Page 86 of Seducing Jenny
“I am not a child. I don’t have crushes.” Her voice dropped to something more sultry. “I have interests. See you later.”
“Remember he almost died today, so pace yourself,” I called after her. “Good luck.”
“And to you.” Then she traipsed toward her room in the opposite direction.
I had wished her good luck, but it was something I never really understood. How luck worked. Why it happened for some, but not for others.
Was it luck that Jade, well Grass, hadn’t slashed Surge’s throat any deeper, or was it a lack of skill? Had luck led us on a path to finding Mal, or could it have been a simple matter of coincidences, that Jenny knew people who might know where we should go? How much luck had played into meeting the two people I was destined to love, especially considering Jenny’s planet of origin?
Luck was the trickiest of notions, and the most fickle of all the gods was Kable, the Ladrian god of luck. No matter how I thought about the gods, there was always a part of me that wondered if I was right. The elders of the Orne clan were devout, even after Justice declared the faith to be treason. His order didn’t matter to any of them, which might have been what had gotten them killed.
But growing up in that environment, with the elders pushing us to believe and with reality showing us every reason not to, I left my clan with an extensive knowledge of the gods and complete doubt of their existence.
Still. Part of me questioned my doubt.If they are real, what’s the harm in paying tribute?
I walked outside under the waxing moons. Faint hoots and hisses in the trees nearby told me there was a battle between a cina and an olker. I would have felt bad for the cina, had I not witnessed a family of them take an olker down once when I was a kid. It meant they stood a chance, which is really all any of us needed. A chance.
And good luck.
I gathered some twigs and dry leaves, stacking them as neatly as I could onto the terrace tiles for safety. I sat with a leg on either side of my fire shrine and scratched a groove into the largest twig, then worked that groove with another twig hard and steady, the way I had been shown as a child. I could still hear Elder Gammon’s voice in my mind, cautioning, “Kable does not like a fire started with your fancy hand cannons or your lighters. It must be a natural fire to capture his affection.”
And then she’d swat the back of my cousin’s head when she caught him cheating. I smiled, thinking back on Kapok’s defiance. He was my hero, right until the moment he died in front of me.
A hiss between my legs startled me. My coal had gone from a hint of smoke to extinguished steam. Studying what happened, I realized another tear rolled down my face. Damn. I had killed my coal with a tear.
I wiped my face and started again, determined not to cry when I thought of Kapok. Most of the time, I was able to think of him and hold back my feelings, but outside and alone in the dark, I was safe to release them. No one around to ask me to explain my emotions. I could just be with my grief.
I inhaled a slow, deep breath and worked the stick back and forth until the stick had sharpened, and another coal built up. Gently, I turned it out onto the dry leaves, and eventually, my work became a brilliant flame. Kapok would have been proud.
I laced my fingers and began the old prayer of Kable. “Hail to Kable, god of luck. He who does not rest. He who does not eat. He who does not bend. It is you to whom I entreat, for we are nothing without your favor. A man can have all the wisdom, but without luck he is doomed, and so I ask you, Kable, for your favor.”
I held out my forearm and with the sharpened stick, cut myself to drip my blood into the flame. “I beg of you, Kable, bring me your favor, and I will remain your servant. But if you don’t, I will still remain your servant, for you are the God of gods—”
“Even if you don’t believe in them anymore?” A woman giggled nearby.
I looked around, searching the darkness for her. I stood and demanded, “Show yourself.”
“You can’t see me, Tiger, but I can see you.”
My eyes darted everywhere, finding nothing. “Where are you?”
“Here I am…” Frigid cold passed across my shoulders, forcing a shiver from me. “Don’t fight my touch. I can give you all the luck that you want. I am Kable.”
“Like hell you are,” I growled, tensing. “Kable is a male god. You’re a female ghost, and I’m guessing your name is Grass.”
“Of course you think the god of luck is a male.” She tsked at me. “I’m sure all men do.”
“If you’re a god, then you can show yourself.”
She giggled again, then sarcastically said, “Damn, you’re too smart for me.”
“You won’t have an easy time of it again, Grass. We know who you are, we know what you want. You’re not getting it from any of us.”
“Who says I want anything from any of you?” she mocked.
“Jade told us everything. You won’t fool me.”
Her voice suddenly darkened. “I could take your hands and take your body in an instant, boy. Don’t think I won’t.”
