“Oh, Archer’s already out here,” Lilah said. “I left him on top of that half-demolished cinema before coming to get you.”
Ridley pinned Lilah with a glare. “You mean I could have spent all this time with him instead of supervising your pyromania?”
“Don’t try to pretend this wasn’t fun,” Lilah argued. “You brought down that water tower like a kid knocking over a pile of blocks. Which is to say,” she added, “that you did it with great delight.”
Instead of arguing further, Ridley launched herself into the air and swept back toward the city, sensing Lilah close behind her. The half-demolished cinema she’d mentioned was near the edge of the wastelands. As she drew near, she spotted Archer sitting on the highest point of the remaining structure, a commscreen in one hand and his back against a curved piece of concrete that had once been part of the building’s roof design.
Ridley landed a little lower down on the roof and looked up. From this angle, she could see the small line between Archer’s brows and the intense focus on his face. Something about the way he sat there, one arm draped over one knee, entirely absorbed in whatever he was reading and oblivious to everything else, made her love him even more. Internally, she rolled her eyes at herself. Everything about him made her love him more. It was kind of ridiculous.
“Hey,” Lilah said quietly, catching Ridley’s arm before she could climb up to Archer. “You know that long list titled Things Lilah Was Mean To Ridley About? I, uh …” She ran a hand through her hair, which was somehow still sleek and glossy even after all her wild elemental antics. “I need to add Archer to it. I know I said you were like all those other silly girls, falling for his charming ways and then ending up with a broken heart, and—”
“And that’s exactly what happened,” Ridley said. “Sort of. I mean, I thought that’s what happened. And before you said it—before anything even happened between Archer and me—I was already thinking it. I was very much aware of that long list of girls, and I didn’t want to add myself to it. You weren’t doing anything more than voicing my fears out loud.”
“Okay, but I still shouldn’t have said it. At least, not in the way I said it. I was …”
“Hurt?” Ridley asked. She’d figured out that that was where most cruel comments came from.
“Yes. My dear big brother told me I shouldn’t be friends with the girl whose dad used to be a magicist, and I listened to him. So you and I spent years at odds with each other. And then he returned after being away for so long, all secretive and refusing to share anything with me, and then showed up at that party with you as his date. And it was like …” She shook her head, her brow creasing. “I don’t know, like I was losing my brother and my friend all over again. I just felt really … alone.”
“I’m sorry,” Ridley said.
“I’m the one who’s trying to apologize here, Rid,” Lilah answered with a laugh.
“I know, but I’m sorry too. You may not have heard any of the nasty comments I made about you over the years, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t make them. So yeah, I’m sorry too.”
“Well, anyway, the thing I actually wanted to say—since I noticed you staring so adoringly at Archer—is that I’m happy for the two of you.”
“Adoringly, huh?” Archer said, and Ridley looked around to see that he’d climbed down a foot or two. He extended a hand toward her.
“Whatever,” she said, her face flushing, but she reached for his hand and let him pull her up. “I was looking at—the sunset.”
“Sure you were.” He tugged her closer and wound both arms around her waist. “You two took your time getting here.”
Ridley gave him a careless shrug and a teasing smile. “I guess we had better things to do.”
Archer leaned down and pressed a long, lingering kiss to her lips. “Better than that?” he asked quietly, mouth close to hers still.
“No,” she whispered, “but don’t tell Lilah.”
“I’m right here,” Lilah announced flatly. “I can hear you both. Where’s that bag with the drinks?”
“Behind that broken bit of concrete there,” Archer said, removing one arm from around Ridley so he could point. He sat and pulled her down next to him, sliding his commscreen into his pocket.
“I thought we were too far from the city here to connect to any network,” she said.
“We are. I was reading.”
“All right, first up,” Lilah said, sitting on Ridley’s other side and placing a backpack in front of her, “we have another one from Alastair Davenport’s private collection.” She produced a bottle of red wine, followed by three plastic wine glasses. “Dad would be horrified we’re drinking out of plastic.”
“I doubt he knows we even own those,” Archer commented.
“When you say ‘first up,’” Ridley said, “are you telling me there’s more inside that bag?”
“Just some sparkling water. Oh, and that coconut pineapple combo my mom loves. Plus snacks. Don’t worry, Rid.” She nudged Ridley’s arm. “I’m not planning for us to get drunk out here. Just enjoy a good vintage, watch the sun go down, and fly back home without crashing into anything.”
“Sounds perfect,” Ridley said, watching as Lilah gathered up some wisps of her own magic and began a conjuration. She wove the magic around the top of the wine bottle, and the next thing—pop—the corked jumped free.
“Where’d you learn that?” Archer asked.
“I looked it up.”
“Where? Nothing’s been legalized yet.”
“I happen to be capable of accessing hidden information online,” Lilah informed him. She poured wine into the plastic glasses lined up on the roof in front of her. She passed a glass to Ridley and one to Archer. Then she lifted her own, held it beneath her nose, and inhaled deeply. She breathed out of her mouth. “Mm. Cigar box.”
Ridley snorted. Archer reached around her and tugged Lilah’s hair. “Don’t be so pretentious.”
“Hey!” Lilah leaned across Ridley and punched Archer’s arm.
“Woah, hey!” Ridley held both hands up, her wine sloshing dangerously close to the top of her glass. “What happened to enjoying a good vintage and a sunset?”
“I was enjoying a good vintage,” Lilah grumbled, “before I was rudely interrupted.” But she turned her face toward the city, swirled her wine, and took a sip.
Ridley met Archer’s eyes, then bit her lip to keep her laughter in. She happened to agree with the ‘pretentious’ comment. Archer put one arm around her shoulders, and she snuggled against his side as she tasted the wine. “Better than a kiddie grape juice pouch,” she said.
“Definitely,” Lilah answered with a laugh. Then she sighed and added, “Doesn’t this take you back in time? The three of us hanging out together, like we used to do before the Cataclysm?”
“Yeah,” Ridley murmured. “Minus the wine.”
“And minus us all sitting together,” Archer said. “Back in the day, it would have been you two playing together and me very definitely not playing with you.”