Page 93 of Petals for Vicious Secrets

Brendon sprinted inside the security vault, and Jake finally crossed the doorway again and did something with his hands that kept the other roixers outside. The space within the doorway was translucent, blurry yet clear enough to see the roixers trying to make their way through with their swords and kicks.

Jake walked towards Lenna, moving his hands towards the window that, like in Ciaran’s living room, covered an entire wall of the security vault. And then the window was gone.

“The plan is simple. We jump in turns, and we moure while in the air,” Jake said.

Hope felt Ciaran beside her before seeing him. She couldn’t avoid looking at him, and she found him staring back, those blue eyes analyzing and assessing.

“I moure Lenna,” Jake continued. Lenna nodded, still sitting at the end of Raoul’s bed, with a hand covering her eyes as if she couldn’t see or it hurt to see.

“I can moure Sasha and Indianna. Ayla, you will have to moure Brendon and Carson’s body,” Ciaran said.

“I have never moured before. Least alone with two other beings—one of them dead—and while jumping. Are you taking the piss?” Ayla frowned.

“But you are a brilliant and capable woman, are you not?” Ciaran’s eyes narrowed, and the look he gave Ayla, Hope wouldn’t have wanted for herself. “Brendon can hold Carson’s body. All you have to do is touch both of them before jumping and do not let go of their skins under any circumstances. And then you take a mental step thinking about the Crystal Clear Safehouse by Sweetgum Beech.”

Ayla snorted. “Whatever. I will try. I can’t promise we won’t end up smashed on the Cardinals-damned street. In fact, it is very likely that will happen, so please, if we don’t get to the crystal-whatever-house soon, can someone come back and moure our three dead bodies there? Thank you in advance.” Her smile was forced, and Hope could have sworn she had seen Lenna do the same expression before. Lenna didn’t appear to be anywhere near smiling right now.

Ciaran turned to Hope, talking to her as if they were alone in the world and not in a room full of other people injured in a variety of ways. “You have to moure Nina and Raoul out,” Ciaran told Hope, his voice calm but firm.

Hope swallowed. She had done the maths as soon as Jake had said what the plan was. There were five panoms in the room, but Lenna was incapacitated. Whether she was feeling sick or weak, Hope couldn’t tell, but she could not stand independently, so the mouring was not even an option. Jake, Ciaran, Ayla and Hope were the only options to get out of here.

She didn’t need to say that she had only been a panom for less than a few hours. Or that she had no clue about what the powerful magic flowing in her veins could do other than make her even faster and precise and create red sparks that seemed to love her blades as much as she did, or that she had never heard of the safe house or the Sweetgum Beech. She didn’t need to say any of that, because Ciaran already knew. And it changed nothing.

“Mouring Raoul might be more difficult, I can moure him and Nina, if you want, and you moure Sasha and Indianna,” Ciaran offered.

Hope hesitated. That Ciaran had offered to moure Sasha and Indianna and leave Nina and Raoul for her was not a challenge, but a recognition of who were the two most valuable beings in Hope’s eyes. Yet, having the responsibility of ensuring Nina and Raoul arrived to a place safely was enormous, and the chances of something going wrong were too great. But to trust anyone with that responsibility, to put their lives in his hands in such a dangerous time…

Ciaran wasn’t anyone, though.

When she had fallen unconscious after her Fifth Ceremony, hadn’t she awoken in his arms, unharmed? Hadn’t he been there when she jumped out of the vessels and helped the courtrades, Nina, her mother and her to moure away, despite the three of them being intercepted by her father? Hadn’t he moured her mother’s dead body to a secure space in the woods and helped Hope dig her grave with his own hands? Hadn’t he moured Nina to be with her when she most needed, while she said farewell to her mother? Hadn’t he ensured she became a panom, against all the odds and despite the catastrophic consequences?

“I will be very grateful if you can moure Nina and Raoul, Ciaran,” Hope said. Ciaran bowed his head slightly, not taking his eyes from hers. “I will do my best to moure Sasha and Indianna to that place.”

Ciaran smiled. “To the Crystal Clear Safehouse by the Sweetgum Beech.”

“There.” Hope smiled back.

Jake held Lenna against his chest and helped her stand up, a firm hand under her shoulders as he walked towards the opening where the window used to be. Lenna kept her eyes shut tight, and the only time she sort of opened one, she seemed like she was going to vomit.

“This is goodbye, then.” Jake moved two fingers to his head as if he was taking off a non-existent hat. Without further ado, he jumped from the edge into the dark night, holding Lenna tightly against him, and they were gone.

“If I wait any longer, I will reconsider how unwise this plan is and opt out,” Ayla said, walking towards the edge. Brendon picked up the dead body of his friend with all the gentleness in the world, and Ayla placed her sweaty and trembling hands on their necks. “Absolutely, totally unwise.” She inhaled and exhaled twice before saying, “On three. One, two, three!”

They jumped to the night outside, and it looked like her grip on their necks was still strong, but they didn’t vanish, and their bodies fell down.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Sasha shouted, going to the edge of the window to peek at the five-stories drop to the street. “Okay, they are gone. I think they moured before falling all the way down.” She looked at Indianna and Ciaran, frowning. “Fuck, that was so scary.”

Hope walked towards the precipice, Indianna walking as well until they met Sasha. Sasha lifted her curly mass of hair until Hope could touch her skin without interferences. Indianna’s back of the neck was much easier to reach thanks to her bob.

She didn’t want to peek underneath. It didn’t matter if the drop was five or fifteen-stories high. Even the highest trees in Verdania were nowhere near this.

“See you at the other side,” Ciaran said.

“See you at the other side,” Hope said, giving a last glance towards Raoul and Nina holding his hand, and Ciaran and his blue eyes.

Gripping the necks of the women with such strength that it was a miracle their blood didn’t stop flowing, they jumped to the night.

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