Page 28 of Taking Jenny (Planet Orhon #4)

Jenny

S he’s just a human!

Mal’s words had been muffled by the lab door, but I heard them loud and clear. Sharp enough to cleave straight through me.

Just a human. Like I was nothing. Like I meant nothing.

But that wasn’t the whole truth. I wasn’t just human. Not really. I was half-Ladrian, and I wondered how fast Mal would backpedal if he ever found out the rest—that Volatile Bateen was my father. That I was Justice Bateen’s niece . That my sisters were, too.

Tiger knew. Of course he knew. He’d worked with Jac, Sarah’s companion. And despite the fact that Tiger was now sleeping with Mal, he had still kept my secret. That counted for something.

The lab door creaked open and Surge peeked in on me. “How are you feeling?”

I shifted on the exam table, every movement pulling at the tension knotting inside me. “Not great, but that has more to do with Mal than whatever happened to me.” I glanced down at my limbs, confused. “How…how am I even healed?”

He stepped inside and closed the door with a shrug. “A little of this, a little of that.”

“Surge—”

“You came to Orhon with Tiger, right?” he interrupted, meandering through the lab like we were just making small talk.

“Yes.”

The flicker of distrust I saw in his eyes chilled me. “Why?” he asked.

I couldn’t tell him the truth. “My reasons are private.”

“I see.” He casually grabbed a few items off the nearby counter as he made his way to me. “Tell me, Jenny, what do you know of magicians?”

He stopped in front of where I was sitting, and a weird unease crept through me. “Not much. Just that some people really don’t like them. Why are you asking me all these weird questions?”

His hand lashed out so fast I barely had time to react. A scalpel pressed to my throat, firm, cold, and not yet cutting my skin. But close enough.

I sucked in a startled breath but didn’t move. “What the fuck, Surge?”

“I didn’t see it before, but now I do.” His voice was calm, too calm. “You’re here to kill me, aren’t you?”

“What?” Was he deranged? “No! What the hell are you talking about?”

“Who is the new Mother?” he demanded to know. “Who ordered my execution?”

I swallowed hard, feeling the sharp scrape of the scalpel against my skin. “I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

Surge’s eyes shone black in the lab’s low light. “I liked you. I thought you were good for Mal. You played your part well, but how were you going to escape after you killed me? Do those bitches have a plan for you to escape at Illiapol? I mean, it would be brilliant. No one would expect that—”

“Surge!” My heart pounded so hard I could hear it in my ears. “For the love of god, stop! What the fuck is going on?”

“God?” he snapped, eyes narrowing on my face. “Singular?”

I was so confused. “What?”

“You said ‘god’. Not gods.”

“So? It’s just a figure of speech.”

“You…you’re not…” His voice faltered and the scalpel dipped. I held still anyway, afraid to even breath wrong. “Are you here to kill me?”

“No!” My voice shook, but I didn’t back down. “Why the fuck would I want to kill you?”

“When you were unconscious, I had to do a hand reading on your brain. I found…things. Anomalous structures. Not human. Then, I tasted your blood.”

I grimaced. “Seriously? Why?”

“So I could know what you are,” he said simply. “You’re a conduit, aren’t you?”

I cursed under my breath. “Okay, fine. I can see ghosts, but that’s it. I don’t know how to do…anything.” Not like my sister Sarah, who is now the contra. “I’m not trained, and you can’t tell the others, Surge. Please.” My voice dropped. “I don’t know what will happen if they find out.”

His mouth gaped open. “You’re a wild conduit?”

“I have no idea what that means.”

“You’ve never been trained? Even at your age?”

I pursed my lips. “I’m only twenty-two. You don’t need to make me sound ancient.”

That made him laugh, and surprisingly, relax. He tucked the scalpel away and sat on the stool across from me. “I did not mean it that way. Most conduits were taken as toddlers. Trained from the age of two. Your case is practically unheard of. And a human conduit, even more so.”

I rubbed my neck where the scalpel had pressed, and not wanting him to think too long and hard on the human aspect of it all, I diverted the conversation. “Why did you think I was here to kill you?”

“Because I’m a magician.”

“You say that like it answers my question, but I’m still lost.”

He studied me for a long moment, then said, “You really don’t know anything, do you?”

I shook my head, keeping my response as vague as possible. “I only recently told my sisters that I can see ghosts. Until I came here, I didn’t know what a conduit was, let alone that I was one.”

He rubbed his chin. “Do you know anything about the Ladrian life cycle?”

I recalled what Sarah had told me. “You’re born. You die. Your body is taken to Halla and burned to release your ghost. And when your ghost dies on Halla, you go to the ether, where you wait to be reborn, and sometimes when you’re reborn, you remember parts of your past lives, right?”

He nodded, seemingly impressed with my knowledge. “Very good. You’re aware that women hold very little authority here, yes?”

I rolled my eyes. “Apparently, misogyny is a universal language, no matter the species.”

He gave me a grim smile. “It is. But for centuries, conduits counterbalanced that. Only women can be conduits. No one knows why, much to Justice’s eternal frustration.

But if trained, a conduit can see and speak to ghosts, summon them, even act as the literal bridge between the living and the dead. ”

“That’s a lot of power.” And I was keenly aware that my sister, Sarah, could do all that, and more.

He nodded. “It was. They used it to lead religion and dictate culture. For centuries, conduits ruled the spiritual structure of our society.”

“And magicians were against that?” I asked, trying to make sense of things.

“We were…inconvenient for the conduits. We study what’s forbidden. Physics, medicine, alternate magics. Truths the conduits want hidden. It made us enemies. They had the power of spirit. We had the pursuit of science. So, they hunted us.”

My chest ached. “That’s horrible. I’m sorry that happened, Surge.”

“It’s not your fault, Jenny. You only just got here.” He smiled faintly. “No vendettas yet.”

Something like guilt lodged in my throat. “Do magicians have a leader?”

He shook his head. “Not one to speak of. We’re less centralized than conduits. The last gathering of magicians happened about thirty years ago. I was just a kid, but I remember everyone was terrified. If it weren’t for Justice, we’d all be dead.”

I blinked. “Wait. He did something good ?”

“That’s a matter of perspective,” Surge said.

“Justice never liked conduits. The idea of women having any real power made his skin crawl. His sister, Constance, was a conduit. She was supposed to take over when the Mother passed. But one of Justice’s generals, Primitive Liebach, murdered her in a jealous rage when she refused to unite with him. ”

My eyes went wide. “That’s awful.”

“Liebach was executed for it. That’s when Credo Bateen, Justice and Constance’s father, fell mysteriously ill.”

I grimaced, even while I was fascinated with this history lesson. “That must have thrown Orhon into chaos.”

“It did,” he said with a nod. “But Justice thrives in chaos. He saw nothing but opportunity. He claimed the throne while Credo was sick. And when the conduits demanded the entire Liebach family be executed for what he’d done, Justice refused.

It was the first time a ruler ever went against the Mother’s will.

Tensions boiled until Justice got tired of sharing power altogether.

He declared the religion treasonous and had the conduits executed instead. ”

I gasped in shock. “That’s horrific.”

“True, but that’s why magicians are still around. The conduits had hunted us, our families, too, one by one. Man, woman, child. No one was safe.”

My chest tightened. His voice carried so much pain, and I couldn’t shake the sense of guilt I felt. “I know I said it before, and I know it doesn’t make anything better, but …I’m really sorry that happened, Surge.”

He cleared his throat and met my gaze. “So, any urge to kill me now that you know what I am?”

I smiled at him. “Let’s put it this way. If I can get through life without killing anyone, I’ll call that a win.”

He tipped his head. “You sure you’re a conduit?” he teased.

I exhaled on a laugh. “Honestly, I have no idea. I haven’t even seen a ghost since I’ve been on Orhon.”

“Unsurprising,” he said. “Ladrian ghosts stay on Halla. Always have.”

“Still, you’d think there’d be some hanging around. This place is huge. Someone had to die here and not get sent to Halla. Is it required for your body to burn before your ghost can be released?”

His brow furrowed. “I’m not sure. That’s just how it’s always been done. But now that you say it, I’m not sure if it’s required or just tradition.”

I bit my bottom lip, hesitating before I addressed my concern. “You’re not going to tell anyone about me, right?”

“I tell Mal everything—”

“Please, Surge. Don’t. He already thinks I’m fucked up as it is. I don’t need to add conduit to the list of reasons he hates me.”

His expression softened. “He doesn’t hate you.”

I huffed. “He yelled at me. Called me a quitter—”

“Jenny.” He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “He doesn’t hate you. He likes you. A lot.”

That stopped me cold. Part of me wanted to believe him, but the other part didn’t know what to do with that kind of hope. “Then why would he scream at me like that and say those awful things?”

“Because he’s terrible at feelings.”

“Meaning?” I pushed.

“Mal, he likes the unusual. You and Tiger, you’re both brave, even when you shouldn’t be.

It’s rare, that kind of courage, classed or not.

” He gestured to himself. “If you haven’t noticed, each of us—me, Discord, and Longshot—we’re not your average Ladrians.

Neither is Mal and he’s never run with the mainstream despite being raised by Justice. ”

I tipped my head curiously. “Well, what’s your deal?”

He chuckled. “I’m a half-size magician. That’s basically strike one and two.”

“Is being half-size really that unusual?”

“Yes. Not long ago, half-sizes were murdered at birth.”

I recoiled. “That’s barbaric.”

He nodded grimly. “Mal jokes about me being lucky. But part of that is because he knows my family’s story. My mother had five daughters before me. They were desperate for a son. So when I was born, they refused to acknowledge anything but that they’d finally gotten one.”

My chest tightened. “If you’d been their firstborn…”

“I wouldn’t be here,” he said quietly.

“And what about Discord and Longshot?” I asked him. “What makes them so special that they’re in Mal’s menagerie?”

“If you want to hear their stories, then you should ask them. I won’t break their trust, just like I won’t break yours.”

“You mean, you’re not going to tell them about me being a conduit?”

“No,” he said simply. “I’m not.”

“Why not?” I asked, genuinely curious.

He looked at me, really looked, and said, “If there’s ever going to be a way to mend the rift between magicians and conduits, I want to be part of it.”

A warmth bloomed in my chest. “Me too.” Then I exhaled slowly. “So, Mal thinks I’m just a human. That I’m useless.”

“Humans are not useless.”

I arched a brow. “Longshot seems to think so.”

“Longshot wouldn’t fuck one,” Surge pointed out. “That doesn’t mean he thinks you are useless. You have more to offer than sex, don’t you?”

That made me laugh. “Sure. Some days.”

“And Mal doesn’t think you’re useless either,” Surge added. “He just doesn’t want Longshot training you like a Ladrian. Our healing rates are faster than yours. Mal is trying to protect you, even if he’s doing it…badly.”

“Oh.” I looked down, chewing on that bit of information. “Well, that actually makes sense.”

“If you stop assuming the worst of people, you might find life here a little easier.”

“Says the guy who held a scalpel to my throat?”

He chuckled and looked away sheepishly. “Okay, fair. But I’m trying to do better. So maybe we both can.”