Page 72 of Smuggler's Beauty

“You’re right. It just feels like cheating.” Lillian wrapped the napkin around the data stick and shoved it into her pocket. She rose, extending a hand to her wife. “We know where to find you.”

Aiden watched his moms head toward the hallway to the staff quarters. Nannette and Veselko started going over some weapons specs. Cairn and Veronique were asking Mathias about current trends in Tanalian media to best plan their attack on the airwaves.

Tariel had swung his legs back to the other side of the piano bench. He was about to resume playing when a trio of beeps emanated from his back pocket. He pulled the communicator from his pants and looked at the screen, his eyebrows raising in surprise.

“I’m going to go take this,” he said, getting up from the bench and racing up to the observation deck for some privacy.

Interesting. He almost never takes comm calls in private.

Aiden had a brief moment of worry that Tariel’s divorce proceedings had hit a bump in the road.

Evelyn popped more croissant bits into her mouth and chewed. Aiden could almost see the wheels turning in her head. Stars above she was fucking beautiful. Deep admiration for her determination to master her abilities — even though they scared the shit out of her — washed over Aiden.

“You ready to roll, dollface?” Aiden asked. He was loath to lose the feeling of her snuggled at his side, but he wouldn’t stand in the way of her facing her siphoning issues.

“If I put this off any longer I’m going to feel like a wimp.”

“We can’t have that, can we?” He gave her hair a gentle tug and released the stand he’d been passing between his fingers. Pushing his chair back, he got up and offered her his hand, loving the feel of her delicate fingers in his as he helped her up. He was floating as he gestured for Mathias to follow them to their makeshift training room in her storage closet.

Evelyn setup another folding chair, then took a seat at the table that held all her various electronic gadgets and started to fiddle aimlessly with an egg timer. Aiden had taken the seat next to her.

Mathias had completely ignored the table and folding chairs and instead had headed straight to the media Evelyn had organized onto the shelves. He pored over the titles, taking sips of his drink and making excited noises when he came across a film or book he was familiar with. She appreciated that he was giving her a moment to settle, but if they didn’t get a move on soon, she thought she might scream. She bit her lip and looked at Aiden.

Aiden nodded at her, winked, and cleared his throat. “Having fun?”

Mathias had the grace to look a little embarrassed when he turned around. “You have a very impressive Old Earth collection, Evelyn. I’m a stunt man in my day job; movies are my thing. Tanalia is having a bit of a resurgence in Old Earth media at the moment. They did resistance literature and film so well. It’s striking a chord.”

“I’m sure Veronique will be happy to play to that preference,” Evelyn said. She gestured to the empty folding chair. “Please, sit.”

His movements were smooth as he strode over and sat, and now that she knew his background was indeed theatrical, his response to Nannette earlier made more sense. Masked men didn’t like others to see behind the facade. In Mathias' case, the necessity for the front was mortally serious.

Mathias set his drink on the table and turned his chair to better face Evelyn and Aiden. The slight, self-satisfied smile from earlier twitched on his lips again.

“From what I understand, you’ve been suppressing your talent since it emerged?”

Evelyn nodded. “Corrie scared the shit out of me when it first manifested. I’ve spent years pretending I couldn’t siphon energy at all.”

“It’s surprising that more of your family line doesn’t have the same kind of mirror aspect to their talents you have,” Mathias said. He was back to fiddling with the condensation on his glass.

Neater than tearing up napkins. Maybe I can learn a thing or two from him, after all.

Evelyn shrugged. “It’s never really occurred to me. I suppose there is a . . . symmetry to being able to siphon energy and Amplify. And really, even if they did, I’m sure it would have been nicely hushed up. It’s pretty terrible PR for a monarch on Tanalia to siphon.”

“You leave the spin to us, dollface.” Aiden crossed his legs, his ankle resting on his opposite knee. He turned to Mathias. “Vinnie said that you could share some of the training techniques you received with Evelyn.”

Mathias nodded. “Training technique is probably stretching it a bit. We were taught more how to harness what was already there. It’s a little harder when your talent is entirely cerebral.” He gestured at Aiden. “For example, you are telekinetic. I’m assuming you focus on what you want to move, how fast, how far, and then that outside force moves based on your focus.”

Aiden nodded. “Yes, if I know where the thing I want to move is located, I can generally move it. I don’t need direct line of sight, though. If I have a diagram of a locking mechanism, for instance, I can make that work.”

Mathias raised his eyebrows. “That’s very finely tuned telekinesis.”

Aiden shrugged. “No one else on this boat knows how to do anything psychic. I’m flying blind here.”

“Maybe that’s helpful? Not having preconceived ideas about how your talent works has let you develop it?” Evelyn bit her lip. “Not having anyone’s voice in your head telling you how things are supposed to be is probably beneficial.”

Mathias pointed at her. “Exactly. And I think you’ve hit your problem on the head. You have years of mental conditioning telling you to stop what you’re trying to do.”

Evelyn pulled her feet up onto the chair so she could hug her legs against her chest. Her heart sank.