Page 51 of Petals for Vicious Secrets

The blade hit the cross, and the crate was propelled backwards against the protective blankets the other courtrade had laid out. Most courtrades and Nina started clapping and shouting with excitement. Most courtrades, because Hope felt Marcus’ quiet stare at the back of her neck, and Aridian was damning Llunal and all his shadows.

Hope bowed at Aridian as she said, “Your turn, mister,” leaving him the best spot to throw once Julian had rearranged the crates.

Before Aridian could take the two steps that separated him from said spot, the cellholt shook vigorously, leaving many courtrades on the floor. The same strong shaking Marcus usually warned them about when he was about to push the cellholt from their current vessel to one further apart. Except Marcus was not touching the living map of the cabin. He was running towards it to find out what had just happened.

Hope, Aurora and Nina entered the cabin after Aridian and Lidia. Marcus’ second and third in command stayed alert and silent, awaiting orders. Marcus’ jaw clenched, his fingers fastly touching and adjusting the multiple views on the living map in front of him.

Hope saw the fear in Nina’s eyes, and the calm storm brewing in her mother’s dark eyes, reflecting her own. Only experience let someone stay in control of their rawest emotions when everything around them was collapsing.

“That was not a burst of panom power,” Marcus whispered. “And for the cellholt to move from vessel F35C to D19H… That is a massive jump. It can’t be accidental. Which means…”

“The roixers know where we are, and that we are intruders,” Aurora finished for him.

31

Lenna

There wasn't any space left on the tables of their usual spot on the rooftop where Lenna, Theon, Ciaran, and the bunch sat around. They couldn't control so much stuff without the usual help of the service, which was nowhere to be seen. Maybe they were being kept sexually busy. Or being told off about how slow they were, only keeping them away from the tables and making it worse.

The table in front of Lenna had a varied array of empty and half-empty glasses of myster, cards and dies which had escaped the deck pile, empty plates of the snacks that have kept them entertained for a few hours now, spare valers and grolls here and there that had no clear owner after so many rounds of CoreCode.

The sky was dark. The red moon and its Cardinals-lightened stars the only sources of the reddish light above them. Next to Brendon and Sasha, Theon finally stood up and walked calmly towards the pretty woman on the other side of the rooftop who had been eyeing him all night, winks and tongue-on-teeth included.

“I saw that coming,” Lenna chuckled, turning to Ciaran. “You never told me how you donated petals to this lot to make them panoms,” she said, pointing at Sasha, Brendon and Carson. Indianna would join them after her evening shift at the Beftac Center for Injured Beings.

Ciaran looked at her, swiftly combing his dark hair with his metallic arm. “I only donated a petal for each of them, so they are not panoms. Not fully. They have barely enough to send ink, create some sparks and not much more. A bit like what you could do before your Fifth Ceremony.”

“Not much more your ass,” Sasha said, the hand that wasn’t holding her current myster glass on her hip, asking Ciaran for an explanation.

“Don’t be rude, Ciaran,” Brendon nodded in agreement. “We aren’t part of the super fancy panom bosses, but we can do some pretty cool stuff. The sparks are always a winner in bed.”

“Until one of your lovers tells the roixers, and it comes to bite your ass,” Sasha spat.

Ciaran’s lips curled in a half smile. “I’ve told him to keep quiet more times than I can remember. He can’t resist showing off.”

“I mean, why would someone who works at the most secretive organization of Thyria be able to keep his own secret? It would make absolutely no sense.” Sasha rolled her eyes and took a long sip.

“Leave the Invisible Grand alone. One thing has nothing to do with the other,” Brendon said, frowning under his blond strands.

“The lady asked you a question, Ciaran,” Carson said.

Lenna smiled, nodding. “Thank you. He isn’t the best at sharing information. But he knows how to ignore.”

Ciaran was looking at the other side of the rooftop. At Theon and the pretty woman now sitting on his lap, as he whispered things in her ear and she chuckled. Ciaran’s mouth curled in disgust.

As if sensing that it was time to step out of this conversation, Carson, Brendon and Sasha started another round of CoreCode, loudly talking about their bets and therefore giving Ciaran and Lenna some privacy.

“Your interest in donation is because you want to give him powers,” Ciaran said, his long, sleek hair moving with the gentle breeze.

It wasn’t a question, Lenna realized. It pissed her off. “Well, you donated to your friends, so I wonder why the fuck I couldn’t donate to my friend.”

Ciaran took his blue eyes off Theon and looked at Lenna. “That man is not your friend.”

“Excuse me?” her eyebrows raised. “If you mean that I’ve wanted to fuck him since I’ve known him, that does not make him any less a friend of mine. And this,” she pointed at the tangle of lips and tongue that Theon and the woman now were in that chair, “means nothing. We have nothing. I genuinely don’t give a shit. He can fuck whoever he wants, and I can fuck whoever I want.”

It was true. Lenna couldn’t care less about who was in Theon’s mouth, chair or bed. Not as long as he was still there for her when it was time to train, when she needed to vent or just fancied to hang out. It had always been like that for them.

It probably wasn’t as true that Lenna could fuck whoever she wanted. Not until she figured out the mess she had in her head and core these days.

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