Turned out Christa was gone, and since the magic users living there were just regular people—meaning most of them probably weren’t even aware of elementals or the Shadow Society—there was no one there from either side reporting that Archer Davenport was a traitor. He was still there when Grandpa showed up. He told Grandpa everything that had happened since he’d fled the city with Ridley and her father—and since they’d ended up returning because of the Shadow Society’s attack on the reserve. He also told Grandpa the truth about the Cataclysm and his family being part of the Shadow Society.
Grandpa left the bunker, hoping he might be able to track down Ridley or Dad, but not before performing a conjuration that reversed the effects of the one Saoirse had done on Archer. He could pull magic again.
A few hours later, Archer heard about the wall coming down in Linevale. He realized change was happening after all and decided the one thing he could do was make sure as many people as possible knew the truth. So he sat in a room near the bunker’s entrance where it was possible to get a signal and did his live video recording.
Then he spent the rest of the night out of signal range, worrying about whether the Shadow Society had already come up with a way to fight back. Maybe his father had been able to get the video taken down. Maybe someone official—the Secretary-General himself, perhaps—had released an opposing story. The social feeds were global, after all, so it was possible the video had reached the SG. Would he take it seriously? Or did the man who governed the entire world have more important things to worry about?
But the following day, it seemed nothing had happened yet to Archer’s video confession aside from it going viral and racking up thousands of comments he didn’t even want to read let alone attempt to reply to.
Then Christa arrived at the bunker. There were more than a few people who wanted to hurt her, given that they were all now aware she’d sold out certain magic users. But she’d seen Archer’s video, and since everyone now knew about elementals and the Shadow Society, she had decided to come crawling back to ask for help getting rid of the society members she knew about.
Archer hadn’t given Christa the chance to explain much—he didn’t, for instance, know anything about his father’s synthetic elementals and the fact that his sister and turned herself into one of them—but she did tell him about the research facility and helping Ridley escape. Having no interest in working with Christa, Archer left the bunker and decided to check out this backup facility his father had failed to tell him about when they were supposedly on the same side. That was what had led him to the city wall and the surveillance room Ridley was in just as the entire place began collapsing.
He sat beside Ridley now, occasionally resting a hand on her leg, or leaning over to press a brief kiss to her temple, or rubbing his hand in gentle circles on her back. She stole glances at him every few minutes, in between shoveling food into her mouth and deconstructing the past few days with everyone else who was squashed into the living room. He kept meeting her eyes, and some unspoken understanding passed between them each time. They hadn’t had a chance to properly talk yet, but the kiss earlier, and then the embrace on top of the Boards24 Building—plus all the secret glances and small smiles this evening—probably gave him a good indication of how she felt.
Lilah, who’d made a quick recovery once she was wearing the heirloom stone, sat primly on the desk chair Ridley had wheeled out of her bedroom, questioning Malachi about all things elemental-related and refraining from commenting on the worn, tattered state of pretty much everything inside the room. Her eyes had almost bulged out of her face at the sight of the loose plastic covering the gaping hole in the window but, to her credit, she’d managed to keep her lips zipped. Either that or she’d been shocked speechless.
Malachi, for his part, was playing things cool, but Ridley could tell he was a little star-struck. He’d hated the Davenports when Ridley met him—their first few minutes together had involved him attempting to beat up Archer—but Delilah Davenport was gorgeous, famous and currently directing all her attention at him. He was definitely soaking it all up.
Nathan was the one who completed the group of seven gathered around the collection of takeout containers on the crate at the center of the living room. He kept checking his commscreen, looking out for reports about cities being liberated, important people being arrested—like Alastair Davenport—and people attempting to remove their own AI2s. In between, he kept throwing out suggestions to Ridley about which city they should tackle next. “Other elementals are getting ready to act,” he kept saying. “They could use our help. There might be some other heirs out there, but probably not many. You can continue making a difference like you’ve done here.”
“Maybe,” Ridley kept answering. And she meant it. She was too exhausted and overwhelmed by everything to properly contemplate it right now, but she did want to keep making a difference if she could.
“And no, still haven’t heard from her,” Nathan added quietly after his latest city suggestion. Ridley had told him about Saoirse being the one to give up the location of the reserve and some of the other elemental communities, and then attempting to kill Alastair Davenport. Nathan said he’d sensed her out in the wastelands, helping to draw the manmade elementals away. But when he’d gathered together with everyone after it was all over, and before he and Malachi returned to the city to look for Ridley, Saoirse was gone.
“Oh, I think that’s my delivery,” Lilah said at the sound of a vehicle outside. She stood and squeezed around the couch to look out the window.
“Your delivery?” Ridley asked. “You don’t think we have enough food here already?”
“We have plenty of food, but I figured we need some celebratory drinks to go with the food.” Lilah peered through the window. “Yep, that’s Sven. Poor guy, he looks so lost out there. Probably never been to this side of the city. I’m just gonna go downstairs and—”
“You called Sven to come here?” Archer asked.
“Yeah. The world may be in upheaval, but he’s still employed by us, right?” Lilah maneuvered her way between chairs and knees and takeout containers. “I called him when we got here and sent him to Dad’s cellar to pick up some drinks for us. What?” she added defensively. “Dad was just arrested. He’s not going to need his Champagne in prison.”
“You asked Sven to bring Champagne?”
Lilah looked around the room. “I mean … if you guys don’t think we have something to celebrate, I’ll just keep it for another occasion.”
Grandpa leaned back and attempted to stretch his legs, which resulted in the crate of food sliding across the floor a few inches. “I wouldn’t mind some, especially if it’s the real deal.”
“Oh, it’s the real deal,” Lilah assured him with a grin. “Champagne with a capital C. I’ll go down and get it.”
Ridley looked at Dad. “Um … I don’t think we have appropriate glassware.” Legitimate Champagne was worth an appalling amount of money, given the tiny section of the Champagne area that had survived the Cataclysm and how little of the alcoholic beverage was produced these days. It seemed all kinds of wrong to drink it out of a cheap wine glass, and they didn’t even have enough of those for everyone.