Page 61 of Taking Jenny
“You came to Orhon with Tiger, right?” he interrupted, meandering through the lab like we were just making small talk.
“Yes.”
The flicker of distrust I saw in his eyes chilled me. “Why?” he asked.
I couldn’t tell him the truth. “My reasons are private.”
“I see.” He casually grabbed a few items off the nearby counter as he made his way to me. “Tell me, Jenny, what do you know of magicians?”
He stopped in front of where I was sitting, and a weird unease crept through me. “Not much. Just that some people really don’t like them. Why are you asking me all these weird questions?”
His hand lashed out so fast I barely had time to react. A scalpel pressed to my throat, firm, cold, and not yet cutting my skin. But close enough.
I sucked in a startled breath but didn’t move. “What the fuck, Surge?”
“I didn’t see it before, but now I do.” His voice was calm, too calm. “You’re here to kill me, aren’t you?”
“What?”Was he deranged?“No! What the hell are you talking about?”
“Who is the new Mother?” he demanded to know. “Who ordered my execution?”
I swallowed hard, feeling the sharp scrape of the scalpel against my skin. “I have no idea what you’re talking about!”
Surge’s eyes shone black in the lab’s low light. “I liked you. I thought you were good for Mal. You played your part well, but how were you going to escape after you killed me? Do those bitches have a plan for you to escape at Illiapol? I mean, it would be brilliant. No one would expect that—”
“Surge!” My heart pounded so hard I could hear it in my ears. “For the love of god, stop! What the fuck is going on?”
“God?” he snapped, eyes narrowing on my face. “Singular?”
I was so confused. “What?”
“You said ‘god’. Not gods.”
“So? It’s just a figure of speech.”
“You…you’re not…” His voice faltered and the scalpel dipped. I held still anyway, afraid to even breath wrong. “Are you here to kill me?”
“No!” My voice shook, but I didn’t back down. “Why the fuck would I want to kill you?”
“When you were unconscious, I had to do a hand reading on your brain. I found…things. Anomalous structures. Not human. Then, I tasted your blood.”
I grimaced. “Seriously? Why?”
“So I could know what you are,” he said simply. “You’re a conduit, aren’t you?”
I cursed under my breath. “Okay, fine. I can see ghosts, but that’s it. I don’t know how to do…anything.”Not like my sister Sarah, who is now the contra.“I’m not trained, and you can’t tell the others, Surge. Please.” My voice dropped. “I don’t know what will happen if they find out.”
His mouth gaped open. “You’re awildconduit?”
“I have no idea what that means.”
“You’ve never been trained? Even at your age?”
I pursed my lips. “I’m only twenty-two. You don’t need to make me sound ancient.”
That made him laugh, and surprisingly, relax. He tucked the scalpel away and sat on the stool across from me. “I did not mean it that way. Most conduits were taken as toddlers. Trained from the age of two. Your case is practically unheard of. And a human conduit, even more so.”
I rubbed my neck where the scalpel had pressed, and not wanting him to think too long and hard on the human aspect of it all, I diverted the conversation. “Why did you think I was here to kill you?”
