Dad sighed. “The man you married has been gone for a long time.”
And the cracks in my heart deepened. It was all too much, way too much, especially when you heaped it on top of the worst week I’d had in a long time. Micah reached for my hand, but what Dad had said about him hardly knowing me rang in my ears. Hell, I didn’t even know how we had really met.
“Too much,” I mumbled, then I left the room without another word.
24
I walked straight out of the dining room, through the parlor, and out the front door, not stopping until I was in the center of the meadow that sloped toward the village. The space was dominated by a large oak, one that reminded me of the fairy tree that stood behind the Raven Compound. I used to go to that tree to think, too.
My mind was spinning, careening in a hundred different directions all at once. I seriously considered digging a hole and crawling inside, hiding until aeverything wrong had itself. Instead, I leaned against the tree and tried to absorb some of its strength. I hadn’t been there long before Micah found me.
“Sara, what is it?” he asked.
“You want me to pick one thing?” I countered, throwing my hands up in the air. “Well, let’s see… I was held captive by Peacekeepers, beat up and pumped with all sorts of drugs, Dad wants Sadie to be some kind of a warlord, I think my parents might be breaking up—”
“No,” he cut in. “There is something deeper. Something with us.”
I bit my lip, wondering how he even knew. But then, Micah had always seemed to have a better handle on what was going on in my head than I did. “Did you do this to me?” I asked, holding up my wrist with the silver mark.
“No more than you did this to me,” Micah countered, displaying the copper that swirled around his own wrist. “Why are these marks upsetting you?”
“Dad made it seem like you forced the silver into me,” I mumbled. “Can Elementals even do that?”
Micah frowned, his brows nearly touching. “First of all, I have never once heard tell of an Elemental accepting a mark from another, metal or otherwise,” he said quietly. “If I had not seen our marks with my own eyes, I would doubt it still.” Micah cupped my face and drew me close to him. “Second, implying that I forced anything onto you is, frankly, repugnant.”
I cringed when he said forced, since it was at the heart of my other big issue. “I…I can’t remember how we met,” I whispered. “I mean, I know it was during that dream in my car, but I only remember the end. I can’t remember our first kiss, or how you even got into my car. I’ve tried, believe me I’ve tried, but everything’s blank.” Micah’s frown deepened, whether because I was a horrible person for not remembering such a momentous occasion or because he couldn’t imagine how one kiss could possibly matter so much, I couldn’t tell. “I didn’t know I was a Dreamwalker then, and once I realized what was going on, we were pretty far along. I…” I sighed and plowed on, “I just wish I knew how the dream had started.”
I walked away from him, raking my hands through my hair. “I know. It shouldn’t matter. It was just one kiss.”
“It matters.”
I turned and saw Micah’s slumped shoulders, his dejected face. “It’s not your fault,” I said in a rush. “It’s mine, for not remembering. I’m sorry.”
Micah watched me for a moment, his face guarded, then he stepped forward, so close I could feel his breath. Close enough to kiss. “I’d watched you before that day,” Micah began, his soft voice sending chills down my spine. “I’d watched you many times, sunning yourself in your mechanical. But that day, the day we met, you were so beautiful, lying there in the sun…I hoped you wanted me, but I wasn’t sure.”
“You’re never unsure,” I whispered.
“On occasion, I am.” With a single long finger Micah stroked my jawline. “Despite my uncertainties, I had to kiss you. I needed to kiss you.” He pressed his lips to mine, softly, sweetly. “But once was not enough.” He kissed me again, lingering a bit. “Then, the most extraordinary thing happened.”
“W—what was that?” I stammered, my knees having gone wobbly from all this unexpected romance.
“You kissed me back.” He was right, I’d done just that, and I did it again, sliding my arms around his neck. Micah’s arms glided over my shoulders and down my back, stroking my mark, pressing me against him. And you know what? It didn’t matter that I couldn’t exactly remember our first kiss. Micah had given me a new memory, one just as precious.