Page 94 of Petals for Vicious Secrets

Lenna

The sunlight through the window was brighter and warmer than ever. As if the sun wasn’t a mere light bulb like in the North Petal, but a source of heat, too. And damn if Lenna didn’t appreciate that warmth. As for the seaside sounds that had lulled her to sleep the past few times… Lenna was wondering if this place was paradise, or as close as it could get.

It wasn’t the first time Lenna was awake in the beach house in the South Petal since Jake had moured them, but it was the first time she felt like the actual owner of her body. No sick feelings, no blurry sight, no upside-down stomach… Everything felt exactly where it should be.

The recovering of the uneven inner balance after Harming Theon to kill him had been definitely worse than she had expected. She would have to get better at it if she wanted to be of any use in future fights. Because there would be more fights, especially when they were now fugitives and the whole Roix was looking for them. Jake was a master of coping with uneven scales and skilled at Harming, maybe excessively creative Harm, but she could use some direction.

Lenna’s loud stretch would have made cats jealous. Thinking about cats… Her hands let go of golden sparks that immediately took form until a furry golden face was rubbing against her hand.

“Morning, cutie.” Lenna grinned.

After a long round of strokes and not-gentle-at-all cuddles, she let the lynx cub go wandering around the beach house. Only after insisting that she would make her go away if she didn’t behave. Those golden eyes had seemed both extremely pissed and extremely hurt, and Lenna felt almost guilty.

Lenna Gave herself a fresh, white-laced dress that matched the very white walls of the luxurious house, and the very white sand of the beach outside. Her red-hair seemed almost out of place, but she smiled, thinking about how much someone liked her fire hair. And where the fuck was said someone?

She crossed the archway leading to the seashore, passing through a pool as blue as the cloudless sky. When the waves were hitting against her bare feet, she took a few breaths in to admire the view.

The immense Radel Sea expanded in all directions. Somewhere on the horizon she could see different dark masses that one would have thought were other islands, were it not because they weren’t any detailed maps of the lands Beyond.

It was nice to think properly, but now thoughts were rushing in at an overwhelming speed.

She needed to thank Ayla for not being the awful bitch Lenna had always believed she was. Or not being the awful bitch anymore, for whichever reason, because she had definitely been precisely that in the past. The option of Ayla not being well hurt too much to even consider it an option. She needed to talk to her properly, and sending a mere ink was not enough.

She needed to check if Ciaran and Raoul were fine, if Sasha, Indianna and Brendon were safe, if there was going to be a burial of some sort for Carson. If Raoul was still unconscious or in a deep sleep or Cardinals knew what, and if there was any way to wake him up without killing him by accident.

She needed to figure out what to do with the soul-ripping anger that Theon’s betrayal had left behind. Images of multiple situations with him over the past years flew through her mind, moments that she had enjoyed with her friend and that were too damn painful to even remember right now. She had killed him and his betrayal with him, and he could be fucked all the way to the Fifth for all she cared. But the anger, the pain… They could not be killed so easily.

Then there was the matter of the man that Harmed as easily as breathing. The man who had pushed Lenna to her limits, who had given her space but hadn’t let her dwell on her sadness for too long, who had given her the maximum help to become a panom again, and also had given her the most pleasure. The man who had awoken what she had been keeping safe all her life under many protective layers. The man who had awoken her heart.

If she only found the Cardinals-damned man somewhere in this idyllic and secluded area of the world.

From the first few times Lenna had woken up, she only remembered a couple of conversations. The first one being when she had opened her eyes to find Jake asleep in the chair next to her bed, and she had seen the stupidly big room with the open night sky through the open windows. That time, she had said little other than “fuck”, “Cardinals-sake” and “rich-ass”. But she remembered what his laugh had done to her chest, and him explaining something about this being a hideout space in Thyria that he had built in secret, protected by strong epitellia wards, and that he had never shared with anyone else.

The second time, she had sort of sat in bed and tried to drink the fresh water on the side table when he entered with a bowl full of fresh fish. She had asked him if he could do normal-beings things such as fishing, and he side-smiled before saying that surely Taking fresh fish from the sea counted as fishing.

Now, the sun was not only warm. It was fucking boiling. After minutes standing on the white-sanded beach, her skin was already sweaty, despite the more than welcome salty breeze. Somewhere from inside the house came a loud noise of ceramic breaking, followed by an angry but very cute roar and a low growl that made Lenna smile.

Since mister-nowhere-to-be-found hadn’t yet made an appearance and she was melting under the sun, she walked towards the welcoming pool. She couldn’t be bothered to Give herself a swimming suit, so she just removed her white dress and the white-laced underwear, and jumped headfirst into the water.

Damn all the Cardinals if this wasn’t as refreshing as the actual Fifth. When she emerged and combed her now-sleek hair backwards with her hands, she saw the golden cub peaking through the windows of the top floor. Nosy cat. Lenna had to find a name for her. Another minor task to her ever-growing to-do list.

“I take the fact that you haven’t drowned as proof that you have recovered.” Jake’s voice coming from the other side of the terrace made Lenna jump.

“Never felt better,” Lenna grinned. “This place is insane. Were you here all this time?”

“I just moured back. I went to see the others at the Crystal Clear House. Ciaran must have granted me access, because I felt the epitellia wards, but they let me through.”

“How are they? I need specifics, details, all the information you can give me,” Lenna urged him.

Jake must not have got the urgent part because he simply removed his shirt. He closed his silver eyes to the sun as if to allow every single part of his skin to absorb the much needed vitamins that lacked anywhere else in Thyria.

“The enjoyment of your eyelids is less important than you updating me about the survival status of my friends and my damned sister, Jake Coralt.” Lenna crossed her bare arms under the water, despite the water covering her neck which didn’t help to make her point.

He opened his eyes slowly. Even from the distance, Lenna could have sworn he was looking straight to her naked body and that they had darkened a couple of tones as he said, “My enjoyment is never secondary, Brachyan.”

He jumped into the water, face-first, exactly as she had done a few minutes before. Lenna could have sworn he did something with his hand while he was in the air.

He emerged in front of her, grabbing her thighs from underneath, sitting her in his robust arms. Damn if this man wasn’t hot and distracting as fuck. She reminded herself to ask him again about how her friends and twin were doing, but his bare and very muscular chest touching her now-peaked nipples made it extremely difficult to focus.

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