Within seconds, she was tossed beyond the wall around the mayor’s property. She tried to direct herself downward, but a strong gust scooped her up and flung her higher. She rose and fell and tumbled about as she tried to keep breathing and not let panic take over. She was vaguely aware that she was moving away from the edge of the city and toward the center, but other than that, she had no concept of exactly where or how fast the wind was carrying her.
Just don’t panic, she kept telling herself. She pictured her street as if from above. The old shop, the apartment upstairs, and Dad. Because Dad had to be there. He had to. If Lawrence’s men had done something to him. If they’d killed him—
She sucked in a sob as an ache swelled in her chest. Then her heart leaped into her throat. She was falling. Swiftly. Looking down, she realized she was almost completely visible again. Nonono! She squeezed her eyes shut so she wouldn’t see the city streets rising rapidly toward her. She shoved her magic outward, reminding herself she was made of air, and a breeze caught her and carried her forward instead of down.
Breathing out a shaky breath, she opened her eyes. She was close enough to the ground now that her feet—if they weren’t made of air once more—could almost have touched the rooftops of the low buildings she was flying above. She moved down past the three- or four-story buildings and directed herself toward a quiet side street. Letting her magic sink back inside her body, she landed, breathless and dizzy, and threw her hand out to steady herself against the wall. She blinked and looked around, hoping no one had seen her appear out of nowhere. Luckily, the buildings she stood between didn’t have windows facing onto this narrow street.
Once her dizziness had passed, she hurried into the next road and examined the buildings and signs. She didn’t recognize anything. If she had her commscreen on her—and if it worked—she could easily have found her location. But she would have to resort to more traditional means. She ran down another two streets before finding a bus stop and a map. Her heart skipped a surprised beat as she figured out where she was. Much closer to home—and, hopefully, to Dad—than she’d thought, which was fortunate, because without her commscreen, she had no way to pay for a bus.
She looked around, checking for somewhere to hide as she considered handing herself over to the mercy of the wind once more. But without being able to control exactly which direction it moved in, she might end up taking even longer to get home. So instead, she took off at a run.
She was slower than she wanted to be, with her left side still aching from where she must have landed on the floor earlier. But she managed to keep running, and eventually she turned, sweating and breathless and with a cramp in her side, into the alley behind Kayne’s Antiques. She rushed up to the door, hoping it would be locked because that would mean Dad was inside and he was okay. But the door stood ajar.
“Crap, crap, crap,” she muttered as she pushed it open and ran upstairs. She ground to a halt at the top of the staircase, her heart beating in her throat and a sick feeling twisting her stomach as she took in the scene. The lamp in the corner had been knocked over, the small coffee table was split in half, and something large had smashed through the window behind the couch. But the most alarming part was the pool of blood smeared across the floor.
Ridley gripped the top of the banister as her legs became oddly weak. Her breath shook and her eyes remained trained on the blood as she slowly lowered herself to her knees. For a moment, she considered the possibility that she was entirely alone in the world. Tears blurred her vision. She squeezed her eyes shut, letting the tears fall.
“He’s not dead,” she whispered shakily. “He’s not dead.”
She refused to believe it. If Lawrence’s men had killed him, wouldn’t they have left him here? They could easily have made it look like a break-in and an accidental shooting. They must have taken him for some reason. Alive, she told herself firmly, opening her eyes. They took him alive. She reached for the banister again and pulled herself up, then wiped beneath her eyes. If Lawrence had taken her father, where would he—
Something rustled behind the couch. The curtain moved. Ridley held her breath and prepared to transform into air, but before she could push her magic outward, something leaped onto the back of the couch. “Holy crap,” she breathed. It was that darn cat with the four ears and the glowing eyes. She shook her head and exhaled slowly.
Then, without bothering to shoo the cat out the window, Ridley turned and headed back down the stairs. Dad was missing, and she didn’t have time for magic-mutated animals that couldn’t find their way back out to the wastelands. What she needed to do was get to Brex Tower. That’s where Lawrence would be tonight. He might not have her any longer, but he still had that flash drive. She knew it was stupid to go after him, but there was no other option. Lawrence knew what had happened to Dad, and Ridley wouldn’t rest until she got her father back.
28
Before Ridley could find her father, she had to go to Aura Tower. She knew which building Lawrence would be in tonight, but she didn’t know exactly where inside Brex Tower he would be. For that, she needed Archer. She managed to get into the Davenports’ private elevator while invisible, then took the longest damn elevator ride of her life all the way to the top. By the time she reached the penthouse, she was almost in tears from sheer frustration.
I’m running out of time! her internal voice screamed inside her head. She knocked repeatedly on the double front doors, then almost cried with relief when it was Archer who opened up. She’d had no explanation ready if it turned out to be someone else.
“Ridley, what are you—”
“He took my father,” she said, the words escaping her in a rush as she stepped through the doorway.
“What? Who? Wait, are you okay?” His eyes darted across her face, no doubt taking in her ruffled hair and red eyes. “What happened?”
“Lawrence. He was waiting at my place, and he made me open the figurine with magic, and then one of his guys knocked me out and I woke up in an arxium room inside his freaking pool house, of all places. But then I managed to get away, and I went straight home to see if Dad was okay, but he was gone. And the table was broken, and the window, and there was blood on the floor, and it was a lot, Archer. I mean, I don’t know how much is too much, but it looked like a lot. But Dad wasn’t there so—”
“Okay, just calm down.” Archer gripped her shoulders.
“But he must be alive, right?” she insisted, staring pleadingly into his eyes and hoping he would agree with her. “I mean, that’s what you’d assume, isn’t it? He’s alive. It wouldn’t make sense to take him if he’s dead. So he has to be alive—”
Archer pulled her against his chest and wrapped both arms around her. “Seriously, you need to calm down. Lawrence would be an idiot to kill Maverick Kayne. We’ll find your father, okay?”
It was both extremely strange and oddly comforting to be hugged by someone she’d known since she was four years old but had barely spoken to in almost a decade. She shut her eyes and replayed Archer’s words in her head. They sounded so reasonable when he said them. She didn’t know why Lawrence would be an idiot to kill her father, but she was happy to go along with that reasoning.
“So Lawrence has the flash drive now?” Archer asked quietly.
Ridley sniffed. “Yes. So you need to get it back before he gives it to someone else, and I need to get my father back.” She removed herself from Archer’s embrace and stepped backwards. “Do you know where he’ll be at Brex Tower tonight?”
“Yes. Sapphire 84. That restaurant on the eighty-fourth floor with all the private balconies, so I’m assuming he’ll be on one of those.”
“Okay. Let’s go.” She turned toward the open door.
“Wait, hang on.” She looked back at him. “I’ll do it. I’m going anyway.” He picked up the object she hadn’t noticed sitting on the table below the hallway mirror—a gun—and slipped it into the back of his jeans. “I promise I’ll get your father back.”
&nb
sp; Ridley blinked at the spot where the gun had been, shivering as she imagined a cold, hard object pressed to the back of her head. She forced herself to forget it and look at Archer instead. “No way in hell am I staying out of this now. We’re going in together. You’ll get the flash drive, I’ll get Dad—or find out where he is, at least—and then we’ll get far away from Lawrence.”
“And then?”
Ridley frowned. “Then what?”
“Lawrence knows what you can do. You won’t be safe, even if you do manage to get us out of Brex Tower alive.”
“Then I’ll … I don’t know.” Ridley shook her head, turning away as her breath caught in her throat. The strands of her life were rapidly beginning to unravel. Her secret was out. Once she got Dad back, they couldn’t stay in their current home. Perhaps they couldn’t even stay in this city. She’d never get into The Rosman Foundation. She wouldn’t get into any college either. Hell, she couldn’t even go back to school tomorrow, she realized with an icy jolt.
She shoved her whirling thoughts away and turned back to Archer. “Right now, my priority is my father. I’ll figure everything else out afterwards.”
“You realize this is probably a trap, don’t you?” Archer said. “Lawrence probably took your father so that if you escaped, you’d have no choice but to go back to him.”
“Yes, I’ve thought of that. But it doesn’t change anything. And just because Lawrence planned for me to return to him doesn’t mean I have to walk up and hand myself over. I’ll be invisible, remember?”
“And if you’re not? What if something goes wrong? Can you guarantee you won’t be carted off by security if someone sees you sneaking around Sapphire 84?”
“I trust my magic. Even if it reaches the point of driving a blinding ache through my head, I won’t stop using it.”
“Really? What happened at the Madsons’ house? Something certainly went wrong then.”
“That was—” She cut herself off when she realized she had no answer for why her magic had made her so dizzy and nauseous that she’d actually passed out while sneaking through the mayor’s lounge. To be honest, she’d forgotten about the strange experience in the wake of everything that had happened since. “Look, I don’t know what that was, but that was the only time it ever happened, so I don’t expect it to happen again. Now can we please go? We’re wasting time, and my father’s life is on the line!”
“I know, but so is yours! That’s why I need to do this, not you.”
“This isn’t negotiable, Archer.”
“And when things go wrong inside there? Or wherever it is that your father’s being held? When you find yourself trapped, surrounded by all those bodyguards Lawrence likes to keep nearby? I know you’ve got magic on your side, but you’re a thief, Ridley, not a fighter.”
“I’m not going there to fight.” She turned and strode into the still-open elevator without hesitation. “I’m going there to steal.”
Stealing her father back was likely to be the most challenging heist of her life, but Ridley didn’t allow herself a moment’s doubt. There was no room for failure. “Security isn’t quite as tight as Aura Tower,” Archer said as they stood in the shelter of a doorway across the street from Brex Tower. “But there’s still a sign-in process. I can probably talk my way in without a reservation at Sapphire 84, and you can do your invisible thing.”
“No,” Ridley said. “I can get us both in. It’ll be faster.” The front door of the fashion boutique they stood in front of was set into a recess, allowing Ridley to move further back and out of sight of most of the road. “Don’t freak out,” she said to Archer as vibrant, pulsing patches of blue appeared across her skin.
He looked back at her. “You said that before. I didn’t freak out, remember?”
“Yeah. But this is different.” It was also potentially awkward, she reminded herself, and so she did it as quickly as possible. She rushed forward and wrapped her arms around him as her magic lifted away from her body. It swirled around them both, turning them to air within seconds. Ridley’s momentum spun them away from the door, and the next thing Ridley heard was a startled curse in her ear. “Told you,” she said. “It’s freaky stuff.”
A breeze caught them and twirled them above the cars and across the street. Ridley then directed them both up the wide stairs and into Brex Tower. It was an unexplainable thing, being somehow weightless while also having the sensation of Archer’s arms tight around her. Like the memory of a touch instead of something tangible. She tried not to think about it too much and instead whisked between people, leaving fluttering hair, billowing skirts, and a few shocked gasps in her wake. She headed over a turnstile, past the elevators—where too many people were stepping in and out—and toward the stairwell. Then straight up through the center of the spiral staircase, her eyes keeping track of the numbers flashing by on each landing until eventually she saw the number eighty-four beside an open doorway. She stopped but didn’t let go of either Archer or her magic.
“Whoa,” Archer breathed. “That was weird. Like a rollercoaster without any actual machinery.”
“Yeah. Sorry. I’m in a rush.” Ridley moved them both beyond the stairwell and onto the eighty-fourth floor. A sign with the words Sapphire 84 directed her toward the right. She followed the arrows around the corner toward the floor-to-ceiling glass panes that separated the restaurant from the rest of this level. Music, chatter, and the clink of glasses reached her ears. Heading swiftly through the open doors, she looked past the tables to the numerous balconies jutting out from the side of the building, each of which was strategically concealed from the view of the indoor patrons by trellises covered in lush greenery.
“We’ll need to go to each one and take a look,” Archer said. They began at one end, looking through the doorway onto each balcony as quickly as they could. Ridley hoped desperately that she was about to look out and see Dad on one of them. Even if he was tied up or unconscious, at least she’d know for sure he was alive.
But when they found Lawrence, he was alone at the far end of the balcony table, speaking to a commscreen. A cold fist tightened around Ridley’s heart, but she tried to look on the positive side. “At least his bodyguards aren’t here,” she murmured as they hovered in the doorway.
“They’re inside,” Archer whispered. “I saw two of them eating together. There might have been more of them sitting at other tables.”
“Well at least they’re not out here. Ready to move closer?” she asked.
“Yes. Wait until we’re behind him and I’ve got the gun out. Then you can make us visible. Or just me. I’ll force him to hand over the flash drive and tell me where your father is.”
“And if he refuses? Are you actually planning to shoot him?”
“Would you try to stop me if I did?”
Ridley hesitated. “I don’t know. He’s a despicable human being, but I’m not okay with murder.”
“Do you think people deserve to die for using magic?” Archer asked. “Because that’s what will happen if I don’t stop Lawrence. Many, many people’s lives are tied to the information on that flash drive. Once the wrong people know exactly who they are, they will all be killed.”
Ridley let his words sink into her brain. “It’s about the bunker, isn’t it,” she guessed. “All those innocent people just getting on with their lives, using magic in secret underneath the city. That’s the information on the flash drive.”
Archer was quiet for several heartbeats. “Do you think they’re worth saving?” he asked.
Ridley already knew her answer. She moved Archer and herself out onto the balcony. A pane of glass on the outer edge of the balcony railing provided protection from the wind—and prevented anyone from falling over the rail—while still allowing for a spectacular view of the city.
“… pity I lost her,” Lawrence was saying to his commscreen, “but she might be back if she can’t find her father.”
Ridley turned her attention back to him. Clearly he was talking
about her.
“Yes, it would be a bonus if you had her,” said the woman on the device. Ridley had a feeling she’d heard her voice before. Lawrence’s mother, perhaps? “But the flash drive and the letters will be more than enough to secure you a position at the table. Plus the evidence against Archer Davenport.”
As they moved closer, Ridley sensed Archer’s phantom arms tighten around her. “I know,” Lawrence said. “It’s shocking the amount of information he’s been hiding. I won’t tell you now—you never know who’s listening in—but I’ll show you everything at home.”
“You made a copy?”
“Of course.”
Archer made a sound like a suppressed groan. Lawrence looked up, but of course, there was nothing for him to see. He focused on the commscreen again. “Dad’s going to hate me for going behind his back like this.”
“He won’t hate you, honey. He just … he’s been underestimating you, that’s all. He didn’t realize you had what it takes. Now you can show him—and the others—that you do.”
“Yes. Finally.” Then, almost in one movement, Lawrence dropped the commscreen and grabbed a small spray can from below the table. His hand shot out, and he sprayed the contents of the can in a wide arc in front of him. Back and forth, and then all around as well as behind him.
Nausea hit Ridley’s stomach about two seconds later. She sucked in a breath, but she was already losing control of her magic. Dizziness overwhelmed her, and she felt herself falling sideways. Through the spinning of her surroundings, she became aware that she was no longer invisible. Then Lawrence’s voice reached her ears: “Ridley. I was hoping you might find your way back to me.”
29
Darkness clouded Ridley’s vision and pulled her downward, and she was pretty sure she lost consciousness for a few moments. Then her stomach heaved, and she almost threw up. Gasping and swallowing, she peeled her eyelids apart to find that the only thing keeping her upright was Archer’s arm pinning her to his side. His other hand pointed the gun at Lawrence. “Give me the flash drive,” he growled.
Elemental Thief (Ridley Kayne Chronicles Book 1) Page 21
