Dark Jenny (34 page)

Liz stood on tiptoe and examined the tree. “I think it goes here,” she said, and slid her fingers into a vertical slit roughly the width of the blade.

Then with a shriek she jumped back, waving at the cloud that surged forth. “Bees!
Bees!
”

I helped her swat them away and we fell laughing to the grass on the other side of the clearing. We waited until the angry insects calmed down, then I snuck up and put the tip of the sword into the opening. I pushed it in and ran back in case more bees appeared. But none did.

“Well, that’s it,” Liz said.

“Not quite. I still have to check it.”

“Check it?”

“Yeah, you know.”

She shook her head. “Boys.”

I put my foot on the root where so many others had stood, wrapped my hand around the hilt, and pulled. Hard.

The sword that had moments before slid in like butter now refused to budge.

I shifted my grip and braced one foot on the tree’s trunk for leverage.

“That’s cheating,” Liz observed.

I tried again. The sword remained immobile.

I rejoined Liz and put my arm around her shoulders. The wind ruffling the branches made the sun dance around the sword like little fairies of light. It must’ve looked like this when Marcus Drake first approached it as a boy, guided by Cameron Kern toward a destiny that had consumed him. Now it awaited the next Marcus Drake, who would hopefully be older, smarter, and better able to resist his own darkness.

The future king, once again.

Or something like that.

BOOKS BY

ALEX BLEDSOE

Blood Groove

The Girls with Games of Blood

The Sword-Edged Blonde

Burn Me Deadly

Dark Jenny

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

DARK JENNY: AN EDDIE LACROSSE NOVEL

Copyright © 2011 by Alex Bledsoe

All rights reserved.

A Tor
®
eBook

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Tor
®
is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bledsoe, Alex.

Dark Jenny / Alex Bledsoe.—1st ed.

p. cm.

“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”

ISBN 978-0-7653-2743-7

1.  Swordsmen—Fiction.   2.  Murder—Investigation—Fiction.   I.  Title.

PS3602.L456D37 2011

813'.6—dc22

2010036669

First Edition: April 2011

eISBN 978-1-4299-5416-7

First Tor eBook Edition: March 2011