Elemental Thief

Chapter 13

Ridley's mind remained fixed on the flash drive hiding in her pocket as she paced Kayne's Antiques for most of the morning. Even while cleaning the graffiti someone had decided to decorate their front door with during the night, she couldn't turn her thoughts away from the one piece of evidence proving her friend wasn't a murderer. She scrubbed away every letter of the word 'magicist'—a slur that showed up on the exterior of their building at least once every few months—and went back inside the store to continue her pacing.

By the time Dad returned around midday, she was itching to leave. She told him she was heading out to Meera's, which was, in fact, partly true. She would go to Meera's straight after sharing the video that was currently burning a figurative hole in her pocket. She kissed Dad's cheek, then hurried upstairs to grab her jacket with the hood.

Half an hour later, she was inside the Davenports' apartment. Magic made it ridiculously easy. She found Mrs. Davenport sitting primly on the edge of a couch engrossed in something on her commscreen, which definitely wasn't ideal. After confirming that no one else was home, Ridley hid in the guest bathroom for a while, wondering whether to risk going into Archer's room when it was possible his mother could walk in at any moment. Fortunately, after about ten minutes, Mrs. Davenport asked the home auto system to send one of their cars out to the front of the building, and then she left.

Ridley listened to the beep of the security system arming itself, but decided not to bother with disarming it this time. She was invisible as she left the bathroom, so none of the beams protecting the artifact collection would detect her. Instead, she headed straight for the passageway and the bedrooms. As she neared the room belonging to Archer, she relaxed and let herself become visible. There were no cameras or beams in this part of the home. She remembered Lilah giving her a tour of the apartment years ago, pointing out every security device and then telling Ridley, "But bedrooms are private obviously. Mom didn't want robots watching her in this part of the house."

She entered Archer's bedroom, which was a lot tidier than she remembered it being years ago when she spent so much of her time in this apartment. Almost everything inside this room had changed, but it was definitely still his. She caught herself thinking, It smells like him, before reminding herself what a weird thing that was to notice. With an involuntary shiver, she hurried to the sleek white desk and the screen that sat on top of it. With one finger, she tapped the surface of the desk where the faint outline of a keyboard was visible. The keyboard and screen both lit up, the screen displaying nothing but a background forest scene. No password, Ridley thought with relief. If it was Lilah's computer she was trying to use, she doubted she would have been as lucky.

She pulled the chair forward and sat. Then she swiped her forefinger in an upward motion across the screen. She scrolled through the various apps until she located the social feeds collection, then opened the top one. Next, she removed the flash drive from inside her jacket, reached behind the screen, and plugged the flash drive in. She located the file and began the upload. Within seconds, it was sitting there in the preview window, waiting for Ridley to write a caption to go with it.

She sucked in a breath. Then she lowered her hands to the keyboard and began typing.

This may be a mistake, but I can't keep quiet about it any longer. I can't live with the guilt of knowing an innocent guy is taking the fall for a crime he didn't commit. So here it is. Unaltered. The video showing what really happened in Demmer District three nights ago.

Ridley leaned back and read the message once more. Then she reached toward the screen, her finger hovering near the share button. Lilah would hate her for this, especially after she'd gone to the trouble of tracking down this video for Ridley. Archer would be furious too, though he wouldn't know who to direct his fury at—unless Lilah told him. But the Davenport siblings had done enough to ruin Ridley's chance at a normal life after the Cataclysm that messing with theirs didn't bother her too much. And the public already knew Archer was in the alley at the time of the murder. This video didn't change that. If anything, the way Ridley had written the post made Archer come across as the good guy in all of this. The guy who wanted the truth to be made known. The guy who wanted to save an innocent person from a life in prison.

It was too bad Archer Davenport was pretty much the opposite of that kind of guy.

With that final bitter thought, Ridley tapped the share button. She watched as the video popped up at the top of the feed. Then she opened Archer's email, typed in the various news channel contact details she'd looked up while pacing the antique store that morning, and forwarded the video to them with the same message.

Then she stood and pushed the chair back in. She pulled her sleeve down over her right hand and wiped the fabric across the computer screen and over the smooth surface of the keyboard to remove any trace of her fingerprints. Finally, she stepped out of the room and pulled the door back to the exact position it had been in when she arrived.

She turned, magic pulsing through her veins, her skin glowing blue for a moment before she vanished entirely. Then she moved down the passage, her invisible heart thumping a little too fast at the thought of what she'd just done, and made her way out of the penthouse.