Page 81 of Petals for Vicious Secrets

Hope couldn’t stop staring at him, trying to see all the details of his features and expressions, how one could tell the gears were working in his mind, and how far she was from truly knowing anything about this man who she shared panom blood with.

If what these people were saying was true, Jake could consider Hope a usurper of his heirloom. A future usurper of the throne made of bones and black feathers. Yet, he didn’t seem too bothered by it. Unusual and unexpected. Either that, or he was planning something big that was going to destroy her when she least expected it. Regardless, Hope knew she should never trust him. She couldn’t read his true intentions, between all the smirks and teasing of the fire-haired woman. And without knowing someone’s true motive, he could be a liability to her own survival.

“Sometimes I doubt if I should fear you or admire you,” Lenna seemed to whisper to herself, tilting her head to the side.

52

Lenna

The panoms, meaning Jake and Ciaran, had decided it was better to do both Fifth Ceremonies separately, since both had quite unusual circumstances and neither of them were sure about how the additional sources of magic, especially Hope’s, would impact the land.

Hence why Lenna’s ceremony was going to be the first.

Ayla had surprisingly agreed to donate her a petal without asking further questions. Lenna didn’t fully believe her unusually generous ink messages until her twin sister was moured into the antechamber of the Cardinals Temple by Jake. Ciaran had said he would prefer to not go near rats if he could avoid it, but that he was glad rats could help on this occasion.

It was damn lucky that Jake had somehow been up to take part in this, since the epitellia wards of the Organ House would have proved impossible to cross otherwise.

Jake, Ayla and Ciaran circled Lenna in a pitiful empty triangle under the Temple’s dome, compared to the crowded first Fifth Ceremony she had.

No, not pitiful. If anything, these three beings were more meaningful to her than all those House political representatives. Even if the female one was meaningful in a womb-sharing type of way.

Lenna couldn’t truly make out why Ayla had accepted to donate the South Petal to her, but she was not going to dig in too deep if that made her sister reconsider that as the current heir of the North House she was better off with a full petal mark. Maybe recent events had made Ayla realize that the political system she had always been so in love with was royally, masterly fucked up.

“Ready to start?” Ciaran asked.

“I don’t think this is going to work, but whatever,” Ayla said, staring at Lenna. “If this lets you be a panom, and it doesn’t stop me from being one, it’s worth a try.”

“Of course you will still be a panom,” Jake said.

“Does it matter which petal I donate?” Ayla asked, lifting her chin in a movement that Lenna had seen hundreds of times. Some things hadn’t changed at all.

“Whichever petals the recipient receives, her blood will readjust them until it’s a fully formed panom mark,” Ciaran explained. Something like relief eased at the confirmation that she would not have a mark made of four South Petals or four East Petals. “In your case, since you don’t have spare petals yet and you’ll be donating from your original panom mark, you won’t be able to use the magic of the petal you donate. The balance between your magics will feel uneven and on edge for a while.”

“Can for a while be more precise?” Ayla said.

“For five years. Until the next petal grows and replaces the empty space,” Jake said. Lenna didn’t miss Ciaran’s eyes narrowing. Probably not because Jake was lying, but because Ciaran hadn’t expected him to have this bit of information.

Lenna’s eyes widened. Petals fucking grew? And most importantly, both had spare petals to donate? And Ciaran had already donated four before. That she knew of. Cardinals knew how many more they had in the past and what had they done with them.

“Wait, how old are you two?” she asked.

“That’s a conversation for another time,” Ciaran said.

Lenna turned to face Jake, her eyes wide with urgency. The urgency appeared to be more related to the fact that she wanted to know how old was the man she’d been fucking and thinking about all these weeks, rather than the fact that the Organ Mandor would not be kept busy in the Cardinal Houses searching for inexistent criminals for the rest of his damned life.

“You enjoyed my expertise,” Jake said, the side of his delicious mouth curling upwards. His eyes slipped over her lips as if he was fucking her all over again, the instant need heating her already-needing-but-pissed-off core.

“You and your expertise can fuck off right away if all you do is lie.” Lenna crossed her beaded arms in front of her beaded chest.

“I never lie, sweet fire. Not to you.”

“Sweet. Fire?” Ayla’s top lip curled, exposing her teeth with disgust. “Dearest Cardinals guide me. Can we start the Ceremony before I pass out?”

Ciaran cleared his throat, extending both hands in front of him, and Lenna felt the familiar warmth flowing through her body as he recited, “May the light enfold your strength.”

From the corner of her eyes, she saw something floating towards her. Her body wanted to sing, enjoying the familiar sensation of some power in her veins, so she let herself go as Jake said, also opening his palms towards her, “May the darkness accept your weakness.”

Ayla followed suit. “May the world cherish your mind.”

---