Page 92 of Choosing Jenny
Then Malice and Longshot arrived, with Longshot’s face more haggard than I’d ever seen it. But that wasn’t all that was different.
“You have a hand!” I exclaimed, both surprised and excited for him.
He gave a sheepish smile. “Most of one.” He held it up, and his thumb, pointer, and middle finger had no skin.
“Oh, gods.” I grimaced, out of my element. “What do we do?”
“I believe Surge can help with the healing,” Longshot began.
“Not any time soon,” Discord cut in. “We healed Aphonic and—”
“You did?” Malice was shocked at the news.
Discord gave a brief nod, but there was a lingering sadness in her eyes. “The dining room, if you don’t mind.” Then she walked that way, Surge still in her arms.
We all followed. It seemed as good a place as any to debrief. Discord draped Surge in his usual seat as he lightly snored. I pulled out Longshot’s chair for him, since I didn’t think he wanted to try and do so in his condition.
He smiled at me. “Gratitude, Tiger.”
“Of course. Can I get anything for anyone?”
“Just take a seat, Tiger love, this won’t take long. I hope,” Malice said wearily, just as Vine showed up with snacks and olirck. “Thank you, Vine. You don’t need to be up this late taking care of us, though.”
She smiled sweetly. I wasn’t sure if she had another smile. “I love doting on you, Malice, you know that. All of you look like you’ve been through a lot, so do let me know if there is anything else I can do for you.”
“There is, actually.” Malice smiled up at her. “You can go to bed.”
She smacked his forearm and laughed. “Now, now, don’t go getting sassy with me, youngling. I’ll check back in a bit.” Then she toddled off to leave us to our chat.
Malice settled back in his chair and looked around, his expression unreadable in terms of how his evening had gone with Noc and Longshot. “Who would like to go first?” he asked.
“I will,” I said, and cleared my throat. “Everything with Sam went exactly as planned. She and her family are safe at Enelorrk.”
He nodded his head. “That’s a relief. Jenny, Discord?”
“Aphonic is healed,” Discord said, though her voice cracked and she looked…dejected.
Malice frowned at her. “Then why do you look like she’s not?”
To my shock, Discord was overcome with emotion and started to cry. “She can’t…she won’t…” She couldn’t finish and buried her face in her hands.
“We did heal Aphonic,” Jenny said since Discord couldn’t seem to find her words, and our attention shifted to her to find out what the issue was. “Aphonic is back in her own body again. But she doesn’t want to be the one to kill Justice, and she doesn’t want Discord to train her. And even though she’s whole again, she won’t leave the palace. She’s pretending to be catatonic sothey’ll send her to Credo’s island like they planned. For her, it’s the only way she’ll find peace.”
“Peace?” Discord cried out, lifting her tear-streaked face. “There is no peace with that piece of shit on the throne. We have to kill him, Malice, we have to!”
“And we will,” he promised her, his tone even, but pained. “It’s just…it will take more time than I had anticipated.”
I frowned, feeling as though something more was going on. “Why is that?”
Mal rubbed a hand down his face, and it was then I realized just how distraught he looked. “We were in the middle of Noc healing Longshot when Rasmine ran in, saying Justice had to see us in the council chamber. Justice had an assassin who tried to kill him strapped to a stretching rack and three monitors set up. One of Rasmine’s son. One of Noc’s daughter…” he paused, jaw flexing, as though he had to muster up the courage to speak. “And one of Elizabeth Hollinger.”
“The fuck did you just say?” Jenny spat, her eyes wide with disbelief.
“He has her, Jen,” Malice said softly, as if that could somehow lessen the blow of such devastating news. “She’s here on Orhon.”
Her eyes went wild, then shot around the room like she was thinking way too fast. “Then we get her back. We get Jac to break her out like Sam’s family—”
“She’s not in the prison,” Malice interrupted her. “She’s in the palace. As Justice’s personal guest, which makes it nearly impossible to extricate her.”
