Page 37 of The Labyrinth
Chapter Seventeen
Marion relaxed moreand more with every mile put between them and the destruction they just witnessed.Not that she felt guilty or bad.Shiel Sinaga was evil.She looked into the back seat and saw Peter staring out the side window.He looked small and broken.
She turned back around and glanced at Deacon.“I guess the mini-labyrinth in your pocket worked.”
“Yep,” he replied absently.“I’ll have to remember that if I want to go on vacation.”
“What do you think the authorities will do about the explosion?”
“I called someone in law enforcement I know,” Delaram spoke up from the back seat.“He assured me he’d take care of it.”
“Good,” she said.
Silence fell once more, stifling and awkward.She felt Deacon pulling away from her, and she didn’t know what to think about that.True, their time together was coming to a close.There was no longer any reason to stay in New York.
This time tomorrow, she’d be on a plane flying home.Back to her boring life of working in the grocery store.Knowing everyone’s business as well as them knowing hers.Everyone kept asking when she and Peter would be married, but Marion knew the answer was never.She didn’t think of Peter that way.Had no romantic feelings for him at all.They’d grown up together so all she would ever see him as was a brother.
Being here this past week was an eye-opener.What was she doing, rusticating in the country when she hated small-town life?She had to find out who she was as well as her destiny.
When they finally made it back to Deacon’s building, she was glad to get away from the heavy silence that filled the car.They rode up the private elevator to Deacon’s floor and he held the door open for them to enter.
“We need to get that chain off you,” Delaram told Peter, pointing at the collar.Peter flinched away and Delaram halted, hands up.“I’m not going to hurt you.”
“You’re one ofthem,” he snapped.
“Peter,” Marion said.“He’s okay.He won’t hurt you.”
Shock settled on his face.“How can you say that?Do you know what she did to me?”
“Peter...”
“I thought she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever met,” he whispered in a broken voice.“I thought she liked me, but she turned into that creature and hunted me down.She taunted how she was going to eat me once she was finished with me.I thought ...I really thought she was going to kill me.”
Horror laced through every word, and her heart broke for how hollow he sounded.
“They’re not all the same, Peter,” Marion said gently.“These two men helped save you.They’re the ones responsible for destroying that processing plant.They’re good people.Please, let Delaram help get that collar off.”
Still, Peter hesitated for a long moment, thinking it through.Then he acquiesced.
Delaram held up his finger and the nail transformed into a claw.He carefully slipped it between the leather and Peter’s skin, and a moment later, it fell to the floor in a noisy heap.
Peter immediately distanced himself from it and the others, rubbing the area where red marks from the harsh leather irritated his skin.
Deacon held out his hand to Delaram.“Thank you.You have an unlimited pass to my fights.”
Delaram’s eyes lit up.“Hot damn!Then I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
Deacon smiled.“Of course.”
With a wave to Marion, he left and Deacon locked up behind him.
