Page 57 of Choosing Jenny
Longshot slowly shook his head. “I do not believe the Lady Aphonic Bateen will be capable of such a gruesome thing, Discord.”
“If you were in her place, couldn’t you?” she countered.
“I was not raised a proper lady,” Longshot said. “The most violent thing she has ever done is trim a split end.”
Discord’s eyes gleamed. “You’d be surprised by what a motivated woman can do.”
“I am sure you are right about that.”
Sarah leaned forward, looking at Longshot. “So, will you at least wait to let Aphonic have a go at him?”
He thought quietly for a moment. “Give Aphonic the choice. If anyone deserves to get bloody vengeance on Justice, it is her. But if she does not wish to do it, I will take matters into my own hands.”
Rhonda wormed her way up to Longshot’s neck, nuzzling his cheek with the top of her head. I wasn’t sure if it was her showing support for his plan or if she was begging him not to risk his life. Strigella were inscrutable that way.
CHAPTER 18
Tiger
It took an hour before the Vulavi stopped snarling at us.
They still stirred and snapped anytime someone talked too loudly, but at least they’d stopped leaping at the walls. Thankfully, Gram had been right. The ledges were too high for them to reach, but they could lean against the wall below to snap up at us. One beast in particular was long enough that I was afraid to let my legs dangle over the edge of the ledge.
“I can’t believe she did this to us,” Surge whispered, still in shock over Sam’s actions.
“I am sorry, Surge,” I whispered back, but shockingly, a part of me could sympathize with Sam’s plight. “But if Justice has her family—”
“I know,” he conceded. “Sam is clearly terrified, and she and I only just met. I can’t blame her for not choosing me over her own family. I’m just sorry that she did this to you, too. And the others.”
“It’s not your fault. It’s not hers, either. It’shis.”
The last word came out of my mouth with so much hatred for Justice and set the beasts snarling again. But they were too tired to put any real effort behind it. I had a feeling they were telling us to shut up so they could sleep.
“Does your driver still not have a signal?” Surge asked.
I shook my head. “It works as a light and nothing else. I stopped getting any messages the moment the door went down.”
He let out a low sigh. “I’m going to try the door again.”
I frowned at him. “You said it wasn’t a real door, so your powers don’t work on it.”
“He says a lot of things,” Omen griped from the ledge across from ours. “But all I’ve seen is some glowy hand tricks.”
More snarls erupted from down below.
“You’re just grumpy because you’re claustrophobic,” Gram snapped at her.
A Vulavi tried to scramble up their side of the cave wall toward Gram, and we all went still and quiet before it gave up and lay back down.
“The only thing worse than a magician is a useless magician,” Omen said in a sarcastic tone.
“Oh, give it a rest,” her brother said, his annoyance ringing off the cave walls.
Gram’s Vulavi friend below tried once again to eat him and failed.
Surge said nothing in his own defense. He merely walked toward the door to try again to open it.
I leaned against the wall to think, though there wasn’t much room to do so. Tipping my head back against the hot cave wall let the sweat pour down my neck instead of into my eyes, which was a nice change. I wasn’t sure if dehydration or the Vulavi would get us first. Being inside the cave was like being in a reekingsauna. It was easy to think only of a grim future. I had no reason to think otherwise.
