Elemental Thief

Chapter 15

"What have I done?" Ridley repeated as Archer stepped past her and shoved the library door open. He grabbed her arm and pulled her in after him.

"You stole a priceless artifact from my home," he said, releasing her before she could tug her arm free. "And you posted a video that should never have been made public."

She hesitated, utterly baffled as to how he knew she was the one who'd done these things. "Even if it were true that I posted the video," she said eventually, ignoring Archer's first statement, "what are you so concerned about? It's not like it showed you doing anything wrong. You're still off the hook."

"How did you even get hold of it?" he demanded. "My father said that all trace of the original footage was gone."

"How did I get hold of it? You're joking, right?"

He brought one fist down on the librarian's desk. "Do I look like I'm joking?"

"You seriously don't know the things that happen under your own roof?" Ridley asked. But even as she said the words, she remembered Lilah hiding one laptop in her bottom dresser drawer and the other behind a pile of books at the top of a bookshelf. If you tell anyone what you think I spend my spare time doing, Lilah had said to her, I will make sure you pay.

Archer's eyes narrowed. "I know you were in my bedroom this evening using my computer to post that video. And since you were stupid enough to wear the exact same jacket as the mysterious thief who stole that figurine a few nights ago, I now know that mysterious thief was you."

"You don't know—"

"I do know, Ridley. It was you who walked past the camera in my bedroom."

Her mouth dropped open. "You have a camera in your bedroom?" she blurted out. "Okay, that's just creepy."

Archer's gaze grew darker. "Think whatever you want to think."

"I'm trying not to, actually. I'd rather not imagine the things you like to record in your own—"

"Ridley!" he shouted. "You have no idea what a mess you've created. Apart from the video, which I had to get creative about when explaining things to my father—"

"Oh, poor Archer," she sneered. "Did I make a mess for you? I guess that's what you get for going along with framing an innocent person instead of telling the truth from the start."

He leaned dangerously close to her and lowered his voice. "I had nothing to do with that. And did you ever stop to think that maybe your friend isn't so innocent?"

"No, I did not stop to think that. I don't know about the kind of people you hang out with, but my friends aren't the type who kill people!"

Archer swung away from her, his hands clenching into fists. Several silent moments passed before he turned back to her, his jaw set. "Just forget about the stupid video. I need the figurine, okay? That's all that matters right now."

"Why? What's so important about one stupid artifact from the old world? Your family owns so many of those kinds of things I'm surprised you even noticed it was—" She stopped then, her mouth half open and her body suddenly drenched in goosebumps as she remembered something: She'd used magic when going in and out of Archer's bedroom this afternoon. And Archer had cameras she didn't know about, which meant he now knew her biggest secret.

"What's so important," Archer said, "is that you don't get to take things that don't belong to you. Which means you need to give it back."

No, she told herself. He couldn't have seen her magic. She'd only used it while in the passageway and not inside his bedroom. He would have said something by now if he knew about it.