Page 99 of Echos and Empires
It was out. The message. The truth. It didn’t matter how badly things went to shit before, didn’t matter that Chris had to sit back and wait while she took the reins and showed them whatshe was made of. The only thing that mattered now was whether the message would hold long enough for them to get out alive.
The fury in his chest mixed with hope, a volatile combination that was as dangerous as it was intoxicating. As long as Emma was alive, as long as they still had a shot at getting back to her, he’d keep holding on.
“Who else would they listen to?” he said, his tone more defensive than he meant it to be.
He didn’t know if the people would take her words to heart, if they’d care enough about the truth to not retaliate, to not fight back with the same viciousness they had before. But he had to believe it would mean something. He had to trust that the danger was worth it.
Because his family was worth fighting for.
“There will be no democracy, not because the island doesn’t need it, but because that’s not how these things work. Not when there’s been so much evil.”
Emma’s voice cut through the static, loud and determined, and suddenly changed tone. Chris went still, a fresh wave of panic flooding through him.
“What the hell is she doing?” Chris asked, his eyes locked on the radio.
He didn’t think Liam heard him. Didn’t think anything could cut through the intensity of Emma’s voice.
Nothing but the end of the transmission.
“Life will be harder without Victor’s money. It won’t be like it was, but it will be what it needs to be,” Emma said, her voice steady, carrying a certainty Chris didn’t feel.
“Chris Reeden will take over leadership of the island until at such time it has been determined we can all trust one another and a more suitable leader can be selected by a vote. There is none among us more qualified to lead than the man who led expeditions across a broken wasteland for three years. Who keptan entire boat full of women and children safe, and who ensured I had the tools I needed to protect myself when Victor tried to kill me just an hour ago.”
Chris’s fists clenched tighter as he listened to Emma’s words, unprepared for the bomb she dropped on him, unprepared for her to tell everyone he was the one in charge, that he was the one responsible for their lives, for everything going forward. How could she expect that of him? He hadn’t been prepared for Victor. He hadn’t been prepared for the last minute twist of her letting him believe she’d gone soft, then sending him the hardest blow of all. He couldn’t even think straight, couldn’t even focus as her voice rang out, telling them to meet at the pier.
“I repeat, Chris is in charge now.”
“She just—” Liam started, but Chris cut him off, his anger getting the better of him.
“I heard her. I know.” Chris’s teeth clenched together so hard the scar on his cheek pulsed with life.
How the hell could she put this on him? After everything. After the way he let her down. It should have not be him. But Emma wasn’t going to make it that easy.
Chris struggled to make sense of it, to keep up, to not get lost in the whirlwind she’d thrown at him.
“The government never found us, will never find us unless we want them to in our own time,” Emma said, her tone suddenly calm, more vulnerable. “Meet on the pier tomorrow. Begin again. This message will repeat on a loop every two minutes for the next twenty-four hours.”
And then she was gone, the signal dead, her voice silent. Chris sat there, stunned, the weight of her words pressing down on him, pressing him to make a decision. Pressing him to pick up the pieces. Pressing him to not let her down again.
Beside him, Liam still snickered, a sound that grated against Chris’s nerves, against the anger and confusion that twistedinside him. “What’s so funny?” he asked, though he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
“You are,” Liam said, the laughter still in his voice. “I think she just gave you a promotion.”
Chris shook his head, his mind reeling. “That wasn’t the plan,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
“The plan was to get the message out. She did that. She did a hell of a lot more.”
“Yeah,” Chris said, the doubt creeping back in, gnawing at the edges of his hope. “But what if?—”
“She’s picked the best person, Chris. You know that.”
He wanted to believe that. He wanted to believe the words they heard on the radio were ones he could honor the way she seemed to think he could.
He’d never felt so out of control in his life.
Chris rubbed his temple, trying to ease the pounding, trying to think straight from pain that had nothing to do with cracking his head on a fucking boulder hours before. “We’ve got a lot to do. Supplies to gather. Routes to plan. Who knows what it’ll be like when we get back to the main portion and my fucking head is killing me.”
“At least they’ll know who’s in charge,” Liam said, a teasing edge to his voice.
