Page 8 of Petals for Vicious Secrets

“We’ll find him, Nina,” Hope said with determination, reaching her hand to hold Nina’s.

6

Lenna

By the time Lenna and her sister were close enough to see the West House, the reddish moon had made an early appearance in the still-darkening sky. Lenna wondered what was happening at that very moment at the North House.

If their parents knew of their absence, they would have instructed the roixers to start a searching campaign. If that was the case, they would have to be extra careful. Patrols would likely look for them all around the five areas of Thyria, including the West Petal where Lenna and Ayla were now waiting behind the entrance of a market.

Lenna had grabbed two hooded capes from a non-frequented cupboard next to the kitchens of the North House before sneaking out through the passages into the gardens. Ayla had not seemed surprised. Whether her sister knew of Lenna’s frequent visits to Borealia, the capital city of the North Petal, or she thought Lenna was a weirdo that had clothes hidden around the House in case circumstances happened, Lenna didn’t give a shit.

Years had passed since Lenna’s last visit to the West House.

Thyria had the same shape as the panom mark that all the Rulers and panom members of their families bore on their skin: four equal-shaped petals around a middle round area. The North, East, West, and South Houses and their respective cities were in the petals, while the middle part was home to the Organ Core. In the Organ House lived the Organ Mandor, to whom all the cardinal Houses and their Rulers answered to. Lenna was not looking forward to seeing the Organ Mandor and his family for her Fifth Ceremony and pretend to admire and respect their tedious grandeur.

Other things had to happen first. The most important thing was to determine if Raoul was alive and safe, starting with discovering how the Fifth he had ended up back in the West House.

Lenna still couldn’t get her mind around it. Raoul had been discarded a couple of years ago. So that was it. Anyone discarded disappeared from Thyria, never to return. Nobody knew where they went or what happened to them. While she was the heir of the North House and the daughter of one of the frightening and well-respected Rulers, it had been useless when she begged and cried to her father to bring Raoul back two years ago.

Lenna could still see the disgust on her father’s face, the sadness irradiating from her mother as she tried to cuddle her, the incredulous look in her sister’s eyes, while Lenna had screamed the place down. She had screamed and shouted, kicked, and sobbed for hours until she had passed out, made a mess on the floor. She also remembered how she woke up on her bed the following day with the clearest mind she had had and swore to herself to make them pay. Whoever they were. Wherever they were. She would make them pay for discarding her childhood friend.

“What now?” Ayla asked, looking at Lenna from under her hood.

“We wait until the market closes, and then we enter the West House through the corridors underneath,” Lenna said without thinking twice. Ayla blinked in silence.

Lenna was familiar with the place like her own hands. She had visited Raoul in the West Petal many times after his family had left the North House to serve the West House, and he had taught her all the secret paths that led into the House.

The market closed, and they were off.

Many dark subterranean corridors, heavy metal doors, complex locks, and forty minutes later, they stood sweaty and dusty in front of a gray marble door that led to one of many long-term sheds. Lenna was not sure where to go from there.

The West House, even though not as big as the North House, was so big that it would take them hours to check every single room. Not to mention the risk of being caught. Two hooded people might not be relevant in the middle of the busy city of the West, but they would definitely be spotted inside the Ruler’s House. What Lenna was going to do when they found Raoul, she was not sure either.

“Here.” Ayla got her makeup bag from a pocket and gave it to Lenna.

“I knew you were not the cleverest but, this? Seriously?”

Ayla’s expression hardened, and took a step towards Lenna, closing the small distance between them even to mere inches between their bodies in the dimly lit corridor.

“Let me get things clear, Lenna. I want to know why my sources told me before our parents told us. If they even know this. Why is Raoul here and how did that happen. I’m going to get in as much trouble as you for disappearing without a word. So, if we can try to work as a team for once in our lives, instead of being at each other’s throats, we might get our answers sooner and get home before everything is too fucked up. Now, put this on your face.” Ayla handed Lenna the makeup powder and a brush.

“I don’t need makeup,” said Lenna, not believing her sister could think that was a priority in that moment.

Ayla snorted quietly. Lenna lifted her eyebrows.

“This is not makeup, you idiot.” Ayla put some of the tanned-color powder on the brush and lifted it to her face. She made a stroke with it and her face features changed, becoming someone Lenna had never seen before. Ayla’s green eyes had turned brown, her soft features gone to leave space to a defined jaw. “You are not the only one with funny items,” Ayla’s grin told Lenna she was enjoying this too way much.

“You could have used it hours ago!”

“It is very expensive and hard to get. I try not to use it unless I must.”

Lenna applied the makeup to her face and felt a tickling sensation. She could bet everything she had that this powder was as illegal as fuck and there was no way their parents knew about it and let her sister keep it. Which meant they didn’t know about it. Cheeky little Ayla, she thought. Lenna wondered if Ayla had any other items that would put her in knee-deep shit if anyone found out.

Ayla got a small, black hairbrush from the makeup bag and gently combed her straight, long red hair. With each touch, Ayla’s hair became blond and wavy. She looked so different that Lenna found it hard to remember it was her sister.

When Lenna brushed her shoulder-long red hair, it turned black and curly. A part of her wished she had a mirror close by to see how it looked on her. As if reading her thoughts, Ayla passed Lenna a small mirror from the same bag.

“That’s quite the bag.” She looked at herself in the mirror and where usually there were big honey-colored eyes, now two sunken blue eyes looked at her in surprise. “This is as far as Raoul ever took me, but we’ll figure it out.”

---