Page 16 of Tell No Tales
Ooh. Now Klaus was getting somewhere. "You wanted to get off, but you didn't want me to know about it?"
"Gods, talking to you is so frustrating." Vadim's tunic hung loose, and he had to hike up the hem to shove his gloved hands into his pockets. "You couldn't consent to listening in."
"I would have, if you'd asked."
Vadim brayed a laugh that drew the attention of the two wind weavers and scared a sea bird just off the prow. "You don't think very highly of my self-control."
"I admire your self-control, but I think you might be a little less apt to drain people if you got off more than once every five years."
"Vadim!" Captain Efren's voice boomed across the deck.
"Don't you have a book to read?" Vadim asked before walking toward the port deck.
Klaus returned to the hold and his book. He might as well read a pirate romance, if he couldn't enjoy one himself.
Chapter 4
Vadim
Vadim was grateful for the summons to the navigation deck. Instead of approaching the captain, he stayed at the railing above the deck to show Niall he wasn't encroaching on his territory.
"Yes, Captain?"
"You looked like you could use some help."
Vadim glanced back over his shoulder at Niall, who shrugged.
"Your bond allows you to share thoughts?" Vadim hadn't known such a thing was possible between two weavers. He honestly hadn't believed life links were possible, either, until he'd formed one with Klaus. "Congratulations."
"What was Klaus's excuse for breaking your bed?" Efren asked.
Vadim tried to swallow, but his throat was too dry. "I didn't ask. It doesn't matter, as long as he doesn't do it again."
Efren nodded. "True."
"When do you and Olivia trade?"
"Sunrise and sunset, same as always."
"I could take a shift so you both could get some rest." Vadim stood sideways with his hip against the railing and looked at Niall in case Efren didn't understand his meaning.
"We time it with the wind weavers," Efren growled. "We don't have a third shift for them."
"I don't see why that matters."
"Morale, Vadim. They'll see that Olivia and I have more free time than they do, and they'll be bitter about it. Especially Tovey."
Vadim could see his point. "Frost, Jermain, and I have nothing to do until we arrive in Hearthstone. How is that any different?"
"You're not part of the crew. You're along for the ride." Efren cracked a grin and shrugged. "You're our guests, Vadim. Get used to it."
He would, but it would be hard. Guests had too much free time, and the trip to Hearthstone was too long to avoid any one person for long.
Well. That wasn't quite true. Vadim hadn't seen Martiz since they'd boarded, and he intended to keep it that way.
He could feel the old man in the hold. Sapping him of his healing power was a death sentence, but a slow one. Martiz was younger than Beatrice, and he'd focused far more on his youthful appearance and health than she had. It would take time for his baby face to sag and his hair to gray. It would take longer for his heart to fail.
Good. Martiz deserved to suffer. Maybe it was a shitty thing to do, to turn their mutual enemy over to Coryn for some payback. It was as shitty as it was foolish. Vadim had hoped Coryn would change her mind about her goal on Stony Eel Island if he could give her every healer in the land, but Martiz wouldn't be enough. Coryn wanted balanced and spectral weavers, too. Vadim would die before he handed himself, Beatrice, and Niall over to her. He hoped Niall understood the threat and would run, unlike his parents.
