Sun Catch Her (Book 1: Three Rivers Deep series) COMPLETE

Chapter Forty-Seven

Orange lights played tag across the gentle ripples I stood ankle deep in, smooth stones underfoot while the rhythmic clinking of metal against metal and the sound of fluids being pumped through pipes competed with the creek's mumbled gurgling.

The air was heavy and cool, like a waterlogged cloth had blanketed everything in a damp chill. Shivering, I bent under the expanse of a storm-thick sky surrounded by metal smokestacks and those intertwined pipes to dip my hands in the shallow stream and splash myself, washing off mud.

It was only after Alex lost the umbrae and doubled back, taking a division in the stream that met with the main creek to return to the bosom of the valley, that I had a moment to take off the dress. Giving me some privacy, he went off a short distance to make sure our escape was sound.

Sighing, then sneezing from the cold, I brought a wet wrist up to rub my nose. I sent a solemn glance to where the champagne dress lay on the creek bank, carefully folded. Micah's coat was spread underneath it because I didn't like the thought of the dress touching the dirty ground.

Sniffling, I bent to cup more water. The dress was off, and I'd stopped glowing. That I was calmer also helped, maybe more than taking off the dress. The air around me held a soft darkness where only factory light remained. Alex would send a wind devvi to return the dress and coat to me later. They lay on a rock next to the soaked shirt he shed before taking off, its front missing most of its buttons.

The slip I wore under the dress was all I had on now. It covered me but was thin, so it didn't hide my—ah—assets very well, especially with how cold I was.

Water tumbled noisily as I splashed my arms, neck, and shoulders, all splattered with mud from the chase. I rubbed the dirt from my legs with a wet palm and bent to scoop more water with the intent to splash my face when I froze at a breeze that rose from the creek.

Alex materialized, startling me.

Heartbeat hammering, I straightened with a sharp inhale, water falling from my hands down the front of my already damp slip. Would I ever be used to how fast he was? I began to ask if we'd managed a clean getaway, but paused when he shifted to one side.

He waded a complete circle around me, his demeanor taut but smooth, movements flowing with a dragon's grace that could only be described as swift rapids managing bulbous rock. He came back around to stand in front of me where factory light stroked his naked upper body. My stomach gave a twist when his gaze lifted to stare through lank, wet hair, the soaked darkness hanging long about his temples in points, like dripping daggers.

There was something different about the water devvi as he stood in the middle of his native element. Skin stark white, with an upper body so Renaissance-superb one would swear Michelangelo had shaped it. I studied his exposed state. There were markings. They were faint, and yet very much a part of him, flowing as a smooth current of natural tattooing with the curve of his sturdy shoulders, swan neck, dripping temples. A dragon's grace, a dragon's markings.

He certainly approached me with a wildness that attracted me, if I would allow it. Marveling at his impromptu designs as if they were a secret suddenly unveiled, I wondered if they only appeared when he was thoroughly soaked.

I touched my forearms and realized I was shivering again. Was it because of the cold? Or did my body quiver for another reason? His heartbeat; I can taste it. Lips sealed shut, I swallowed at the phantom rhythm. Like before, back on the porch, the solidness of it reminded me of hard candy.

Eyes closing, I drew in a breath through my nose, and then another, becoming almost dizzy, unchained from the earth. Concurrently, the water swirling at my feet transitioned to become much more, like a second pair of eyes while my real ones were shut. A remarkable thing I'd glimpsed once before on the night of my detox-transitioning, when standing in water had given me the instant knowledge of a nearby waterfall. What I was experiencing now was similar, except amplified to a degree I could never have imagined as his heartbeat chased after mine.