Elemental Thief

Chapter 4

Ridley wiped the shock from her face and replaced it with an innocent smile. "Lilah. How nice to see you here. It's been ... what? Ten years?"

On the far side of the room, Lilah Davenport's gaze slid slowly from one display case to the next. "Probably more."

"I'm surprised you remembered how to get here," Ridley added, knowing she should keep her mouth shut and finding herself utterly unable to follow her own good instincts.

"I didn't," Lilah said. She waved her commscreen at Ridley as she stalked between the tables and cabinets. "Some tiny corner of the net seemed to remember this place still exists and showed the car where to go."

"Lovely," Ridley said, her overly fake smile stretching wider as she forced herself to keep her fists hidden behind the desk. She knew she should be afraid right now. Her mind should be racing back over the events of the afternoon, working furiously to figure out whether there was any possibility of a camera in the Davenports' apartment having seen her face. But all Ridley felt was heat in her veins and a heavy pulse pounding in her ears.

Lilah looked over her shoulder at the door, then turned her frown back to the table of candlestick holders and teaspoons in front of her. She was dressed more casually now than when Ridley had seen her earlier, but even in jeans and a sweater she managed to look glamorous. Perhaps it was her perpetually glossy hair. Or her perfect posture. Or—

The bell over the door jangled again. Ridley looked toward it, and her jaw just about hit her chest. "Oh, there you are," Lilah said to her brother. "I thought you were right behind me."

The door swung closed behind Archer Davenport as he wandered past an eighty-eight-year-old wrought iron side table toward Lilah, his gaze traveling lazily across the store's contents. "Just checking the takeout options in this area. How do you feel about Chinese?"

"From this part of town?" Lilah wrinkled her nose. Ridley might have thrown something at her if shock wasn't still rooting her to the spot.

Archer shrugged. "Yeah, why not? It's not exactly the Ju-long Bar, but how bad can it be?" He finally deigned to look across the room at Ridley. With a small nod, he said, "Hey," before looking away.

Which was actually quite something, Ridley had to admit. He'd barely spoken a word to her since the Cataclysm. Where have you been? she almost blurted out. It was the question everyone would ask the moment they realized he'd returned. Archer had left Lumina City at the beginning of last summer as soon as he'd graduated high school, and it seemed not even his friends knew where he'd gone. The most popular rumor was that he'd run off to get away from his overbearing parents so he could continue his partying playboy lifestyle in peace. Ridley saw a few holes in that theory, but in truth, she was just as clueless as everyone else.

"Fine, whatever," Lilah said. "We can get Chinese here. Anyway." She turned to face Ridley as if they'd been in the middle of a conversation when Archer walked in. "It's our mother's birthday tomorrow, and with everything that's—" She cut herself off, her expression faltering for only a moment before she smoothly went on. "We both forgot. I was just going to pop out to Voletti's quickly, but Archer reminded me that Mom already has all the scarves she could possibly want and that we should get something different. He remembered she likes quaint old things." She looked around, her eyes landing on a midnight blue masquerade mask that definitely wasn't an antique, though it was almost as old as Ridley, and added, "I told him this place was always more of a secondhand shop than a genuine antique store, but he didn't listen. So here we are."

Ridley nodded slowly, focusing more on Lilah's story than on her barely disguised insult. It might be true that it was Mrs. Davenport's birthday tomorrow. Or the real reason that Lilah and Archer had come all the way to the butt end of Demmer District could be that they'd noticed the missing figurine and taken a close look at their home's security footage. Was Lilah waiting for the perfect moment to reveal that she knew exactly what Ridley had done? If so, she was taking her sweet time. She walked slowly through the store, humming quietly as Archer stood with his arms crossed, reading something on his commscreen.