Page 104 of Seducing Jenny
“What’s the cost?” Surge asked.
Longshot glanced at his strigella. “Rhonda.”
Jenny gasped. “No!”
Longshot stroked Rhonda’s scaled body, while she tightened up his arm. “The spell needs a strigella’s blood.”
“You can’t!” Jenny insisted fiercely.
“Agreed,” Surge said, backing down. “We will find another way.”
Longshot sighed gratefully. “Thank you for understanding. About…everything.”
Surge didn’t let him completely off the hook. “I understand, but we are not okay yet, Longshot. Not even close. It’s going to take the best neneed you can afford. Maybe a little whickler while we’re at it. Hell, I might need to see you parade downtown Ladrille in a jester’s costume, too. As penance.”
Longshot half-smirked at Surge’s attempt at humor. “Whatever it takes.”
Jenny stared at my friend, looking intrigued. “So, you’re a magician, too?”
“No. I was born into a family of them,” Longshot clarified. “I was deemed unworthy of their gifts and never trained.”
“Because you were the ninth child?” she reiterated.
“Yes. Nine is the number of doom.”
She glanced at me in surprise, and I nodded. “You mentioned wanting to train with the conduits. They’ll teach you all about numerology and other superstitions of the faith.”
Jenny was thoughtful for a long moment before speaking again. “Does that mean you don’t have powers like Surge?”
“I do not,” Longshot confirmed. “I know a few spells, but only what I gleaned by listening at the crack in my closet door.”
“Don’t you meanbedroomdoor?”
“No, I never had a bedroom as a child.”
She frowned, before she quietly asked, “Does that mean…you grew up in a closet?”
He nodded. “I was fortunate that a maid risked my family’s wrath to let me see daylight now and then.”
Jenny’s fingers gripped mine. Her fury was barely concealed behind her steady voice. “I am so sorry, Longshot. That is fucked up.”
He met her eyes with a quiet grace. “Things are better now.”
“Yeah, but—”
I squeezed her hand and gently shook my head. Longshot had spoken of his childhood closet only but a few times in our friendship. I was surprised he was being so forthright now, but nearly losing Surge must have shaken him. Longshot stroked Rhonda and stared out the window as we broke atmo on Halla near Credo’s island.
“So the spells you know,” Jenny continued, treading much more cautiously. “They would have told you if someone came to the estate possessed?”
“Yes. They would also tell me if someone on the property intended to do harm.”
“Seems handy, if the cost weren’t so high.”
Rhonda uncoiled and slithered to Longshot’s shoulder, the one next to Jenny. I would sworn she smiled, even though I knew strigella couldn’t smile. Jenny petted her head for a moment, before Rhonda snaked around Longshot’s neck and settled there.
“There’s the island,” I said, pointing out the window.
“It’s so small,” Surge remarked, sounding surprised.
