall, and I wondered where Riggs was taking me.
His voice was strained as he spoke. “Your allegations are nothing more than conjecture.”
“Do you think that by using big words, you’ll throw me off, Mr. Riggs? Because my allegations are more than conjecture. I watched you electrocute a student at breakfast and that, sir, is not conjecture. It’s proof of your ruthle
ssness.”
“Did you see me touch that boy? Did I lay a finger on him?” His eyes burned with an intensity I recognized; it was the same I’d seen in Jaxon’s. They burned as though he wanted me to believe him with every fiber of my being. “Because I didn’t. Therefore, you saying I was the one behind his misfortune is conjecture.”
“Everyone knows you have weapons in this place; why won’t you admit it?”
He recoiled, but regained his composure almost instantly. “It sounds as though you’ve been poking around, Miss Pike.”
I clenched my jaw. He wouldn’t goad me into a revealing information that would get us all in trouble.
He continued on without me saying a word. “One should note that even the tamest animals will bite back when poked and prodded.”
“Consider it noted.”
Riggs clapped his hands and made me jump. “All right, then. As I informed you when you first arrived, I’m your tutor. I don’t usually partake in the education of my students but you, my dear, are quite the riddle to be solved.”
His mood swings were going to give me whiplash. “I’m not a Rubik’s cube for your amusement, Mr. Riggs.”
He chuckled as he circled me. It made me feel as though he was a hawk riding the drafts above his prey, just waiting for the opportune moment to swoop in for the kill. “Do you like your uniform? Yours was a special order.”
His tone was paternal, and I wondered if he’d ever spoken to Jaxon like that. My muscles burned from holding them at attention, and I yearned to shift my weight. Instead I stared, unmoving, at Riggs. “Do you provide special treatment for your own son?”
Riggs slumped, which surprised me. “So you’ve heard all of the Academy’s gossip.”
“I don’t think it’s gossip since Jaxon told me.”
Riggs nodded, his tone acidic as he clenched his fists at his sides. “He’s always been a sucker for a pretty girl.”
I pulled the collar of the jacket higher against my neck.
The throaty chuckle that bubbled out of Riggs indicated the gesture hadn’t fallen on blind eyes. “Miss Pike, that was a compliment. There aren’t many girls that catch my son’s eye, although there are plenty that would love to have their affection reciprocated.”
“Well, I’m not one of those girls.”
“No,” Riggs said as he stroked his chin. “I recall you telling me one other time you weren’t like other girls. You haven’t let me down. I saw you turn my son down in that darkened corridor. You’ve earned my respect.”
Without another word he continued down the dank hallway. I stood there in the semi-darkness, thankful Riggs couldn’t see my scarlet face. He’d watched the tapes! Had he seen Legs? Fear filled my veins at the thought.
As I watched Riggs’s retreating back, I realized how alone and lost I’d be if he disappeared. The sound of a metal door grating against cement echoed from a distance, and I wondered if he was taking me to a subterranean prison. It was hard to tell what sinister things lay beneath the grandiose exterior of Chromelius Academy.
I stood there for a moment, but then followed him. My muted footsteps barely made a sound, but Riggs heard me.
“Wise decision, Miss Pike,” he called out.
A light flickered ahead. As I neared, I saw the low hum of electricity surge through the thin filament at the center. The bulb hung from its cord in the ceiling. Inside was a half-burnt dead fly, its legs bent grotesquely. My eyes watered from staring into the filament for too long.
“Welcome to my office,” Riggs said as he swept his hand around the small space. He slid his thin frame behind a metal desk and sat in a cracked leather seat so worn, it had the look of veins spreading across the fabric.
The room felt like a bomb shelter. Cement walls covered in water stains surrounded us with no outside light source. The wall behind Riggs was covered in books, pamphlets, and spare pieces of paper with scrawls of math problems and the like. A statue of three monkeys, each covering their eyes, ears, or mouth, sat as a bookend in the middle of the center bookcase.
How perfect for him.
Riggs fastened on a disingenuous smile and gestured to the simple black chair that resided in front of his desk. “Please, have a seat.”
I swallowed hard and forced myself to sit in the chair. It didn’t make sense why Riggs’s personal office was in such disrepair, while the rest of the Academy was immaculate. I would have imagined his personal quarters to be the epitome of grandeur.
“You’re probably wondering what we’re doing here.”
I couldn’t help myself. “I was actually trying to figure out why your office was a dive.”
A hearty chuckle escaped Riggs’s lips, and it was the first time he seemed human. He leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. The action reminded me of Jaxon.
“You really are a piece of work, Miss Pike. I did well to bring you here.”
There were a thousand smart-alec comments I wanted to make, but I refrained. Instead, I gazed around the dingy hovel in search of more information about Riggs.
“I brought you here to learn,” he reminded me.
“I’m aware of that.”
“Do you feel that you’re ready to pursue that goal?”
“I suppose it depends on what you plan to teach me. It’s become clear that I can’t create elements like you thought.”
“Yet,” Riggs added.
“Or ever, since every time I’ve tried it ended in near-death.”
Riggs leaned forward, his eyes boring into mine. “I plan to teach you everything. All the secrets this place possesses will be yours. As for your inability to create elements, as I said, it’s only a matter of time. After watching you in Sari’s office, I believe you’re channeling the ability, but holding it within you. You need to release it, let it go, or else yes, you will continue to have near-death experiences. I wouldn’t have brought you unless I was confident in you, Miss Pike.”
“And why are you so confident?”
Riggs’s eyes were clear and sincere. “Because your mother can channel her abilities outward, as I’m telling you to.”
I sat back in my seat to create more space between us. My mind reeled. “My mom…”
“Is what you call an Elementalist.”
“Would you call us something different?”
He was practically leaning over the desk, his eyes alight with passion. “All of the students here are capable of controlling elements beyond anything you’ve seen before. You witnessed Kloey control water as though it were her toy. Evan manipulates fire in the same manner. Asher, Evan’s twin brother, controls the air. You have no idea how remarkable your gifts are. I’ve spent a great deal of time learning about Elementalists and convincing some return here with me.”
“By convince, do you mean sending Jaxon on a great metal spider and all but kidnapping them?”
“My dear, you are a valuable asset. I couldn’t let you turn me down.”
I nodded. “So you’ve called the others Elementalists, but not me or my mother. How are we different?”
“As I’ve pointed out, I consider Evan, Asher and Kloey to be true Elementalists. They have control over one specific element. Jaxon, Sari and a few others are here because of their prowess over less extraordinary mediums that remain beneficial. Jaxon, as you probably already know, is an alchemist. I taught him everything I know, and he has surpassed me in ability. Sari—”
“I know what Sari does,” I said quickly, but then recoiled as I realized that I’d interrupted Riggs.
His mouth never closed, but remained half-open as he waited for me to listen. He smiled. “I see you’re well-versed in this place, then. Care to go on a walk with me?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Not particularly,” Riggs said bluntly as he stood from his chair. “I was merely performing a nicety by inviting you.”
He extended the crook of his elbow in chivalrous manner and bowed his head as he beckoned me. It felt like the free will ha
d been sucked from my body, from my world. This life that Riggs had fashioned here was not what I’d imagined. We were his pawns — a collection of anomalies he’d accumulated from his ventures — and we waited for his every move.
I hated it.
Hated him.
Riggs led me to the bookcases behind his desk, where he pulled the monkey in the middle like a lever. The bookcase swung inward and revealed a surgically clean hallway. Bright lights poured into the now well-lit office, and he led me into the corridor.
Along the walls of the hall were windows with small sills that jutted outward. Spiral notebooks lay open along the sills, and I gazed at them as we passed. A few notebooks had drawings, but most of the pages consisted of scribbles. A cart near the middle of the corridor overflowed with boxes of blue latex gloves in all different sizes. A pile of masks and scrubs were folded on the lower level of the cart.
A florescent tube light ran the length of the ceiling, humming like a fly too close to my ear. The overpowering stench of ammonia threatened to push me backward.
As I moved to retreat back into the office, Riggs pulled his arm from mine and put his hand on the small of my back to guide me forward.
“Now now, Miss Pike, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”
Every neuron in my body screamed otherwise. I didn’t know what was housed in this corridor, but I guessed it wasn’t nice. Riggs guided me closer to the windows. As we passed one, I let out a breath of relief to find the room on the other side empty.
He looked down at me, his expression impassive. “Miss Pike, do you really think I’m a mad scientist of some sort?”
I bit my bottom lip to keep from responding, and focused on the white tiles beneath my feet. Even the grout between the tiles was impeccably white. Riggs halted our progress when we reached the cart of masks, gloves and scrubs. He glanced at me, then turned toward the array of medical garb.
“I’d venture to guess you’re a size medium?” He skimmed through the clothing and he turned back to me, extending a mass of blue linen. “Put these on.”
