Carmine Jewels ║ Wanda Maximoff

Chapter 76 - Show, Don't Tell

What kind of friend did that? Not a very good one, that's for sure.

"I need to get back..." It was as if someone else spoke the words, but it was her own lips that formed the sentence. She might've been walking a path of lost souls for over a year now, but it had to end. There were better ways to handle the situation.

And even if Natasha was the only remaining Avenger at the compound, Keira had to get back to her. She couldn't abandon her best friend any longer.

❆

Said and done, she booked the next flight back to the United States. Keira couldn't say that she would miss Cyprus very much. It was a beautiful country and amazing for tourists, yes. But she had only been here for business. And she couldn't exactly count the business as fun, so it didn't give her particularly fond memories to cherish.

Her head leaned against the cold plane window, giving her something to focus on. She was used to traveling by plane by now, but that still didn't take away the fact that she thought the whole situation uncomfortable.

To know she was stuck in a metal cylinder thousands of feet above the ground with strangers wasn't exactly a calming thought. So, to keep herself occupied, she decided to see what the papers might've written about her. Because, unlike Topaz, nobody knew Viceroy's true identity. She had made sure of that.

It had been enough to get her cover blown one time, and the hate storm she had gotten after the fall of SHIELD wasn't exactly child's play. So, nobody would ever know who Viceroy truly was.

Her curiosity regarding Viceroy was quickly smothered, however. She was being compared to some of the most vicious mutants that had the displeasure of catching the public eye. Some just called her a copycat while others just called her a serial killer, listing all the names that were believed to have lost their lives at her hand.

And while the rumors of Viceroy's identity ran high, nobody could connect the dots correctly. Which meant that Viceroy could walk into a silent grave without the backlash of a private hate storm.

"That's not exactly what I would call light reading."

Keira peeled her eyes from her screen and raised a challenging eyebrow. "And I was taught it's impolite to read over someone's shoulder." She bit back, a bit harsher than she'd meant to while she tilted her phone against her arm to cover it from view.

The man who met her eyes was broad-shouldered and it would've been easy for her to fit at least two of herself into his sleek suit. He towered, quite literally, over her and it was a miracle that his head didn't hit the ceiling of the plane.

But his enormous size didn't cause her to shrink back, no, quite the opposite. She straightened her back and met his blue eyes calmly while crossing her arms over her chest.

"You'll have to excuse me. Old habit, I'm afraid. My eyes tend to fall on things they deem interesting." The corners of his lips twitched slightly, as if he wanted to smile but didn't quite dare to. "And I can't deny that I deem Viceroy interesting."

Keira couldn't help but narrow her eyes slightly and tilted her head curiously. "What do you know about them?" Her gut told her that the man beside her knew a lot more than he let on, and she couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy at the thought.

After all, she was crammed against the window if the man proved to be something else than harmless.

Now, the man actually dared to smile. He readjusted his seat slightly, accidentally brushing against Keira's shoulder while doing so. It was purely by accident though, as he barely had space to move at all. "Can't say I know anything more than what the papers have reported." He began slowly, his head tilted slightly upwards in thought. "But I do pride myself on being more observant than the normal citizen."