The blackness stirred in front of him like a monster ready to attack. He slowed his approach.
Out of nowhere, the vessel developed a long, snakelike arm. It flew from the darkness, extending a winding tendril through the sky, directly toward his ship.
Cassius cursed. In one motion, he released the missiles and pulled up, cutting a vertical climb back into safe territory as the black extension wound after him.
The missiles detonated along the shell of Theo’s vessel with little effect. Cassius brought the Academy ship upside down, spinning so that he could make a quick escape.
Too late.
The black tendril grabbed onto his stern with an awful clamp. Metal squealed behind him. He laid on the accelerator. It was no use. Within seconds, the entire ship yanked backward.
He slammed into the console, then forced a glance over his shoulder. He was expecting to see the entire ship tear away from him. Instead, a violent thud on the windshield sent him flying with enough force to snap his seatbelt. He hit the ground sideways and rolled to catch a glimpse of the windshield. A black film of Ridium blots out the sky.
All at once, the backward pull intensified. He tried to grab onto something, but it was too quick. He flew forward through the air and collided with the console again. The speed of the movement forced him into the windshield, dangerously close to the Ridium outside.
His bracelet clamped onto the wall of black, craving to rejoin the element. He stared at the doorway to the cabin, wishing he could escape. Theo had hold of the entire ship now. He could do anything he wanted. He could smash him like a piece of tin.
Cassius closed his eyes and succumbed to panic. He was miles above the Earth, closer and closer to a lunatic who could control everything around him. And all Cassius had was fire. Fire wouldn’t do anything up here, not against Matigo’s son.
A deep rumbling sounded underneath him, then a violent tearing as the Ridium ripped the Academy ship to pieces. The cabin door splayed open, eaten by an enormous black mouth of jagged teeth-a razorblade funnel that sucked Cassius in and spit him back out.
He landed hard on dark flooring. The familiar sheen gave the entire room a pristine feel. His bracelet sunk to the ground, forcing his arm with it.
Then, Theo’s voice. Nowhere, and everywhere all at once.
“So you lived,” he said.
Cassius flipped over so that he could stare at the ceiling. It was the same color as the floor, of course. Everything was. Smooth. Black. Alien.
His eyes darted around, searching for Theo. His right wrist kept him pinned to the ground, but he kicked his legs anyway, struggling to get up. “Where are you?” His voice sounded smaller than usual. He didn’t want to sound like this, not in front of Theo.
“You shouldn’t have been so nasty to me.” The boy’s voice rang out from somewhere behind him. “I remember everything. It doesn’t change what’s going to happen, but I could make it easier for you if we’d have been friends.” Cassius squirmed on the ground, trying to pull his hand free. “I know who you are. You’re not some poor junkie’s kid from the Fringes.”
“Surprise.”
Cassius heard footsteps. Then, out of nowhere, Theo appeared beside his left leg, arms crossed. Cassius tried to kick him, but Theo quickly fashioned a coil of Ridium from the ground, keeping his ankle in place.
Cassius glared at the kid. “Did you know the whole time?”
“Not before the swarm,” Theo responded. “Not before the crimson.”
“The red Drifter?”
“Matigo’s herald.” He nodded. “Sent to Earth to kick things off when my father was ready.”
“Where is he?” Cassius strained to look up at Theo. “Where’s Matigo?”
Theo crouched, one leg on either side of Cassius’s. His smile widened-that same sick expression he’d worn when they’d first met at the Lodge. “Anywhere. And everywhere.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“A broken world like this one is so much easier to conquer.” He paused. “My father knows this. You’re all at war with each other, and you don’t even know what’s coming.”
“I saw you,” Cassius spit. “On Haven. I saw what he was going to do to you. Bring you down to the pits. Submerge you… or something.”
Theo nodded. “We’re Shifters, me and my father. There aren’t many of us on Haven, and even less that can manipulate Ridium as well as we can.” A spout of blackness emerged from between Cassius’s feet, like the eruption of a volcano. Theo grabbed hold of the top and formed it into a perfect sphere. It hovered over his hand, spinning like the model of a planet. “It won’t mean a thing once it’s all gone, but for now it’s going to help us take over this planet.”
Theo shot the black sphere into the air, where it exploded in a hundred sideways raindrops that diffused into the walls around them. “A skilled Shifter,” he continued, “can program a task-or several-in specific order, and the hunk of Ridium will carry that information until it’s completed its mission.” He stepped to Cassius’s side and sat, staring down at his bracelet. “I can feel it now. That chunk around your wrist was given a set of three tasks by a traitor to the Authority.” He ran his hand over the surface of the bracelet. “Task one: Transform from the shape of a cube to a pair of bracelets, one for the Pearlbreaker, one for his brother.”
Cassius remembered when Madame had first presented him with the mysterious black box. It had taken Fisher’s key to activate it. His wrist hadn’t been bare since.
“Task two,” Theo continued. “Relay your mother’s recording from Haven. Reveal all of the amazing things you can do to save your world.” He laughed for a second. Then his smiled faded. “Task three won’t matter much longer.”
“Tell me.” Cassius squirmed.
Theo nodded. “Your parents thought they were smart. The bracelets, even back when they were some boring box, have been programmed by a Shifter to transmit a constant signal to the stars.”
“So what?”
“So… ” He smiled. “They’re a filter. They let in the good Pearls and keep out the bad.”
“How?”
He shrugged. “Green, red… it’s different energy. It’s a frequency game, Stevenson. Like a radio blocking a certain station.” He lifted his finger. Cassius’s bracelet lifted into the air, stopping half a foot from the ground. Frozen. “Like I said, Ridium’s a powerful substance. I don’t know how the Resistance found a Shifter willing to undercut the Authority, but this little thing, along with Fisher’s, was their last great hope.”
He let the bracelet fall to the floor again. It landed against the Ridium without a sound. “There are thousands of them, Cassius, right at the edge of space, circling your planet. Red Pearls, everywhere. More than I can even imagine. This far up, you might even feel them if you close your eyes and concentrate real hard.” He smiled. “And all I have to do is get rid of you and your brother.”
Cassius winced as the coil tightened around his leg. “What about the red Drifter? He was in a Pearl. He came through okay.”
Theo nodded. “He wore a tiny piece of Ridium around his neck-the last remaining treasure in my father’s collection. It was a gamble, but Ridium attracts Ridium. The natural bond between the objects was enough to break through the transmission.” His brows raised. “That’s how I came to Earth, after all.”
Cassius craned his neck to see around the room. “You came here in this?”
Theo laughed. “Are you kidding me? All I had was enough Ridium to get me safely through space.”
“Submerged,” Cassius said. “You were submerged in it.”
“Exactly,” he replied. “And I shifted it into a kind of ship. A barrier between me and the stars. Like a Pearl, but better.” He paused. “It was supposed to be untraceable, but Madame’s radars must have picked me up when I landed. I don’t know… I guess she had reason to search the skies after you and Fisher showed up.”
A ripple coursed through the ground as he continued. “I had no memory when I got here, wandering through Fringe Town after Fringe Town until she picked me up. An accident, she’d said. I’d had an accident. That’s all.” He turned away, eyes focused on the distant wall. “But Ridium’s everywhere. It came down with the Scarlet Bombings that destroyed your cities. It’s been seeping underground ever since, waiting for Matigo to use it. Every last bit of the stuff that was on Haven is now on Earth. The entire planet’s a weapon for those who can use it.”