Page 11 of Take No Prisoners
"He's a godsdamned siphon," Vadim said before Olivia had even shut the door as she left. "No wonder Klaus couldn't detect his magic when they first met."
"Siphons don't exist."
Vadim scoffed. "Coryn would have you believe that."
"You're saying General Coryn is a siphon, too?"
Vadim nodded. "I tried telling you years ago, but you didn't believe me."
"Why should I believe you now?"
Vadim shrugged, rattling the chains binding his wrists. "Don't. See if I care. But my hair was completely white, and now I have a streak of blond right in front. I haven't had blond hair since we were children smaller than those two."
In one step, Efren was in Vadim's personal space, examining his hair in the light of the setting sun. A handful of strands over his scarred left eye shimmered with a more golden hue.
"What does it mean?"
"We'll have to wait for him to wake to know for sure, but I'm guessing at least one child he rescued was a corpse before he reached them."
"He brought them back to life?"
Vadim grunted. "Your deathly trio killed two other conscripted weavers, also children. Do you even care?"
Efren ignored the accusation. "He used your magic?"
"It felt like he was ripping my skull apart from the inside. I doubt he has magic of his own, but there's enough diversity on your ship to power him for days."
"You don't have healing power. How could he steal enough to bring a child back to life?"
Vadim looked perplexed at that question. "He must be able to reverse it, to turn my death into life."
"That would fucking hurt." Efren had little proficiency with lightning, but the one time a spectral weaver linked with him and pulled the element from his core, it had burned like fire in his veins. "Are you all right, then? Did he hurt you?"
Vadim shrugged. "Better off than he is, for the moment."
Efren studied Vadim, looking for changes in him. Besides the streak of blond now discoloring his white hair, which had grown from shoulder length to the middle of his back in the last five years, he looked the same. He wore the all-black naval uniform of Coryn's highest-ranking admirals. His thin black gloves would feel like butter against Efren's skin.
Same appearance, but everything else had changed. Efren saw a traitor where he'd once found refuge. He heard lies where before he'd trusted every word as truth.
He glanced over his shoulder at his bunk and the unconscious man. "How long before he wakes? What did you do to him?"
"I tried to kill him. He didn't consent." Vadim smirked.
The twist of his lips had once been enough to turn Efren on. Now, it made him want to vomit over the side of his ship.
"Did you kill the empress?"
Vadim shook his head. "You know I didn't. I was still on your ship when we heard she died."
"You can kill with a thought at ten thousand leagues."
"Only with consent, and I would have never offered. She was my nephew's mother."
"Hesse wasn't your brother."
"He might as well have been." The light of humor was gone from Vadim's cat green eyes. "He was closer family to me than this ship and this crew. There was a time when I'd thought differently."
Efren recognized that tone. It matched his own when he spoke of Vadim. Disappointment. "You left us. You betrayed us!"
