Page 20 of Petals for Vicious Secrets

Raoul.

“No way, no way, no way!” Hope said, lifting her hands to her mouth as she felt tears building behind her own eyes. Tears of worry at what may await them until they got to him. Tears of tension release. But ultimately… tears of happiness. For Nina.

“There is someone trying to help you, Nina,” Hope cried as she hugged Nina, who was now sobbing, the tears from those ocean-colored eyes wetting Hope’s shoulders.

Aurora was not smiling as she looked at them, a silent tear flowing down her cheek. “There is hope. There is always hope,” she said with a broken voice.

It took them a couple of minutes to let go of their tight embrace, and as soon as they did, Hope grabbed her red rose and entered the bedroom, shutting the curtain behind her.

She looked at the petals and started pulling them one by one, her hands feeling cold with nerves and expectation. She pulled the last petal and the stem and the core vanished, leaving a solid object in its place. Hope felt goosebumps all the way up her legs and the back of her neck when she saw what she was holding between her hands.

It was a compassom.

12

Lenna

Lenna was as eager to win the next round of hand-to-hand combat against Theon as she had ever been. But right now, she was miserably spread on the floor and Theon was standing on top of her with a sideways I-told-you smile and an eyebrow raised.

Indeed, Lenna should have expected the technique that Theon had expertly done to send her to the mat by quickly sweeping his foot under her leg and making her lose her balance.

“Don’t even start, you evil being,” said Lenna, accepting the extended hand Theon was offering to help her stand up.

As Lenna recovered her position in front of him., a bite on his bottom lip was all Theon did to pretend to avoid a smile. “You know perfectly well why that happened.”

“Yes, thank you very much.” She knew she had lost sight of his legs for a moment, and one of Theon’s favorite tips was the dear-oh-so-useful-peripheral-vision. He said that any proper warrior, or at least the ones that liked to remain alive after a battle, must be able to see movements, objects, people, and changes outside of their direct line of sight. Whatever.

“Let’s go again, human Lenna. Actually…” he said. Oh, no. Lenna knew too well what the spark in his eyes meant. Some supposedly clever idea that meant Fifth hell for her. Lenna raised her hands to her red ponytail, bracing herself for whatever illuminated moment Theon had.

“Since this is the last training session we have before you become a mystic power badass panom,” he said and Lenna thought she could feel the roll of her eyes touching her brain. Theon continued with a grin, “We won’t finish until you send me to the floor.”

Ta-fucking-dah. That was his brilliant idea? She had never won a combat against him. Not with their bare hands like they were practicing today, not with any other weapons they had practiced over the past two years.

Lenna crossed her arms. “Do you want me to be late to the Fifth Ceremony tomorrow or what?”

Theon laughed. “Come on, you’re not that bad. I taught you some good stuff.”

“Says the one that has not even so much as allowed me to tie with him,” Lenna said, already dreading how tiring it was going to be to even pretend she had a chance against her heavily muscled and strong trainer. “Ever,” she clarified.

“Less moaning, more fighting.” Theon closed his fists in front of him and placed a foot in front of the other while bending his legs.

Lenna adapted her fighting stance and breathed in deeply, preparing herself to attack and defend and whatever she needed to do to finish this as quickly as possible. Theon looked at her in the eyes as he said “Fight!”, letting the match begin.

She didn’t know where to start. She moved in circles around him, fists tight and ready to go, and she took a fast step forward to—

Fuck. A frontal kick from Theon straight to her guts sent her a few steps backwards, and it took her a few seconds to catch her breath. Well, this was going to be as difficult as she had damn expected.

An hour later, Lenna was sweaty. As sweaty as a human being could be, no doubt. And the muscles on her abdomen, her upper arms, her quadriceps ached. They felt like they were on fire, even with the one-minute break Theon was allowing her to have. How fucking generous of him.

“Time’s up. Let’s go,” he said as he closed his metal bottle of water and left it next to the wall.

Lenna needed any strength she could find to push herself and stand up. How was she meant to beat him in this condition? That was an excellent question.

“Any tips to win a fight when I feel like crawling all the way to my bed?” Lenna said, looking to the high ceiling. She felt Theon stay still and looked at him, already regretting her question.

“I didn’t know you were a crawler,” Theon said, lifting his eyebrows with a sideways smile. Lenna couldn’t resist her chuckle. “Tip for when you are tired beyond tiredness? Do not think. Let your body take over your mind. Your body knows the movements, but your mind is not letting it go freely. Empty your mind and… let go of yourself.”

She would be happier to let go of herself in the sweat of his muscled arms and around his powerful neck and shoulders than have another fight. She closed her eyes. Thinking about how his sweaty body would feel underneath her while she crawled on top of him was not helping. Why the fuck was she even thinking about this now? Was that her mind giving up because of the exhaustion? It had to be. She groaned.

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