Page 91 of Seducing Jenny
“Not at all,” I said, giving myself another quick wash, along with him. “I wasn’t hungry before because…of everything. But you made me feel a lot better, and now I’m also super hungry.”
We finished in the shower, dried off, and threw on robes before we made our way to the kitchen, digging through the pantries and coolers—what they called refrigerators. We made a snack of rannat and fresh, crusty bread and chilled grapes. He poured cups of banwine, and we nibbled and drank until a nearby door closed.
Tiger came into the kitchen, startled to see us there. “Hey, you two.”
I immediately noticed something was off. He smiled at us, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
He didn’t answer me. Not at first. He looked to Mal and something silent passed between them before Mal said, “It’s okay. She’s doing better. What’s going on?”
“I’m much better,” I assured him. “Why do you look like you saw a ghost?”
He visibly flinched. “How did you know?”
I blinked. “I…I didn’t. It’s an Earth expression, meaning you look shaken up. Wait, yousawa ghost?” To my knowledge, only conduits could do that on Orhon.
“No, I…I heard her,” Tiger said, taking a seat at the small table with us. “It was Grass. She tried to come at me again. She failed, but she told me she used to fuck Rex Terian—”
“What?” Mal barked, looking shocked at the news.
“And that she was executed for it,” Tiger added quietly. “By you.”
Mal exhaled hard. “I wonder if that’s why she was trying to fuck me on Credo’s island. Get me to let my guard down, so she could return the favor.”
I frowned, thinking about what Tiger just said. “Why would that be enough to get her executed? Why would Justice care who she fucks?”
“Because she had been involved with his sister, Thunder, first,” Tiger said. “Grass cheated on her with Rex.”
“Oh.” I knew Ladrians took that kind of betrayal seriously, but still. I shifted my gaze to Mal. “Wait, you don’t remember executing someone named Grass? How many people are named Grass?”
Mal leaned back in his chair and shrugged. “It’s not an unusual name here. What else did she say, Tiger?”
He hesitated, glancing at me, then away. “That she’s going to tell Justice about what you’ve done, Mal.”
He rolled his eyes. “Not real worried about that. I can’t stop her, and Justice isn’t likely to take her word for anything, if she even has the energy to tell him out loud by the time she reaches the palace. It takes a lot of energy for a ghost to travel or to speak for any non-conduit to hear them.”
I was still trying to put the pieces together in my mind. “Why didn’t Justice execute Rex, too?”
“He couldn’t,” Mal said. “Rex is friends with all the warlords. Justice would have lost his army…” he turned to Tiger.
“That’s why he sent him with Deacon Ladrang in the first place, yeah,” Tiger finished with a nod. “I asked Grass about that, too. She says he sent him with a barely trained boy with the hopes that he wouldn’t come back.”
I still didn’t follow. “How would she evenknowall that?” I asked.
“It’s the only thing that makes any sense,” Mal answered, seemingly deep in thought while mulling over the informationTiger had just given him. “It fits. That’s what Justice does. He moves the chest pieces until he gets what he wants.”
“There’s more,” Tiger said quietly. He hesitated for a moment, as if considering his words before he said, “Sam has a crush on Surge.”
Mal grinned. “Good. I think it’s mutual.”
I smiled at both of my men. “Who knows, maybe this place will be filled with love by the end of all this craziness?”
Tiger chuckled. “We’ll have to find people for Longshot and Discord, and I am not playing matchmaker for either of them.”
Mal snorted a laugh. “Me neither.”
They looked at me, both grinning.
I mumbled, “Shit.”
