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Marius settled his hand on Joe’s shoulder. “And I appreciate what you do.” He then took a moment and introduced Joe to Shayna.
“Pleased to meet you, Shayna.” He smiled. “And you should know that you have a good man here. One of the best.”
“I know.”
Marius glanced at her, feeling the chain at his neck vibrate with the warmth of her emotion. She really meant it.
“Blessings to you both,” Joe said, lifting a hand in farewell. He turned and launched, gliding upward into altered flight, then through the stone with the ease of at least two centuries of practice.
Shayna’s gaze drifted over the now pristine battlefield. She shook her head, and he felt her disbelief.
He chuckled and slid his arm around her shoulders. “Let’s get out of here and see if we can’t access your vision-tracking ability again. If I recall, Quill and Lev had a long list of possibilities to go through to figure out where the rest of the weapon is. They’ve got one-third of it now, with that red roof section. But all we have to do is to keep them from getting the remainder.” He held out his arm, and she climbed aboard.
He immediately shifted to altered flight but made his way slowly in a northerly direction just in case Daniel had some of his men waiting for him in the south.
“I was sure glad I had the jacket and boots on. That cave was cold.”
“Yep, the ice creates a real freezer effect.”
Shayna had closed her eyes when Marius launched, unwilling to watch him head straight for a solid wall. She wondered how long it would take before she wouldn’t flinch. For now, eyes closed.
She sensed when he’d moved high into the air. She had no problem opening her eyes at that point. But approaching anything solid made her tremble.
He moved swiftly, faster than ever, and yet she had no pain now. She wondered what it meant or why Marius’s power had increased so suddenly.
With her arm wrapped around his neck, she thought about what the leader of the cleanup crew had said to him, thanking him for his service to their world. He was clearly well respected.
She slipped into telepathy. Marius, you’re revered in your world, aren’t you? Rumy definitely had that vibe going on and now Joe.
I wouldn’t use the word revered, exactly. She could feel how uneasy the compliment made him. Although I’m sure it would define how Adrien and Lucian are viewed. They’re both older and they’ve done so much more than I ever could to help our world.
As Shayna took in this statement, the oppressive guilt returned just like that. He’d spoken about feeling guilty about the women that Daniel had used to try to force him into joining his team, yet somehow she knew that another, difficult
issue lay beyond his distress. It’s hard for me to believe that your contribution hasn’t been as significant as your brothers’.
Well, you’d be wrong. You just haven’t been here long enough to know the truth.
This time, not only guilt rode him hard but also a profound sense of shame, as though he’d done the unforgivable.
So what did you do, Marius? Because I’m feeling your guilt again, a heavy weight that you carry with you all the time.
As they flew south, he grew very quiet. She couldn’t imagine how many tens or even hundreds of miles they’d already flown—his speed was amazing.
Finally, he said, The chains don’t lie, so I know I can’t pretend that what you say isn’t true. I live with a constant remorse about things I’ve done, terrible things, but I have no intention of revealing the details. I’ll only say this: What I did cost my brothers years of suffering and I shouldn’t have lived. It’s as simple as that.
What could she say to this admission? Though she found it hard to believe that Marius would have done anything to have hurt his brothers. Well, I just wish you didn’t have to live with so much guilt.
He adjusted his arm around her waist, getting more comfortable. Shayna held on tight. It was a long way down.
Marius’s voice once more flowed through her mind. If I could undo what happened, I would, but I can’t. So how about we shift our focus. While we’re in flight, I’d like you to try tapping into your tracking ability again. We have something a lot more important to deal with than my past crimes.
Fair enough.
Shayna took a moment to make the shift from Marius’s shame and remorse to her latest struggle, grappling with a strange power that still didn’t function properly for her. She closed her eyes once more and focused her thoughts on the extinction weapon, but as before the waves appeared, blocking a good portion of the images that wanted to come to her.
She wished she had more confidence generally because maybe then the waves wouldn’t even be there, obscuring half of what otherwise she might see. She could even hear Michelson laughing at her. A half-ass job as usual, Shayna. He always thought it was funny to point out her shortcomings.
She forced the unhappy thought away. So now here she was, needing to be fully present in a life-threatening situation and finding it hard. Besides, what did she know about these abilities that Marius’s power allowed her to express? They were like clothes she’d borrowed, but that really didn’t fit.
