Page 89 of Petals for Vicious Secrets

Multiple pairs of boots were hitting the surrounding floor, and a quick glimpse verified her greatest fears. There were roixers jumping from the damn ventilation panels in the ceiling. The corridor of the fifth floor on the Southern Wing was flooded with red uniforms.

Five different roixers held Sasha, Brendon, Carson, Indianna and Nina firmly. Each keeping their bodies locked in particular positions, and a variety of swords on their necks.

Ayla seemed to somehow managed to keep the roixers hands off her, or maybe they hadn’t attempted to restrain a panom. Which perhaps explained why they hadn’t touched Jake or Lenna either.

On the other side of the corridor, in front of the security vault where Raoul was meant to be, Hope was standing, a couple of different blades in her hands that she hadn’t yet thrown. Lenna followed Hope’s line of sight, to see that it was wholly focused on the blood dripping from Nina’s neck as the sword of the roixer pressed harder against her pale skin.

Lenna couldn’t see Ciaran or Theon, but considering how capable both of them were in different matters, she had little doubt that they could hold their safety and asses together.

“Stop that blade or I’ll stop your heart,” Hope said, her dark eyes locked with the blond roixer holding Nina. He seemed massive next to the trembling white-haired woman.

Jake moved next to Lenna and gently brushed his fingers on her waist.

“Talking about heartbeats… I would love to see how many of you I can Harm in one go,” Jake said, the corner of his lip curling upwards. “But I guess if so many of you are here, the Roix Reigner can’t be very far. Unless she’s hiding?”

“The Roix Reigner has never hidden before, so why the bloody hell would she hide now?” a female voice from the side of the corridor was approaching, and the mass of roixers moved to leave space as she walked.

“I knew you wouldn’t leave so many dogs off your leash,” Jake continued. “Their dependent, fried brains would have to work and wouldn’t even know where to start.”

“Worry not about them, Jake. You should worry about what your father will do to you when he hears about this.”

The woman in front of them was so similar to Indianna that a shiver went down Lenna’s spine. The hatred in her green eyes was different, and so was her perfectly straight fringe and tight high bun with a generous dose of gray hairs. The red uniform was full of thin, horizontal dark leathered lines that distinguished her from the rest. But the pink lips, the straight nose, even the high cheeks… Indianna and her mother were almost identical.

“What exactly do you think this is?” Jake asked the Roix Reigner. Lenna doubted Jake was about to go down the route of lying and saying they were here casually visiting a friend.

“An attempt at rescuing the discarded being that was unlawfully and mysteriously repatriated,” her expression was a mockery of a smile, mixed with a lip curling that most would define as repulsion. “What a friendly crowd of rebel fools.” The Roix Reigner looked around at all of them, stopping when she reached Indianna. “Why does it not surprise me you are one of them, daughter?”

There was no chance the Roix Reigner could have known this. Not when they had improvised the timing of their Fifth Ceremonies and had come here straight after Hope’s panomquake. Did the Roix Reigner have any clue about who was standing in front of the other security vault and had caused such a panomquake?

Lenna saw the realization of her own conclusion in Hope’s almost-black, lethally cold eyes.

Someone had betrayed them.

It couldn’t be. She trusted these people with her entire heart, save for Hope and Nina that she barely knew, but that Ciaran had left no space to not trust. Lenna’s neck almost snapped, twisting to face Ayla.

Ayla shook her head slowly, something like physical pain in her green eyes as she frowned. Had her twin sister agreed so easily to donate a fucking petal to her so she could then sell Lenna to the Roix? Had Lenna been so damn stupid to believe for half a second that there was something remotely similar to kindness in her sister’s heart? That her apologies, her will to help her out, her sadness after Lenna had been tortured, had been genuine?

“You bitch,” Lenna muttered.

“It wasn’t me. I swear on the Fifth,” Ayla said, tears lining her green eyes. She had always been so good at theatrics—

“Was it the panom or the fighter?” Hope asked the Roix Reigner, her lips white in a thin line.

What the Cardinals’ fuck was she going on about? The heir of the Organ House must have hit her head harder than they had realized.

“The panom,” Lenna spat, pointing at Ayla. “This fucking panom.”

“I swore on the Fifth, Lenna!” Ayla said, and the way her voice broke made her so much more believable. Master of spinning lies indeed.

“I didn’t mean that one,” Hope said. “Who was it, Roix Reigner?”

“I guess there’s no pride in not owning the truth,” a voice that Lenna knew as well as her own said from behind the roixers.

This couldn’t be happening. This had to be a big fucking misunderstanding. Or a big fucking nightmare she was about to wake up from.

The roixers made space for a man that Lenna knew all too well. She had thought she knew all too well. A man who had been at her side for the past two years of her life, that she had cherished as her best friend and confidant, who had taught her how to defend herself and how to fight.

“Did you forget whose payroll I’m in?” Theon asked Lenna, and she wanted to punch his grin out of his face. Other than the immediate need to be aggressive, her brain had seemed to stop, unable to form any reasonable thoughts or say any words. She noticed Jake tensing next to her, navy sparks jumping from his fingertips.

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