Page 53 of Smuggler's Beauty

Evelyn chewed on her bottom lip as she mulled her answer. “It’s not so much that it’s an energy exchange. All these typesof abilities are, in essence, types of energy exchanges on some level. It’s thetypeof energy exchange. My father can walk into a garden and make roses bloom or crops grow.”

Aiden nodded, but kept silent.

“My family’s whole life is about public service. We give to the planet and the people. But my talent... It’s not about giving, Aiden. I can’t tell you how many small gadgets I went through the year I turned fourteen. We couldn’t figure out why my batteries kept dying. Then Corrie gave me a little plant. It didn’t last the week.” She shoved her hand through her hair in frustration, trying to figure out how to explain the weight of the secret she’d kept her whole life.

“I’m basically the fucking boogeyman. ‘Behave, children, or the Siphon King will get you.’ If anyone other than me has manifested this skill in the last few hundred years, it’s been kept very, very quiet.”

Aiden frowned. “Siphon King?”

“Greedy bastard who started the civil war that led to the Compromise. Liked to keep his people in line by publicly executing them with his power. My power. Sucked the life energy out of them and then put them on display.” She felt so, so cold. How could he stand to be in the same room with her? Tears threatened to spill from her eyes, but she blinked them back. Not now.

Aiden picked up an egg timer and fiddled with it.

“What we need is more information on how folks with martial talents on your world train and use them,” he said. “Vinnie implied that they were scooped up as soon as they were identified and placed into training.”

“Yeah, and as soon as we find my father, we’re going to be having a long conversation about that.”

“I imagine it shatters the worldview a bit.”

“To say the least,” she said, crossing her arms. “It’s one thing to protect your kid, I get that. And I get that I had a different upbringing than other kids, but for fuck’s sake. I was already isolated as a royal. I didn’t need a double helping.”

“The moms are really big on the whole ‘forewarned is forearmed’ thing, so I can’t say I disagree with you there.” He replaced the egg timer on the table, then nodded to the paper Corrie had left in the box. “Vinnie seems to think you can figure out how to turn your power around on your own.”

Evelyn picked up the paper and frowned at it. “I wish she had gone into greater detail. ‘Figure it out’ is the least helpful guidance I think she could have given me.”

“She does seem pretty dedicated to the whole ‘sink or swim’ mentality.”

“And how is figuring out how to reverse my talent supposed to be helpful?” Evelyn bit her lip nervously.

“Right,” he said after a moment. “List time.”

Aiden walked to the whiteboard and started writing neat columns of information.

“We know you know how tonotuse your talent, and that’s a big hurdle to get over. I’m nowhere near as strong as you are psychically, and it took me a long time to figure out how to stop moving dust bunnies around accidentally. But you’ve already kept a powerful ability on lockdown for years.”

Evelyn crossed her arms and wished for the first time the cardigan had a hood she could pull down and hide under. She’d never spoken so openly about her siphoning. “Learning how to not drain every energy source I came into contact with was a very important skill to manage if I was going to hide my abilities.”

He grinned over his shoulder at her. “No wonder you fit in on this boat so well. You’re a natural sneak.”

Evelyn laughed and dug through the box looking for charging cables. She found a neatly bundled set of cables at the bottom of the box, as well as a large quantity of batteries. Grabbing the music player, she inspected it to determine how it charged.

By the time she’d finished matching gadgets with their power sources, Aiden had finished his list. The board read:

Evelyn’s Badass To-Do List:

1. Discover actual martial training techniques

2. Discuss implementation with Nannette

3. Keep plant alive

“Admittedly, it’s a short list,” he said.

“It’s a good starting point.”

Aiden walked back to the desk and reached his hand toward her. Evelyn stared at it for a moment before grasping it with her own.At least I know how not to suck the energy out of everything I interact with.She stepped toward him, and he enveloped her in a hug, tucking her head under his chin, and she let herself relax into his arms. The scent of his cedar and rosemary shampoo was quickly becoming emotional shorthand for security in her brain.

“We’re gonna figure it out, dollface,” he said into her hair.