Copper Veins(19)

“Can’t do that,” Max said. “If it wasn’t for Micah, I might still be the Institute’s favorite lab rat.” I noticed that Max wouldn’t look at Dad while he said it, but Dad was nonplussed.

“Pay your debts, son,” Dad said. “As I’ve always said, Baudoin Corbeau pays his debts.”

I didn’t remember Dad ever saying that, but whatever. Maybe he’d taken up gambling over the last decade and a half, probably around the same time he took up tea drinking. Then, the four of us were out the door. Thanks to the metal pathways, a few heartbeats later we were standing before the shining entrance of the Gold Court.

“A bit gaudy,” Mom murmured as we strode inside, none of us bothering to give our names. It’s not like we weren’t expected. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t even think—all I knew was that Micah was at the end of this endless hallway and that he needed me.

We burst into Oriana’s throne room and found Micah seated at a small round table, having tea and cake with the lunatic queen. Okay, perhaps his predicament wasn’t quite as dire as I’d expected.

“Micah!” I cried. He stood as I rushed forward. A gold warrior stepped in front of me, and I darted around him, muttering something rude about melting him down for jewelry. Then I was in Micah’s arms, thanking all the gods that ever were that he was safe.

“What happened?” I demanded. “I got back and you were gone! Sadie said—”

“Yes, I was apprehended,” Micah murmured, kissing the top of my head. “Luckily, your mother brokered the excellent terms of my imprisonment.”

“I said that if she did more to Micah than have tea and scones with him, I’d see her head placed atop a pike,” Mom said, coming to stand next to us. “I told you a queen’s oath was sound,” she added, nodding to the tea service.

“I have never gone back on my word, though my cook has no notion of what a scone might be,” Oriana said in a huff. “Cake was all he could manage on such short notice.”

“She was quite put out for a time,” Micah murmured. “When at last I told her that cake would do, she nearly fainted with relief.”

“What a good prisoner you were,” I murmured, pressing a kiss to his jaw.

Oriana rose from the well-appointed table and descended the dais. She was wearing the parchment-colored robe that we’d last seen her in, but this time it was open, and she wore a long blue gown cinched with a gold belt beneath it. If I hadn’t been so incensed, I would have mentioned how the gown complemented her eyes. “Surely, Maeve, you knew I wouldn’t. Of all monarchs, you are well and truly aware of the power of an oath or two.” Oriana went on, babbling praise for my mother. I wondered if she’d ask for an autograph.

“What kind of a queen were you?” I whispered.

“Bloodthirsty,” Mom replied, loudly enough to startle Oriana into silence. “I find that thirst’s not yet quenched. Goldie—”

“Oriana,” the queen corrected. Not that Mom cared.

“Why have you seen fit to apprehend the Lord of Silver?” Mom finished. “And to carry him off while his wife’s away, for shame.”

“I had no choice,” Oriana insisted. “What if they continued to plot against me?”

“They?” It was my turn to demand answers. “They who?”

“Why, Micah and the Inheritor,” Oriana replied as if the answer was obvious. “I must know if there is treachery afoot.”

“Afoot?” I repeated. “Weren’t we just here this morning, denouncing all such treachery?”

“Yes, yes, you were,” Oriana allowed, “but I have been waiting since then. I do hate to wait.”

Before I could start screaming, Micah murmured in my ear, “Since we departed, she has been expecting Sadie to arrive and pledge her loyalty.” An image of Oriana, waiting by the front door for the Inheritor of Metal to pop by, bubbled to the forefront of my mind. I laughed and burrowed deeper into his arms.

“Is that what this is all about?”

“You see, love, whenever you walk away from me in anger, bad things follow,” Micah said, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear. “Never leave me again.”

“Never?” I asked, cocking my head at him. “I walked away so I wouldn’t yell at you.”

“I would rather endure a lifetime of your shouting than another moment of this insanity,” he replied. I laid my head on Micah’s shoulder—after the ridiculous time I’d just spent in the Mundane realm, I agreed.

Oriana cleared her throat, reminding Micah and me that there were other issues at hand than our quarrel. I leaned around Micah so I could see the queen and asked, “So, why didn’t you take Sadie as well? She’s the one you’ve got a beef with.”