Page 80 of Scorched Earth

“Just as you are mine,” she breathed, whimpering as he kissed her stomach, his body aching to take her. To claim her. To lose himself in her.

Lydia’s gloved hands tangled in his hair, her long legs wrapping around his waist and pulling him against her, drawing a sound that was half growl, half plea from him as she ground against him. “Are you sure?” he asked. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

“Yes.” The word came out in a gasp. “I want this. I need… I need…”

She trailed off, and it didn’t matter, because he knew. Felt the same blinding compulsion to cross a threshold they’d stood on the wrong side of for too long. All they’d had was words, but words had no place in this moment of ragged breaths and touch, in these heartbeats consumed by sound and sensation that he prayed would last forever.

Then the scrape of a boot caught Killian’s attention. He twisted toward the stairs to see a figure holding a blade outlined by muted sunlight.

“Well, this is a pleasant turn of events,” Agrippa said. “I was quite confident that I was going to find you drained into a husk of a man, but here you are, expending the adrenaline of a near-death experience in a much more productive fashion. Well done.”

“I am going to kill you!” Killian snarled, pulling Lydia against him so his body concealed hers from their laughing companion.

“Well, you might have to fight for that privilege,” Agrippa answered. “Because the storm is near spent and judging from the activity atop the escarpment, it won’t be long until we have thousands of walking dead back on our trail. Now shall we?”

30MARCUS

In the days that had passed since he’d dispatched the letter with Astara, it was all Marcus could do not to stare at the sky every time he stepped outside, eyes hunting for the shape of the giant hawk returning with a reply.

Kaira will agree. She won’t abandon the Maarin.

A thought that repeated through his head day and night even as he prepared for the alternative.

“Letter via the Bardeen stem, sir.” Gibzen set a carefully packaged formal missive on the table. “You need anything?”

Marcus picked up the sealed tube, opening it to find a message written in Wex’s familiar hand. A list of genesis codes, dates, and times. Atrio should almost be in Emrant, which meant the timing would work out perfectly.

At the bottom of the list, Wex wrote,

This is an expensive and risky experiment, and one strictly forbidden by the Senate after the debacle with the Nineteenth. It will be coming out of your budget, Legatus, not mine, and if it goes badly, you will be the one to take the fall. I look forward to hearing the results.

Wex.

Marcus smiled, then tucked the letter into his belt pouch for safe keeping. The Nineteenth Legion had accidentally set off explosives at a minor transport genesis in northern Celendor two years prior, the fatal and costly consequences buried in paperwork and propaganda, but Wex wasn’t one to allow one idiot’s mistakes to ruin a good strategy for all. Being of the same mindset, Marcus typically would use colored smoke for this task, but given the stems in question were entombed, it had to be noise. Something loud enough to be heard through rock but not so violent as to cause alarm, so he’d settled on firecrackers. Specific patterns to be repeated throughout specific dates, and Marcus had no doubt that Wex had needed to buy up the supply of every fireworks maker in Celendrial for the task. Atrio would hear the pattern, note the date, and the results would tell Marcus exactly the genesis stem that led to Emrant.

In theory, at any rate.

The experiment wouldn’t be needed if Kaira cooperated, because once she cracked open the tomb, all the dead path-hunters she’d find inside would have information about where they’d come from. But if she didn’t…

She will. She won’t abandon Teriana’s people.

But if she didn’t, all the work that Titus had put into securing an alliance with Katamarca would prove its worth. All that remained once he had his target confirmed was a formal request for more reinforcements, which in truth, he suspected were already mustering at Hydrilla.

A formal request I’ll never make, because Kaira will see the merit of this plan.

Marcus stared at the map before him, head still aching mercilessly, every part of him looking forward to the midnight hour when he could silence the pain and his parade of anxieties for a few hours.

It was then that he noticed how cold it was in the room, his skin prickling. As he looked up, it was to find Gibzen still standing next to the table, watching him.

There was a strangeness to the other man’s gaze, and Marcus asked, “Have you discovered anything more?”

Gibzen handed him a page. “Men who were on guard duty in the time leading up to when Teriana was kidnapped. I put a mark next to the ones who don’t like her.”

The list was so messy it bordered on illegible, half the names misspelled, and nearly all with a mark next to them. “Why is your name on this list?”

With a mark next to it, no less.

“To be thorough, sir. It’s not personal, but I don’t like her much. She tried to bribe me once to keep something from you, and that never sat right.”