Page 30 of Petals for Vicious Secrets

Lenna hesitated. She quite fancied fucking Theon, but asking Ciaran to moure her to his house was definitely overstepping. She also wanted to get back to her own house in the North and forget about all this Corentre business. And—“You know what? I don’t even know what I fucking want right now, but if I stay in this massive House another second, I’m going to end up climbing the walls.” She shook her head, lifting her eyebrows.

“Let’s get out of here,” Ciaran jumped off the fence and put his hand on the back of her neck as they vanished into the night.

The loud music filled her ears at the same time as the bright lights made Lenna close her eyes. “Cardinals, where are we?” She smelled the cinnamon and salt scents in the surrounding air.

“Sweetgum Beech,” Ciaran put a hand below her elbow to move through the crowd gathered around the source of the music. “It’s worth opening your eyes.”

Lenna frowned as her pupils adapted to the yellow, orange, and red lights around them. They were dim, but there were so many. Thousands of sparkling bulbs, probably. All twinkling from the tall trees around the dozens of live fountains underneath. Even from their distance, Lenna saw where the music was coming from. In the middle of the square, there was a huge double fountain that spewed water at the music’s rhythm. This fountain alone was probably as big as the dome chamber of the Cardinals Temple, and at its very center, a soaked band was playing enthusiastically and living their best lives.

There was definitely something more than human-made involved in such a spectacular show. Whether that meant panom hands probably created them or had some after-construction magical input, she did not know. The waves did not affect the strong and heart-filling sound and splashes around the instruments or the singer, but it amplified, so even people on the far ends of the Beech danced to it. Worth opening her eyes, indeed.

The people around them were grooving to the catchy music, ignoring Ciaran and Lenna as they walked closer to the main fountain. “This is insane,” Lenna laughed as her soul and her head bobbed to the beat.

“Wait for it,” Ciaran pointed to the blue-haired woman singing her way towards the guitarist on the other side of the fountain platform. The waves were now shaped like parabola curves as high as some trees. As the singer got ready to sing the chorus back-to-back with the guitarist, the water of the fountain started lighting up in a marvel of colors. Lenna, Ciaran and the entire crowd went wild with it, jumping in unison to the beat, shouting their throats out.

After hours of dancing, Lenna felt thirsty as the Fifth when the band wished them all a naughty night and disappeared inside the fountain. “That was so fun,” she grabbed a bottle of myster from a crystal stand, the vendor not even looking at them when she left two valers on the counter.

“I knew you would like it,” Ciaran winked, a corner of his lips tugging up.

Lenna elbowed him in the ribs. “Ever so clever.” Even without the music, this place was magical. “You come here often?”

“Sort of. Some good friends live around here.” The disbelief in Lenna’s lifted eyebrows must have been obvious as Ciaran added, “Not everyone in the Elite is a piece of shit. There are some exceptions.”

Lenna put a hand on her hip as she took a long sip from the bubbly myster. “I didn’t take you for one of those Only-Elite-Friends-Allowed bullshitters.”

Ciaran exhaled through his nose, not even a full chuckle as his blue eyes kept Lenna still. “I’d feel insulted if you thought so.” He opened his biological hand with a distracted movement, sparkles playing on top of the palm. They were the same tone as the ink that had appeared on Lenna’s arm before. “I was going to pay them a visit tonight. Want to meet them?”

“Shouldn’t you be telling me to go to bed as it’s already ante meridiem and I have my first panom instruction in a few hours?” Lenna lifted an eyebrow, the side of her mouth tilting up with it.

Ciaran crossed his arms, a challenging stare in his eyes. “I’m not your daddy. Do whatever the fuck you want.”

“Then… I’m always up to meet non-idiotic people,” she winked with a wide grin. Especially if she was going to be stuck in this city for Cardinals knew how many months. She’d have to tell Theon about it, figure out how to help Raoul from here, try not to kill the arrogant piece of shit she would have as Panom Guidor and ignore her sister as much as she could. Maybe the myster helped her move those worries to a temporary drawer in her mind. There would be time to think about them. Just not tonight. Tonight, it was her birthday, and she was finally a panom.

The moonlit rooftop by the Jofryo river was something else.

“What the fuck is this?” Lenna asked, following Ciaran to a corner of the wide terrace, shining, flickering bulb lights hanging in the air as they walked through the benches and hammocks.

“It’s an interesting mix of people in an interesting place.”

“Very useful, Ciaran,” Lenna said, but she added nothing else as they reached a group of people laughing.

“Look who dared to come say hi to the plebe.” A beautiful woman with brown curls winked at Ciaran as she stood up, grinning widely while she hugged a stiff-as-hell Ciaran. He was always stiff as hell when it came to direct contact, though. Lenna knew it first-hand.

“Hello to you too, Sasha,” Ciaran said with a friendly half-smile. Ciaran’s repertoire of smiles with strangers was not bast. It pretty much could be simplified as his I’m-going-to-kill-you tuck of lips and his I’m-letting-you-live-for-now generous approach. His look now was neither of those, so definitely in the safe zone.

“Thanks for bringing fresh meat, Ciaran, I was getting tired of this bunch.” The bronze tanned woman tilted her head towards the group behind her. She turned to Lenna, still smiling, “Hi, I’m Sasha.”

Lenna’s eyebrow shot up at the sass and simultaneous friendliness of the woman in front of her, and she greeted her with a nod. A stunning blond man with immaculate features stood next to Sasha and put his arm around her shoulder. An arm that had more ink than many books would ever have.

“Brendon here,” he said, his fingers caressing the top of Sasha’s naked arm without paying much attention. “To whom do we owe the pleasure?” he asked Lenna, not taking his dark green eyes from hers.

“Lenna,” she said, not too sure it had been a good idea to meet people at that precise moment. The day had been intense enough as it had been, and maybe she should have avoided this social awkwardness. Yes. It now seemed completely unnecessary.

“You mean Lenna as in Lenna-who-just-joined-the-panomy-club?” Sasha’s eyes opened wide, and she stepped forward to look closely at her, circling and examining her like she was a creature of another world.

“Oh, for Cardinals’ sake, Sasha, keep your obsessions to yourself and give her a break, will you?” a young man with the exact bronze tone and immaculateness as Sasha’s skin sat in front of them with a full glass of a purple drink. “She’s a Scientist Reg in the Orster,” he said, lifting his shoulders, as if that was justification enough. “And my sister.” Lenna chuckled, her best attempt at oppressing a laugh at the resignation in his voice. He continued, “I’m Carson. I think you are at a disadvantage in this group of savages, since we all know who you are, and you clearly don’t have a clue about us. I am the Gracier Officer at the Interpetal Bullef. Brendon works for the Invisible Grand.” The blond man with green eyes did a mock bow, bending his upper body with a hand gesture as Carson continued, “And this lady next to me is the daughter of the Roix Reigner.”

“This lady has a name,” the black-haired woman with a perfect bob looked at him with a mock lip-shut smile, before facing Lenna to say, “Indianna. Don’t judge me for being the daughter of such a bitch. I’m the first one who wants to kick her ass. And I’m a healer at the Beftac Centre for Injured Beings, even though this lot,” she tilted her head towards the others, “always seem to forget that bit.”

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