Copper Veins(68)

“I’m better,” I said, feeling my now-unswollen cheek. “Can I, um, do that to the rest of me?” I asked, glancing downward.

“Assuredly,” Micah replied. “Much as you can call metal to your physical form, you may instruct the metal in your body to leave your mark and attend any part of you that is unwell.”

“Huh.” I eyed Micah, kneeling over me on the bed. “Take off your shirt.” He cocked an eyebrow. “I think I’d like to practice on you.”

Micah wholeheartedly agreed with my plan. He stripped off his shirt and lay on his belly, and I amused myself by dragging bits of silver all across his body. I felt closer to him than I ever had, touching not only his skin, but that which lay beneath.

After I’d given him a silver moustache and covered his chest in silver polka dots, it was time to undo what the Queen’s Lace had done. We lay facing each other again, and Micah helped me guide my copper to where I needed it most. It was both intense and erotic, so much so that my hands trembled and sweat beaded on Micah’s upper lip. Luckily, I’m a fast learner, and Micah was an excellent teacher. By morning, the only evidence of my stupidity was the thick, itchy bandage wound around me.

“Are you sure?” Micah murmured when I expressed my dire need to bathe.

“I am,” I replied. To prove my newly robust state, I got out of bed, wobbling only a bit. I caught the bedpost before I stumbled too far. “Let’s go to the Clear Pool.”

Micah raised an eyebrow at that—since my family began living at the manor, and the silverkin had managed indoor plumbing, neither of us had bathed in the gardens except for a few late-night swims. The last thing we needed was for Mom—or Max—to find us splashing away.

“It’s what’s done, around here,” I mumbled, suddenly unsure. “And, since I’m the lady of the house and all, I need to get used to it. Besides, the water’s really warm.”

Micah smiled. “Very well. The Clear Pool it is.”

It was only just after dawn, and Micah and I only encountered the bare minimum of silverkin as we made our way to the palace gardens. That was good, since I hadn’t bothered putting anything on other than Micah’s shirt. Since it was one of his pirate shirts (I was still waiting for him to admit that he had no idea what a pirate was) it hung almost to my knees. My happiness at not encountering any of my family members faded once we reached the Clear Pool and Micah tried helping me out of my bandages.

“Who do you think put them on you?” he asked calmly as he unwound a length of linen. I looked away, well and truly mortified.

“I have no idea how I will ever make this up to you,” I mumbled. Then his hands were coaxing my arms upward, and he tugged the shirt up and over my head.

“I can think of a few things,” he said as he led me into the pool. The water was as warm and soothing as always. We waved our hellos to the Bright Lady, but we didn’t venture to her side of the pool. This time was for us, just me and my husband.

My husband.

Dad had freaked when I told him Micah and I were married. Well, what did he think, that I would wait for his miraculous reappearance to seek his approval? And the way he’d treated Micah since…it was just wrong. Micah was a good man, better than I’d thought any man could be, and I couldn’t care less what my father—or anyone else—thought about him. Micah was mine and I was his, end of story.

We splashed around a bit, letting the magical waters rinse away the lingering bits of pain. I ducked my head, and when I surfaced I saw that Micah had left the water and stretched out on the grassy bank. The sight of him lounging next to the pool in the early morning light made all thoughts of my family’s disagreements evaporate like so much dew. I crawled out of the water and knelt beside him.

“You mentioned that you thought of a few things?” I asked as I took my place beside him.

“I did,” he murmured. I leaned forward and kissed him, and as my husband and I lay naked on the grass I finally felt like I belonged in the Otherworld. I may have been born in the Mundane realm, but it wasn’t my home. It never truly had been.

For me, home was wherever Micah was.

“Others are coming,” the Bright Lady called to us. “You might want to return to my waters. Unless you don’t mind them having a look at your bare bottoms?”

We laughed and returned to the warm, silky waters. Then I was in Micah’s arms again, kissing him deeply. We—or at least I—promptly forgot the Bright Lady’s warning, until there was an impatient throat-clearing behind us.

“Your father,” Micah murmured, since my back was to the newcomer.