I hated to agree with him, but he had a point. Being born into magic didn’t make one any better than a non-magical person, morally or otherwise. The Iron Queen and Old Stoney had proven that beyond a shadow of a doubt. Before I could say as much, Jerome started flinging open the metal lockers.
“There’s food in here and a well out back,” he said without looking at us. “You’ll want to drink a lot of water to flush out the drugs. There probably wasn’t much in the food they left you, if you didn’t taste them.”
“Those cookies tasted like crap,” Sadie muttered.
“Yeah, well, all our food tastes like crap.” With that, Jerome grabbed a bucket and headed outside, presumably toward the well. I glanced into the lockers—the food consisted of dried fruit and meat, perfect for long-term storage and a veritable banquet after the cookies we’d been subsisting on. I grabbed a packet of beef jerky and followed Jerome out of the cave.
I went the wrong way at first, but a splash told me where the well and Jerome were. I found him just as he was hauling up the bucket—he’d taken off his flak jacket, and through his thin brown T-shirt I could see the muscles work in his shoulders and back. He had a nice body, and coupled with his dark curls and eyes he was pretty attractive. Maybe I could hook him up with Sadie.
“I’m sorry,” I said to his back. “I shouldn’t have jumped down your throat like that.”
“Peacekeepers are assholes.” He grabbed the bucket and set it on the well’s edge. “It’s only natural that you think I’m one.”
“You’re not,” I said. “This rescue, being part of the resistance…” I spread my hands, trying to encompass everything that had happened in the past few days. “What you did for us is pretty amazing.”
Jerome flashed me a grin. “Yeah, us resistance folks are pretty cool.” He filled a dipper with water and offered it to me. “So, you’re a missus now?”
“Sure am,” I said, extending my arm and showing off my shiny new wedding ring.
“Too bad you stood me up for our date. Maybe I could have swayed you,” he said, waggling his eyebrows.
I laughed, more at his ridiculous expression than at the concept of me dating him. “I’d already met Micah by then,” I said. “I thought he’d been captured by you guys. That’s why I was driving like a lunatic that morning on Real Estate Row.”
“I remember,” he said with a nod. “So tell me about him.”
“Micah? Well, he’s an elf lord in the Otherworld.”
Jerome whistled. “Yeah, you said that. So he’s not a lame corporal like me?”
I ignored that question. “And he’s sweet, and kind, and the most handsome man I’ve ever met.” Jerome raised an eyebrow. Okay, maybe I was gushing. “He’s a metal Elemental like me, but he’s of silver. He even lives in a silver manor. But we’re adding some copper,” I added.
“How did a nice office worker like you manage to fall in with the Lord of Silver?”
I was so not telling Jerome that story. “Oh, you know. The usual ways. Let’s bring Max and Sadie some water.”
16
While Jerome showed Max and Sadie what was in the various lockers and drawers, I sat near a small propane cooking unit. It was blazing, and I’d balanced a pot on it filled with well water and some shredded beef jerky. Thanks to the drugs that had ravaged his body while he was at the Institute, Max’s digestive system still had a hard time processing heavy foods like meat, so I was trying to boil down the jerky to broth so he could get some much-needed protein into his body. I’d even added some dried cherries, hoping the bright fruit flavor would mask what would probably be the worst-tasting soup in history.
As I stirred the pot, I thought about Micah. Or rather, my relationship with Micah. While I wasn’t ready to say anything out loud, least of all with Jerome around, my train of thought was bringing me to less-than-desirable places.
This endless circle of destruction began when Jerome had asked me about Micah. Micah. He had to be worried sick. I thought about him pacing the manor, coordinating a search party, racking his brain for where Dad would take the three of us. Unless…
My heart clenched. Unless he thought I’d abandoned him, traveled with Max and Sadie and Dad to the Mundane realm not just to stop the Peacekeepers but to build a new life. Without him. The thought chilled me. He’d wonder why I hadn’t said anything to him or left him a message with Shep. But he should trust you enough to know you’d come back—you left with Sadie and Max and Dad!