Page 67 of Echos and Empires (After #3)

“I repeat, the vitamins won’t do anything,” Emma said again, her voice pleading, urging them to hear her. “They won’t help. You’ll just end up trapped on a sinking ship.”

Emma was unrelenting, fearless. It sent a charge through Liam, made his pain feel smaller, the uncertainty less crushing. He should have known better than to doubt her. He should have known better than to think for a second that she’d be anything but incredible.

“The island wasn’t giving anyone what they were looking for. It wasn’t safe,” Emma continued, her determination so strong it felt like he could reach out and touch it. “Weren’t safe.”

Liam tried to imagine the people listening on the other end, tried to picture their reactions as she dismantled Victor’s promises, as she tore down everything they thought they knew.

Would they even care? Would they just write it off as another desperate attempt to shift the balance of power, to scramble for what little was left?

He shook his head, pushed the thought away. It would do him no good to dwell on it, not when the signal was still strong, her voice still clear. Not when Chris was right, and they’d done everything they could.

And it sure as hell wouldn’t do him any good to admit that the pain was making it all worse.

Liam looked at Chris again, but he was focused, intense, his eyes fixed on the radio. It was impossible to know what was going on in his head, if he was having the same doubts as Liam, or if he was as unshakeable as he seemed.

But it didn’t matter, not really. Not when they had Emma’s words and the hard, determined truths she sent out into the world.

“Victor was never going to save you,” Emma said, a finale to her tone that sent a shiver through Liam.

“He was never going to save anyone. Victor Warrington created the very bombs that destroyed humanity.” A long pause.

“He ordered them to be dropped. He destroyed the world to build it up in his image. So he could play god”

The strength in her voice was unwavering, and Liam felt something tighten in his chest as he listened. Hope. He didn’t know if he could stand the wait to find out if anyone else felt it, too.

“We have all the proof, and there’s many on the island who were complicit with his ministrations. These islands were not created to be the safe haven they promised, almost nothing was. But now, with Victor dead, they can become what they were supposed to be all along.”

Chris could barely hear Emma as she spoke with more courage and passion than anyone he’d ever heard.

He was too busy being furious at Victor, furious at himself, furious that he was here and not with Emma.

The ache in his head and his leg, the frustration of listening to Emma speak into the void of the radio airwaves, was more than enough to remind him how badly it went wrong.

Victor got the fucking jump on him and Emma and Ranger almost paid the ultimate price.

You didn’t even see it coming.

He had Liam to thank for her safety, for keeping her alive.

Months ago he’d told Liam to save Emma at all costs, and he’d done it.

He didn’t love her more than anyone else, Chris knew that, but somehow, he fought harder.

Chris didn’t like admitting it, but part of the reason their unique unit worked was because Emma did in fact love different things about each of them.

And he failed her in a way he could never forgive. Three damn times. But that was what life had given them, and now, finally, they were safe once and for all.

But right now, all Chris wanted to do was listen to Emma’s voice, ignore the fury and frustration, and hear her tell them they had a chance.

He listened as best as he could as she spoke about the dangers of being totally cut off. Then, she started going off script, and every nerve in his body went tense as she warned of the dangers of being sheep in a herd.

It sounded different, all of it. The words. The way she spoke them. So unlike the Emma he’d first known, the one he’d drawn out of hiding, the one who begged them to let her try this on her own. Her strength shouldn’t have surprised him. But it did, every single time.

He’d been ambushed before. The difference was, he’d always seen it coming. Always had the chance to strike first, always stayed ten steps ahead of the enemy.

Not this time.

“Never should’ve left her,” Chris muttered, the words more to himself than to Liam.

Liam heard him anyway. “She’s doing it,” he said, the usual brightness in his voice shadowed by worry. “It won’t mean shit if they don’t listen.”

“They’ll listen.”

“You really think so?”

Chris gritted his teeth, the pressure building in his temples, in his chest. “They don’t have a choice. Something tells me she’ll keep speaking on a loop until someone tells her to stop. Which Alex or William likely will never do.”

Emma kept talking, each word a jolt that reverberated through him, past the pain and frustration, deeper than anything had a right to go.

“Again, for those who haven’t been listening since the start of this transmission, I will repeat myself.You need to know this.

The bombs. The explosions. It wasn’t the government setting them off. It’s Vincent.”

The words hit Chris hard, the truth of it, the audacity of it. Every time it was spoken aloud it destroyed him.

Chris turned his focus back to the radio, to the words Emma sent out across the island to anyone with a radio. The words that would either save them all or put them in more danger than they could handle.

“The island isn’t safe. It never was,” she said, a fierceness in her voice that sent a shiver through him. “Victor Warrington betrayed and lied to us all. He’s been behind all of it.”

She’d begun again repeating the message as they’d discussed on the drive over, in case people went to get others to listen in.

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 what she 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 kept an 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 twisted inside 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.