Page 102 of Taking Jenny
I clawed at the dirt, trying to force myself back to my feet. “Does it matter how I answer that?”
He sneered at me. “I’m gonna love living in your mansion.”
The next hit landed between my shoulders. Sharp and hard. My vision whited out, and I hit the ground again, face-first, a mouthful of dirt choking off my air. I tried to roll away, to fight, but then saw movement behind Arrow.
Jenny swept her staff beneath Arrow’s feet, taking them out from under him. He fell onto his back, and I crawled onto him before he could recover, grabbing his head in both of my hands and slamming it on the ground. He screamed.
Jenny thrust her staff into his open mouth and jumped, using the pole like a lever to launch herself over his body. The force pushed it deeper into his throat, choking him.
He gurgled, body thrashing. I wrapped my hands around his throat before he could breathe and squeezed tight, watching as his eyes bulged out of his skull. Jenny didn’t hesitate. She brought her staff down across his forehead with a loud crack of sound.
Arrow stilled, and the forest went quiet again, except for the rasp of our breathing.
Now that I knew Jenny was safe, the world tilted again. I nearly collapsed, but she caught me and pulled me to my feet.
“Who is that?” she asked.
“Arrow,” I managed to say, my tongue thick in my mouth.
“You’re amazing,” she whispered.
“You, too,” I rasped, so impressed and proud of her courage.
She wrapped an arm around my waist and tried to support me, but I slipped from her hold. “Gotta get back in the trees,” I said, stumbling. “You stay out here.”
“You’re bleeding,” she said, reaching for me again.
“I’ll be fine,” I lied. “Don’t worry about me. Go.”
She stood up on her toes and pressed a kiss to my mouth, firm and lingering. “Don’t you dare fucking die on me, Mal.”
I forced a smile. “You either.”
She gave me one last look before turning and jogging up the trail. Head spinning, I stumbled into the woods, and as soon as she was out of sight, I dropped to my knees and vomited from my concussion.
But I’d be damned before I let her walk that path alone. Not while I still had legs to stand on.
CHAPTER 31
Jenny
Mal’s words wore away at the last bit of my sense of self-preservation.
If he was found, he would be executed. Maybe even his friends would die for helping me train. And if I didn’t win? I’d die. Tiger might, too.
Illiapol, this wretched ritual, was no tradition. It was a curse. A weapon used by monsters to feed their own power. Forced on people who had no say. No choice. No mercy.
Every step I took from that point wasn’t for me. It was for everyone still trapped under Justice Bateen’s heel.
On Halla, people spoke of Justice like he was some monster out of nightmares. This unstoppable force of evil. I hadn’t believed it, because I thought of him the way I thought of any government official. Probably ruthless, but also somewhat ineffectual. A figurehead with an ego and a bad attitude.
That was before I’d learned about Illiapol and what had happened to Deacon’s father and Silence. What happened to humans on Orhon. All the atrocities Justice had committed. All the horrors…
I had been forced to kill two of his hunters. Their deaths would make a statement. But their deaths were nothing compared to winning Illiapol. That would make Justice angry. I had to win. Not for myself. Not anymore. I had to win to make him realize he was not invincible.
To make all Ladrians see that Justice was not unbeatable.
My boots crunched on the pebbly path as I trudged forward. Every step I took was full of aches and pains, but my body was so raw with abuse and fatigue, that I was strangely numb, too. It was like taking steps in a dream.
