Jonas shook his head, his shifty look making it clear it wasn’t because he didn’t know, but because he didn’t want to answer. “It’s best if you ask him.”
“Then where is he?” Viri asked again, impatience threading her tone.
“He’s—” Jonas groaned in response to whatever he’d been about to say, the fillium preventing him from lying. Despite his discomfort, his eyes lit with glee at the new experience, and he touched a finger to the golden cord. “So itdoesmake you tell the truth. I’d heard rumors, but still…remarkable. I’d give anything to study how it works. Would you mind if I—”
“Jonas,”Viri barked. “Answer the question.”
“I can’t tell you.” He made a helpless gesture with his hands, careful not to disturb Walnut. “If I do, you’ll go after him. And that’s a very bad idea.”
“Why?”
“Because then you’ll see—” Jonas clamped his mouth shut.
Viri leaned in. “See what? What’s Reeve doing? What’s this ‘transfer’ thing your friend Ardin mentioned?”
Jonas looked alarmed. “It’s noth—” He broke off with a pained gasp as the fillium stopped another lie, then repeated, through panting breaths, “I can’t tell you.” Quickly, he added, “I promise it’s for the best.”
“Those were Reeve’s exact words before he attacked me,” Viri said bitterly. “Forgive me if I don’t believe you.”
“He didn’tattackyou.” Jonas’s eyes rounded with disbelief. “What he did was toprotectyou.”
Viri scoffed. “I don’t need protection, but if I did, it would be fromhim.”
A startled but genuine laugh left Jonas. “Reeve’s the last person who would ever—”
“I’m not arguing about this,” Viri cut him off, unwilling to hear a reaper defend another reaper. “Tell me where he is, or I’ll find him on my own.”
“I’m sorry,” Jonas said, his face—and the fillium—revealing he meant it. “I can’t help you. But you can sit with me and watch the storm while we wait for him to come back. You can even hold Walnut if you want.” He lifted the dozing bunny toward her. “He’s soft and very cuddly.”
Viri made a frustrated sound and began to back away, intending to follow through on her threat to hunt Reeve down herself. But just before she released Jonas from her fillium, she caught sight of the veins along his forearms, the darkness more faded than earlier, almost unnoticeable. Out of nowhere, she recalled the hazy image she’d seen before passing out, something that must have been a hallucination, because it shouldn’t have been possible. And yet, even knowing that, she couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Did Sage siphon from you?”
Jonas stilled. “What would you say if I told you yes?”
Viri answered instantly, “I’d tell you reapers can’t siphon from each other. If you could, then you wouldn’t murder innocent children to get your ellixen fix.”
He flinched—actuallyflinched—at the mention of children, causing Viri’s brows to shoot upward. A reaper with a conscience? Unlikely.
“There’s lots you don’t know about us,” he said. “But the short answer is yes, Sage did siphon from me. It’s not a common practice; there’s a cost involved for the giver”—he gestured tohis faded veins, proof that his magic had weakened—“and the ellixen transferred through to the receiver isn’t as strong as what would come from—from—”
“From a child,” Viri said flatly.
Jonas flinched again, but also nodded. “Because of that, most reapers won’t even consider it unless they have no other choice. They’d rather steal straight from the source.”
Viri could hardly believe what she was hearing: that reapers were able tochoosehow they stole ellixen and yet theystillpreyed on children. She hadn’t thought it was possible to feel more disgust toward them, but apparently she’d been wrong. “So tonight, Sage needed a magic boost for whatever she and Reeve are off doing, and since there were no kids here for her to murder, she stole your ellixen instead?”
For the first time since she’d met him, Jonas looked almost angry. “It’s not like that.We’renot like that.”
“No?” Viri challenged. “You’ve never killed someone?”
He dropped his gaze to stare at Walnut, his silence telling.
“Did Reeve siphon from you, too?” Viri asked, needing to know what she’d be facing when she found him, how strong he might be if he had a fresh dose of ellixen in his veins.
“Of course not,” Jonas said, as if her question were ridiculous.
Another thought hit her, and she gasped, “Did he siphon fromme?”
She realized the moment the words left her lips that he couldn’t have. She didn’t have enough ellixen to tempt a reaper, and if any of them were ever desperate enough to try, the limited amount she had would be sucked dry in seconds, her life along with it. She’d seen it happen before.
