Page 58 of Seducing Jenny
I glanced at the guys for an answer, both of whom returned the uncertain look.
Mal said, “We will figure that out as we go along.”
“No plan, got it,” she said with no hint of judgement.
We came to Credo’s open window and slipped inside. His body was still in bed, while his ghost struggled against the golden light tether. Abyss gasped, and for me, it was a sickening, disturbing sight that ripped at my heart.
“Can you fix him?” Mal asked, his voice low.
“I don’t know yet,” she murmured. “I’ll need to lay hands on his body to find out what’s happening.” She and I walked to his bed, while Mal and Tiger stood near the window.
“I have never seen anything like this,” she said, her brows furrowed. “Jade, I’ll need your strength.”
“How can I help?”
“We will both lay hands on him. Hold onto his forearm. You might feel lightheaded at first, which is normal.”
I nodded and pressed my palm against Credo’s cool skin. Nothing at first, but then my head started to loll. The floor felt as though it had dropped away from my feet. My tail flapped hard and Credo’s heart pulsed in my veins.
Then something shoved me backwards so hard that I fell against the wall behind me. Mal rushed to my side, helping me to my feet.
“Are you okay?” he whispered hoarsely. “What the fuck was that?”
My head spun, and I felt momentarily dazed. “I don’t know, I—”
Then I saw Abyss. She was attached to Credo, and her ghostly body started to solidify. Her lips trembled and jerked in a silent wail that made her face suddenly gape in horror.
Panicked, I ran around the bed to Abyss, but I couldn’t touch her to pull her from Credo. Tiger tossed me the big bone, and I whacked her with it. She fell back, panting on the floor. Her fall made no sound, despite her mostly solid body.
She carefully returned to her feet. “I…I can’t help him.”
“Why not?” Mal snapped.
“Shh,” I reminded him.
“This is a magician’s curse,” she whispered, her expression apprehensive. “Conduit magic won’t help here. You need a magician to fix the curse.”
“I know someone who might be able to help,” Mal said.
“I don’t think we need to be quiet,” Tiger said, glancing out the window. “There’s only supposed to be four caretakers, right?”
Mal hurried to the window, and Abyss and I joined them. Outside, three men carried a body wrapped in a sheet toward a big fire. Mal’s mouth opened and closed half a dozen times, before he mumbled, “Petal.”
I looked at him in confusion. “Huh?”
His voice was heavy with shock. “She was the only woman here on the island. She was perfectly nice, until my last day here. Then she acted like she wanted me, something that was out of character for her. She aggressively attacked me in my own room, trying to seduce me. I pushed her away, and she said…” He shook his head, hard, then mumbled “This doesn’t make any sense.”
“What?” I prompted.
He looked me in the eye, his mouth stretched into a grim line. “She said that if I didn’t have sex with her, thenshewould kill her.”
“But you said she was the only woman on the island.” The piercing pain was back in my head from trying to understand everything. I winced, pressing my fingertips to my temple.
“She was. I chalked it up to being trapped here for too long, but now…” He stared out the window again as the men tossed her body onto the fire and sparks shot from it, before the flames engulfed the body. “I don’t understand.”
“Whatever is happening, we should leave before they finish the funeral rite,” Tiger pointed out.
We carefully left Credo’s room and went back toCheesecake, unseen by any of the caretakers. Once we were headed back to Sorellamore, the four of us settled into the lounge.
