“You’ll be a natural,” I said.
“You better be right about this,” James said. “Because if we don’t nail Butler, this is all over.” He swept a hand around us, indicating the office.
“It’s so sweet of you to act like you care about that,” I said.
I didn’t miss how James’s attention gravitated to his shoes, as if they were fascinating objects he’d never seen before. That was interesting.
“What do we do now?” Devin asked. “Please don’t say ‘nothing.’ I don’t want to just sit around all weekend.”
Right. SmallvilleGuy was waiting. “Now you and I are going into the game. A . . . friend tipped me off that something’s happening in there. We should probably be careful when we go in.”
“I’m a King,” Devin said. “I don’t do caution.”
“Your secret is out,” I said.
“They don’t play, so they don’t even know what that means,” Devin countered with a grin. But I didn’t miss his worried glance over at James.
Would James recognize his holoset? There was a little red dot on one side, but it seemed like it had come that way.
I rummaged in my bag and pulled it out, sat down in my chair and slipped it over my ear. My shoulder ached with phantom pain like when I’d been shot. Devin already had his holoset on, but hadn’t powered up yet.
Maddy said, “We just sit here and watch you guys? Boring.”
James’s eyes narrowed, and he said, “Or I could ask Lois for my holoset back and go in with Devin instead.”
Devin and I exchanged a guilty look. “I need to do this,” I said, “and I was just borrowing it.” Devin didn’t say anything, so I went on. “And Devin said you’ve never even used it since he set it up. Is that true?”
James nodded, annoyed again.
I said, “And you’d be playing as an elvish princess named Lo.”
James blinked. I thought for a second he’d take me up on it to be testy. But he said, “Go on, use it.”
“Um . . . thanks?” I was tentative. Thanking James felt weird. But he didn’t even exert himself to toss back a “you’re welcome,” so I wouldn’t be doing it again anytime soon.
Devin reached up to tap the button on his holoset, but waited with his finger poised. “Ready?” he asked.
I nodded, and we pressed our holosets on at the same time. I started, “Remember, be care—”
But as the gamescape replaced the dim Morgue, the words died in my throat.
Worlds War Three was on fire. I felt the ground tremble, then shake, under my still-bare elf feet.
I looked frantically around to find Devin, and there he was, a few feet away from me. Wearing a royal purple tunic with chainmail and plate armor, and an ornate, if tastefully small, crown. He stood, regally gaping.
I gaped too. It wasn’t the whole world that was burning.
It was only Devin’s kingdom.
His castle lay in ruins, flames licking from the openings along the tower walls, and much of the rest nothing but rubble. The proud flag that bore Devin’s likeness had been ripped and burned almost to shreds. I could barely make out his image on it.
All that was left was an impression of his silhouette, like he was a ghost.
A hand touched my arm, and Devin stopped staring and sprang into motion. He drew a long sword from a sheath covered in scrolled metalwork. It was augmented with a gun barrel on top of the blade.
“Stop right there!” he ordered, leveling the sword gun at the newcomer.
Devin made a kingly presence, defending his castle and me.
Unfortunately he was pointing his sword-gun at SmallvilleGuy, who wasn’t the source of the devastation.
“Devin, this is my friend,” I choked out through the growing haze of smoke that surrounded us. Funny how my throat was so easily convinced it was real. “He’s not responsible.”
Devin hesitated a second before lowering the sword. “He’s the one who told you about this? Asked us to meet him?”
SmallvilleGuy came closer, not intimidated by the monarch who’d threatened him, though in the game he was a gawky alien who should have been. He reached up to resettle his rectangular glasses, a tiny giveaway that maybe he was nervous beneath his cool. “That’s me. And I’m the one who was with her the other night when we ran interference with the Warheads. Good call on making her elvish royalty.”
I felt like I should be blushing, and then realized with horror that my elvish princess cheeks might be reddening. “Did you see who did this? It was them, wasn’t it?”
Because who else would have? And it was more evidence they might turn on Devin next.
It was as if SmallvilleGuy read my mind and saw the concerns there.
“Yes, they were single-minded about it,” SmallvilleGuy said. “Eyes only for Devin’s property, even when other characters showed up to loot the ruins.”