Page 45 of Petals for Vicious Secrets

“Shame that I am not interested,” she simply said. And she knew that her mother’s eyes showed an immense relief, even if she still could not see them.

“The shadows have whispered, Hope Nevada,” Marcus insisted. “And they never lie.”

Hope cleared her throat. “I am not interested. I don’t want to rule anything. All I want is to find my peace by killing that man.”

Because she would not call him “my father” in front of Aurora. He wasn’t her father. He wasn’t her anything. Not in any way that mattered. Only the man who had sired her by mistake. Hope added, “But I am very interested in getting this creature out of our way so I can see something again before some of us end up hallucinating.” Because not seeing anything other than wings and night in her dreams was going to end her sanity. And her patience.

“The darkness has not made the beast stop chasing us,” Aurora added, clearly grateful for the change in subject. She was also very eager for this pitch black nonsense to stop.

Marcus hummed in agreement. “You three might want to close your eyes,” he said, and they all did just that precisely when he took the shadows of the cellholt away.

“Thank you and each Cardinal for the light. And the warning,” Nina said, hands covering her eyes even though that was excitement already in her voice. She couldn’t wait for them to adjust until she could look around again.

“Something as ordinary as seeing. Nothing ordinary should ever be taken for granted,” Hope said, already removing the cover from her eyes as she started opening them. Hope grinned at the sight of Nina’s hands still covering her pale face, the white strands of her usually smooth hair quite a mess that hadn’t been fixed in all those hours. Her mother, already pushing her dark eyes open despite the discomfort, just as she had done herself. Her dark, short hair shaping her face, the scar on her neck in its usual place.

Courtrades hadn’t even flinched at the change of brightness, and they carried on doing their usual duties as they had been doing before. Rearranging the crates, sorting out food rations and water, playing games with pieces of broken glass, chatting in small groups. Except they still seemed tense, not being able to stop the frequent glances at the massive scales of the sea creature surrounding them playfully.

“Time to scare the beast away,” Hope said as she walked towards the orb that kept the cellholt together. Its engine and core in one. The redness at the bottom of the orb proof that her blood was still fuel for a while. But Hope didn’t want a simple refuel. She wanted an outburst of power that shook the vessel enough to scare or electrocute the creature.

With one hand holding her sharpest dagger, Hope opened her other palm and held in a painful gasp as she cut through the scab, letting the panom blood pour in freely into the center of the orb.

27

Lenna

By the time Lenna returned to her chambers, she felt excited and ravenous in equally massive parts. It had been so damn fun, Giving her golden sparks and letting them flow into the darkness, and Taking Jake's navy ones while they teased each other for hours. She couldn't believe it was almost sunset by the time he told her they'd continue tomorrow. And she found herself looking forward to it. To all of it. The darkness in that room that allowed their sparks to shine freely, the much needed practice at Giving and Taking, and maybe even seeing those silver eyes somewhere else than in her dreams.

After today, it was easy to forget that he discarded beings as part of his regular duties, and that he played a huge role in this broken shit of a system. By being the heir of the biggest and shittiest House of all, nonetheless. The one famously known for having no pity for lower beings, the one that commanded the roixers and the Roix Reigner herself. Which was, Lenna reminded herself with disgust, the one that ordered innocents to be killed left, right and center.

She almost felt guilty at having put her hate aside for a few hours, almost having fun playing and testing each other with their sparks. How could she even consider having fun as an option, when it was someone who ruined lives and families, who despised human beings, on a weekly basis? She almost felt guilty.

Lenna opened the door that led to the circular library of her chambers and heard the voice of the House talking to somebody, “Enjoyable as it is flirting with you, lord Chloid, I’m afraid I can’t take a physical form to fulfill your wishes.”

Lenna laughed out loud, followed by, “What the fuck are you asking the House, you dirty asshole?!”

Theon peaked from his bedroom with a grin, the muscles on his chest visible as he was not wearing any t-shirt. “Nothing that a true woman would refuse,” he said, lifting his eyebrows.

Lenna walked towards him, shaking her head vigorously but unable to stop smiling. “And lord Chloid? Seriously!?” She gave him a tight hug against his naked torso, feeling every muscle against her cheek and breasts. “I’ve missed you. Have you missed me?”

“Have I missed you? Mmm,” Theon took a step back, intently avoiding her eyes. “House, have I missed this red-haired trouble?”

“A true man would know the answer to that”, the voice of the House resonated from the walls. Theon’s brown eyes widened as his jaw dropped.

“You’ve offended her, you prick! Say sorry,” Lenna shouted, hands on her hips.

“Sorry, Walls,” a wide-eyed Theon said dubiously, then got closer to Lenna’s ear and said quietly, “But she isn’t a true woman, is she? Even though by how personally she took it, she might actually be.”

The House said nothing. So Lenna sat down on his massive bed and asked, “Did Clara let you in?”

Theon sat next to her, his knee brushing the arm she was leaning on. “She did. Because you were so busy you couldn’t welcome me to… what is this? Your new house? My new house?”

Lenna shot to her feet, extending her arms at her sides and spinning around as she said, “Dearest Theon, welcome to our new shared chambers.”

“Shared, as in… Shared, shared?”

“Well, technically it belongs to the Organ Mandor and his family.” She did a conscious effort at not visualizing a precise member of said family and she added, “But these are my allocated chambers while I stay in Corentre, and you will share them with me. As my trainer. So you better become friends again with the House.”

His eyes narrowed as he said, “Since when do trainers live with the people they train?”

---