Copper Girl (20 page)

“They won’t kill me.” His voice was hard as nails, and that was the Max I remembered. I hazarded a glance at him, and his eyes burned like hot coals. “They hurt me, but that was because I let them. They needed me too much to kill me.” He dropped his eyes. “I’d do anything to keep you and Mom and Sadie safe. I thought I was doing the right thing, biding my time, waiting for them to slip up, but now… now, all bets are off.” He flexed his fingers, wincing when his knuckles cracked. Yeah, he was really fit to strike terror into the hearts of millions. My thoughts must have been written across my face, because he sat beside me and draped a gaunt arm around my shoulders. “Listen, I don’t need to stand. I’m just as powerful sitting down. And I don’t need to eat, either. For now, I can get by just fine on chicken soup and coffee. Before you know it, I’ll be eating peanut butter and bologna sandwiches. With pickles!”

I laughed, remembering all the gross concoctions we used to make each other eat. Whoever didn’t puke was declared the winner, inasmuch as one could win that kind of event. “Yours were always the worst,” I said, remembering an unfortunate incident with chocolate frosting and sardines.

“I am the master.” Max grabbed my hand, his flesh baby-soft. I guess that green liquid had had some benefits. “C’mon. Let’s get the little one.”

Now, let’s get one thing straight: Sadie is
not
like me. She’s always gotten straight As, and she’s been on the dean’s list since her first semester at college. She never got in trouble, never made Mom roll her eyes and pray to the old gods for guidance, never practiced magic after we were told to stop. From the day she was born, she was always the perfect baby sister, and we all loved her for it. She was sweet, and kind, and saw the good in every person and situation
.

Like I said, we’re not all that similar
.

What’s more, I was about to waltz into her life and turn it upside down. More than anything, Sadie loved school. All her life, she’d wanted to be either a college student or a librarian; now she was a college student studying to be a librarian. And after today’s visit, she wouldn’t be either.

I’d say that Micah somehow sensed how horrible I felt about this, but the way I was dragging my feet made it pretty obvious. “It is for the best,” he murmured.

“I know.” I glanced at him and somehow managed not to do a double take. He’d once again altered his appearance to look human, but that close-cropped brown hair and round ears just didn’t seem normal to me, not anymore. His voice was the same, though, so I looked around at the crumbling, pre-war architecture and imagined that he still looked like an elf. My elf.

“This is a lovely spot,” Micah murmured. We were crossing the center of the campus, a carefully tended lawn called the Old Green. It was about half an acre of grass dotted with majestic old oaks; I wondered if Micah knew any of them. Surrounding the Green stood stately red brick buildings, which had been covered in a few centuries’ worth of ivy until last fall, when it had become known that a local coven was using the vine in their full moon rituals. The ivy had been hauled off and burned, and eleven students had never been heard from again. “Why are there so few natural places among your people?”

I sighed and took his hand. At least he still felt like my Micah. “Natural places are full of herbs and flowers, the very things used for spells. The Peacekeepers don’t want anyone to have access to such contraband. Even our food is grown in greenhouses, hydroponically. Without sunlight or soil,” I explained, in response to his raised brow. “My mom had to get a special permit for her vegetable patch.”

Micah pulled me against him, wrapping his arm around me as he kissed my hair. “With such restrictions, how am I to collect flowers for my consort?”

“I don’t need flowers.” I cast my eyes downward, suddenly warm-cheeked and shy.

“You do.” Micah halted and turned me to face him. “You deserve flowers and jewels, and everything that is sweet, soft, and beautiful. I seek only to please you.”

“You do please me,” I said, my voice husky. I glided my fingers across his jaw; somehow, he was taller in his human guise. When our skin made contact, Micah assumed an invitation and kissed me hard, right there in front of half of the student body. I whacked his shoulder but he refused to release me, even when the catcalls grew too loud. Then we heard the warning bleep from a drone, and our romantic interlude was done. Public displays of affection were frowned upon these days, especially at an institute of higher learning.

“I’m glad,” he murmured, a spark of silver glowing in those temporarily brown eyes. I tugged him toward Sadie’s dorm, and he fell into step alongside me. “Perhaps, once this matter with your sister is sorted out, I shall please you further.”

I gave him my best seductive look. “Oh?”

“I’m considering overthrowing your government.”

I stopped so abruptly I almost fell on my face. My heart pounded and I broke out in a cold sweat, but a quick glance didn’t reveal any Peacekeepers within earshot. “Why… Why would you do that? What makes you think you even
could
do that?”

“I know something of exchanging one regime for another.” He pulled me close and whispered, “Why do you think we Elementals are ruled by metal and not stone?”

His eyes had completely reverted to silver, his gaze as hard as metal. Sure, I wanted the Peacekeepers gone—who didn’t?—but that was in the same category as wishing away the twin devils of cold weather and the heating bill. I never really thought they’d go away, I just didn’t want to deal with them.

I licked my lips, suddenly parched under Micah’s intense gaze. He parted his lips, whether to utter more treasonous ideas or kiss me, I never knew. More catcalls caused him to release me; we were quite the attraction that morning. Since we couldn’t really talk about such matters out in the open at a government-run university, I twisted free of his embrace and entered Sadie’s dorm. Silently, we traversed the halls and two staircases; Sadie lived in a tiny single room shoved in the far corner of the building. After a not-at-all nervous knock later, Sadie opened her door and found me standing next to Micah. Or rather, she saw Mike.

“Sadie!” I said, a little too loudly. For the cameras, you know. “This is the guy I told you about.”

“Mike?” she asked, blinking. “The one you said was a jerk?”

“Yep.” I pushed inside her dorm room, Micah following me.

“Jerk?” he questioned, frowning.

“I was mad.” Sadie shut the door, and I mustered my widest grin. Ironically, grinning like fools was the only signal we had. I mean, we couldn’t very well wink, or use a secret handshake, those being the clichés of the spy world. We’d long ago agreed that whenever one of us needed to signal the other, a shit-eating grin was the way to do it. “So, are you all packed for our weekend with Mom? I bet she’s already cooking!”

Her brow wrinkled; Mom might have grown exotic and heirloom vegetables, but her cooking was limited to opening and reheating. Sadie, trouper that she was, played along anyway. “Not yet. Help me?” Sadie grabbed a tote bag, but I shook my head ever so slightly. Hesitantly, she yanked one of her suitcases from under her bed. Still acting like the ever-helpful big sister, I took out the other suitcase and began tossing in the contents of her dresser drawers. Wow, she owned a lot of socks.

“We’re not coming back,” I breathed in her ear. Her jaw tightened, her sole betrayal of how she felt, and I felt her disappointment like a stab in my gut. Sadie loved school, and getting her master’s degree meant the world to her. Suddenly, I was the jerk.

“What does Mom have planned for us?” Sadie asked, just a shade bitter. Despite her worldly university lifestyle, Sadie hated change of any sort. She’d lived in this tiny dorm room since freshman year and still used the blankets from her childhood bed.

“Oh, you know,” I demurred. “Just things for the trio.”

Her hands froze, clutching a sweater in mid-fold. “Trio?”

Ah. She remembered. “Yep, all sorts of things for the Trio of Destruction. Kitchen mishaps, small fires, maybe we’ll even round up a few stray cats.” I absently scratched my elbow, recalling a time we’d done just that and had ended up with a flea-infested house.

Sadie grabbed my wrist, effectively ending my rambling. “Truly?”

“In the car.” Relief washed over Sadie’s features. “Yeah, let’s get these bags in the car. Mike?”

A slightly peeved Micah grabbed the suitcases and set them by the door while I surveyed the rest of the room. Sadie owned so many books she could open her own library, degree or no. “Which books are we taking?”

Sadie grabbed a few and stuffed them into her tote bag. Reading material secured, she ducked into the bathroom, emerging a moment later with a robe slung over her shoulder and clutching a toothbrush. “I’m ready.”

Another trek across the Old Green later, during which Micah and I got an encore of catcalls, we stood at my mechanical. While Micah stowed the bags in the trunk, Sadie climbed into the back seat and saw our gaunt, disheveled, but alive brother.

“Hey, kid,” Max mumbled. “Tell me about school.”

While Sadie’s reunion with Max was somewhat restrained
(you just never know when a drone or flesh and blood Peacekeeper will happen by and peek inside your car)
, Mom was long past attempting to curry the government’s favor. After a tearful, sappy, not-at-all-awkward for Micah family reunion, the topic turned to what we should do next.

“We all need to go to the Otherworld,” I said. We were in the front parlor, since it was the only way to get to the old basement, which was, in turn, the only place we could hide. We knew the Peacekeepers would come looking for Max eventually, and while we’d had this last hour to ourselves, our time was quickly running out. Max, Mom, and Sadie were crammed onto the mustard-colored loveseat, while Micah and I snuggled in the matching chair. “At Micah’s, we’ll be safe.”

“I still don’t think I’m the Inheritor,” Sadie murmured, staring at the flocked velvet wallpaper. The Rococo pattern had an oddly hypnotic effect. “Wouldn’t I know?”

“You have always known,” Micah stated. He was back to his natural elfin appearance, all sinewy arms and poufy hair. “For your transactions, you prefer to deal in coin rather than paper?”

“Uh, yes.”

“Your bed is brass. In fact, all of your furniture and shelves are metal, without any wood or stone. The implement used to maintain your teeth is stainless steel, as is your comb.” Sadie, along with the rest of us, stared at Micah in mingled amazement and horror; we’d spent less than five minutes in her dorm room, yet everything he’d said was true. Micah was a metal elf in every sense of the term to have noticed such details. “You surround yourself with metal, because it soothes you. Metal does your bidding. It yearns to please you.”

Sadie dropped her eyes, the first hint that she’d intentionally surrounded herself with metal. Maybe she’d even used her power on some of the objects, intentionally or not. Good for her. “But I don’t know enough to be the Inheritor. I-I just want to work in a library.”

“You already know everything you will ever need,” Micah said firmly. “Your gift is born of your heart and resides in your soul, not in a dusty book.” He leaned forward, now speaking to Sadie alone. “You will be an excellent Inheritor, easily as great as Olquin was. Perhaps you will be greater. You will do well by your family. Of this, I am certain.”

Sadie blinked and hid her face, more than a bit overwhelmed by Micah’s impromptu speech. “And you called him a jerk,” she muttered.

“I was wrong,” I said, gazing into his silver eyes. “He’s wonderful.”

“All right, you two,” Max interrupted as he got to his feet. “We need to move. Now. I’d rather not be here when the drones come knocking.”

“But what about the Corbeau artifacts?” After all the trouble we’d gone through to keep the old basement a secret, the thought of Peacekeepers getting their greasy paws on my family heirlooms made my skin crawl. “We can’t just leave them here. And what about The Raven?”

“I’ll cast the wards,” Mom said, calmly. “Beau and I set them up a long time ago. As for The Raven, he will accompany us to the Otherworld.”

“Almost like a homecoming,” Sadie murmured. I wondered what, exactly, she’d been reading about in these library-themed courses.

Mom held out her hand to Sadie, claiming only the two of them were needed to activate the wards. Good thing, since I knew absolutely nothing about wardsmithing; it must have been one of the perks of being the metal Inheritor, or maybe it had to do with being the youngest Raven. Anyway, Mom went on to explain that the wards would not only obscure the old basement from anyone not of Corbeau blood, they would also push the room ever so slightly into the Otherworld. That way, our family history need never be unavailable to us, no matter which world we inhabited.

“You sure we can’t help?” Max asked again. He was a bit miffed at being left out of the first magic worked at the Raven Compound in years.

“Only two of us are required to see to the wards and collect The Raven,” Mom affirmed. “You three go on. Sadie and I will be along directly.”