Page 45 of Tell No Tales
"What are you doing?"he asked.
"Showing Milton what's mine."
Vadim's throat clicked as he swallowed. He brought his hand up to rest it on Klaus's neck, massaging along his hairline beneath the curtain of red. Gods, he'd missed casual touch, but there was nothing casual about it.
Milton was studying them both with his discerning gaze, and then he grinned. For a wind weaver, Milton seemed happier than most. "I worried we had giant rats in the hold," he said, "but it must have been you two."
Vadim couldn't resist. He lifted the hair from the back of Klaus's neck and kissed his nape. "I think he just called you a giant rat."
"How do you know he wasn't talking about you?" Klaus murmured.
"I'm not the one who squeaks when he comes."
Klaus gave him a glare to rival any death weaver. "You love the sounds I make."
He wasn't wrong in the least, which was terrifying.
∞∞∞
Klaus
Finally, the naval ship passed out of Klaus's range to the south. Klaus pointed in the direction they'd headed. Hannah and the captain disappeared into the cabin for a moment but had no answers when they returned. "They might be scouting, or they might be searching forWildfire," Hannah said. "We'll know if they come within range again. Until then, we'll stay in the fog until it's dark, and then I'll call a storm to carry us further east."
"That will take a lot of your energy," Captain Efren said.
"You'd better make sure we've got a feast prepared for this evening, then. I wouldn't want to pass out on you."
The captain and Vadim shared a look, and then Vadim squeezed Klaus's hand and let him go, stalking toward the stairs at the aft of the ship. Klaus was sad to see his gloves emerge from his back pocket. Before he reached the deck, he had fully covered his hands again.
Hannah grabbed his shoulder. "Is everything all right?"
"Sure. Of course. Why wouldn't it be?"
They shrugged. "No reason. Want to come to the crow's nest with me? There's not much to see, but there are fewer people gawking around." They stared pointedly at Milton until he looked away.
They climbed to the small platform so far above deck that Klaus couldn't see the boards below them. The fog was thicker than it was down below, giving Hannah's features an ethereal quality. Their eyes were dark pools in their tan face, and their sun-streaked hair hung limply beneath their handkerchief. Klaus kept the one they'd given him in his back pocket in case he ever needed it again, but the light breeze pushed his hair away from his face.
"He's not a bad-looking guy," he said, thinking back to the glare Hannah had given Milton.
"Nor would I call him a loyalist," Hannah said, "but still, I worry he's Coryn's spy. Olivia and Efren are too trusting."
"Have you shared your concerns with them?"
"Aye." They grinned. "They're all so damn certain they'd know if someone meant them harm, but Vadim was a double agent for at least three years before he turned us over to Coryn and left. No offense."
"None taken," Klaus said. "I'm not a member of your crew. Eight years ago, I had just moved to my second pleasure house. I would have died of fright if a death weaver had walked through our door."
"And now?" Hannah leaned forward so he could see them more clearly, and so they could watch his face heat as he struggled for words.
"Now, I don't know."
"I think you have some idea after all the noise you were making in the hold. You didn't sound like you were dying of fright."
Klaus laughed. "No, I suppose not. Were we really that loud?"
It was Hannah's turn to blush. "That was my fault. The fog traps the sound around us and dampens everything beyond the ship, including the waves."
"I didn't feel the other ship until moments before we came on deck. How did you know they were there?"
