Page 81 of Taking Jenny
I whirled on him. “You too? You just want to leave? You’re all cowards,” I shouted at them, my hysteria rising. “I thought you were our friends, or at least Mal’s friends, and you want to leave him behind, like he’s—"
“This is what happens when you let the youngsters drink too much.” Surge grimaced at the guards, as if he were embarrassed at my outburst. “Longshot, I could use your help here.”
Longshot sighed. “Very well.”
He abruptly pitched me over his shoulder, like I weighed nothing, knocking my equilibrium off. I tried to kick, but with my head near Longshot’s tail, my neck was in range of Surge. The magician touched my pulse point and everything went black.
When I woke an hour later, I was in my room at Mal’s place. I was still in my suit and my mouth felt like I had swallowed a cina. I downed a glass of water on the nightstand before I remembered what happened at the ball to Jenny and Mal. I jumped up from the bed and ran for the door, only to discover it was locked from the outside.
I slammed my fists against the wood. “Let me out!”
“I will let you out, when you calm down and swear you will not return to the palace like a man with a vendetta,” Surge said from the other side, his voice maddeningly calm.
“I can’t promise that,” I snapped, pacing like a caged animal. I studied the windows in my room, but I already knew that none of them would open. “Why did you knock me out?”
“Couldn’t take all the damn whining, Tiger.”
“I wasn’t whining,” I refuted angrily. “I was worried. Still am. Jenny was taken, dragged away like she didn’t matter. You saw that, right?”
“Of course. We all saw it. But I’m not dumb enough to try to face Justice Bateen and his guards on his own turf. That’s suicide. Are you suicidal, Tiger?”
“I’m not suicidal. I’m pissed off!” I kicked the damn door. “Let me out!”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that until you swear you won’t do something crazy.”
I exhaled loudly, making sure he heard it. “Fine. I won’t do something crazy. I swear.”
A low, sizzling sound vibrated near the door, and then it opened. Surge stood there, not wearing his suit like I still was, but a camouflage bodysuit instead.
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Freedom is for thesane, Tiger. It can easily be taken away.”
I shoved him aside and bolted down the hall. He didn’t try and stop me, which should have been my warning. On the wayto the front door, my foot slipped out from under me and I went down hard. I landed flat on my back, the breath knocked out of me. A marble rolled by my head as I gasped for air.
Longshot loomed over me, infuriatingly calm. “He told you not to do anything crazy.”
Discord joined him, her lips pursed as she peered down at me. “Where did you think you were going?”
“Palace,” I wheezed. “Jenny and Mal. I have to…”
She gave me an impatient look. “What could you possibly do for them inside the palace that you can’t do betteroutsideof it?”
“Get them out…get them safe.”
She grabbed my hand and helped me to my feet. “That’s why we’re going back to the palace.Together.”
“What?” I asked, confused.
Surge strolled past, already on the move, followed by Discord and Longshot. “Come on. You’re making us late.”
That’s when I realized they wereallin camouflage bodysuits. I jogged to catch up. “Well, where’s my bodysuit?”
“In the onworlder,” Discord said, giving me a sly grin. “I get to watch you change.”
“You can watch whatever you want,” I muttered. “So long as we fix this.”
We left the mansion for a different onworlder than the one we’d taken to the palace for the ball. This one was mottled, like the ones the army had driven to my clan’s compound before they’d slaughtered our elders.
“We cannot fix this,” Discord said on the way to the distinctively beaten-up onworlder. “But wearegoing to help them.”
