Page 11 of Petals for Vicious Secrets

“I thought mouring is not allowed in the grounds of any House,” Lenna said, lifting her eyebrows. Some experienced panoms, including all the Rulers, mastered the ability to move themselves and other people through space using their magic.

“Unless you are a panom and a resident of the House you are mouring in or out. Otherwise, the epitellia wards are likely to hurt or kill you,” Ciaran said. “My father and I received the news about Raoul’s appearance together, and no one else meets the two criteria for mouring here.”

Removing the epitellia wards was like leaving the doors open to a normal house, hanging the keys on the door and putting a big note saying, “Thieves, please do not steal while nobody is in.” Lenna doubted Cobrian Castel, the Ruler of the West House and Ciaran's father, had taken such a risk for his House.

Ciaran nodded, as if reading Lenna's mind. “I know,” he said. “I don't understand it either, but thank the Fifth nothing happened.”

“Have you seen him? Is he okay?” Lenna asked.

“I haven’t. The healers told me he’s in a room in one of the towers, but…” Ciaran hesitated.

“But what, Ciaran?” Lenna prompted impatiently.

“The two healers I spoke to said Raoul is not wholly here.” His dark blue eyes reflecting the light of the moon and the dozens of dimly lit bulbs that illuminated the bridges across the lake. Lenna felt the blood in her veins go cold, but Ciaran continued. “They said he looks like he is asleep, but they cannot wake him up and they cannot get a response from him. They said it is as if his mind is somewhere else.”

“Where the fuck is somewhere else?” Lenna spat, devastation and anger growing inside her. If someone had done this to Raoul, she would make them pay, even if it was the last thing she did.

“You will speak to me with respect, Lenna,” Ciaran said in a grave, slow voice.

“Sorry,” she muttered.

“The healers are trying different ways to bring his mind back, and they said my father ordered some researchers to be permanently assigned to the Learning Commons until further notice.”

Lenna felt her knees trembling and a hurtful knot in her chest. She leaned against the wall and let her legs drop her to the grassy ground, where she crossed them and stared at the silhouette of the white castle.

“It's still early, Lenna. He’s not even been here for a day,” Ciaran said, looking at her with empathy and sadness in equal amounts.

Lenna said nothing as a rumble of thoughts were crossing her mind at a hurried speed. She needed to know why they had found Raoul, and why anyone wanted him back in Thyria. Why they had overrode the sentence that got him discarded two years ago, completely unfairly as far as Lenna understood. She couldn’t think of any other case when someone had returned to Thyria after being discarded. She didn’t even think the Laws allowed such a thing, and she doubted the other Rulers, including her father, were remotely aware that Raoul was here. And why would Cobrian Castel, one of the powerful five Rulers of Thyria, had gone through all this trouble of researchers and healers for Raoul, the son of two discarded ex-servants? None of it made any fucking sense.

She didn’t dare contemplate what would happen to her friend if his mind didn’t return from “somewhere else”, whatever the fuck that meant. Lenna sank her fingers into the grass, feeling the soil getting under her nails and the wet freshness of the thin leaves touching the palms of her hands.

After a while, Lenna turned her face from the mesmerizing waters that surrounded the small island in front of them and looked at Ciaran.

“I'm glad Raoul is here,” she said.

She truly was. Even if she couldn't reach or see him yet, it was better knowing he was here than the Fifth knew where. And the second best place in Thyria to keep him, besides the North House, was the West House. It was also the closest to her own House, so hopefully that would be to her advantage when figuring out how to get to him. Plus, Ciaran was here.

Ciaran nodded in silence. Next to a tree, Ayla was standing with her arms crossed, staring at them with rage in her eyes, her jaw tight.

“What?” Lenna snapped.

Ayla’s fingers were tense against her arms. “I don’t believe him,” tilting her face towards Ciaran.

Ciaran snorted, not even bothering to look at Ayla.

“You don’t believe him?” Lenna asked her, incredulous, as she stood up.

“That’s exactly what I said,” Ayla replied with a superior smile. “I don’t believe any Ruler would move a finger for that boy, least of all bring him to his own House and use their personnel to help such a nobody.”

She should have expected that her haughty, self-important sister would consider her sister’s friend a nobody. Anyone that did not belong to the Elite was not enough for superior-ass Ayla. Lenna was dubious between slapping her damned sister’s face or using the basic magic knowledge she had to kick her bloody ass out of there.

“She’s not worth your rage, Lenna,” he said calmly. Lenna looked at him and realized her body had been on alert. She had unconsciously adapted the same position she used to fight when training with Theon.

Theon wouldn’t let Ayla get under his skin. Theon would fucking laugh at her face. Lenna knew he would because he had done so when the piece of shit of her sister had the bad idea of trying to undermine him. Lenna, with bitter anger still roaring in her veins, looked at Ciaran and thanked him in silence.

“I’m so over you two.” Ayla stomped towards the white marble door that had taken them into the grounds of the West and disappeared behind it. Lenna would be impressed if her sister remembered the way back to the market. It had taken Lenna many times accompanying Raoul to the door until she could remember the complicated paths and turns she had to take.

Ciaran was trying to contain a smile. “She’s going to get lost down there.”

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