Page 22 of Petals for Vicious Secrets

Theon would probably be partying in Borealia, as they didn’t have a training session tomorrow, or maybe even enjoying some feminine company at his house. Lenna would have preferred her nostrils not to flare at the thought. It wouldn’t be a good idea to contact him. In fact, it would be selfish.

They were friends. And a disgustingly sexy friend he was, yes. But nothing had ever happened between both, other than laughter, banter, fun and… trust. Maybe it had been him not talking to her as if she was someone superior because she was a panom-to-be, North-House-heir, like many of the Elite people did. Or the other common one was when they pretended to like or admire her, as if that would make her feel content.

Except she couldn't care less about all that bullshit. Exactly the same pretence that her power-obsessed sister loved, and the reason Ayla was extremely sociable and had so many Elite friends. Lenna chuckled at the thought. It would be interesting to see if any of those “friends” would even look at Ayla if she was dumped on a street, but she was not the daughter of a Ruler.

That’s all the Elite really cared about. Their own asses. And their future, of course. Should they get to marry a panom, they would go from being mere human beings with nothing to do other than spend their vast amounts of money, to being panoms with magic powers with nothing to do other than spend their vast amounts of magic and money.

Theon was not like that. He had given her a hard time during the first few months of training sessions, laughing at her any time she complained, which was very often, as her muscles and energy had been below minimums. And he had not seemed impressed when a maid entered the middle of a session with a towel to dry her sweat and a bottle of cold water as a refreshment. Lenna could perfectly remember his are-you-fucking-kidding-me face with a lifted eyebrow that was going to reach his hair when it happened. It had been the first and last time because the embarrassment Lenna had felt had reached a new limit at being treated like a fucking damsel in distress in front of the non-Elite trained warrior that was teaching her.

That was exactly why Ayla had three maids assigned to her. She loved being pampered and having help to get dressed and bathed and whatever the fuck they did together. Lenna had one maid assigned to her, because her parents refused to leave her without service. She sometimes was curious about what Irina, her middle-aged maid, did with her life, because Lenna’s orders had only been to leave her alone, thank you very much.

He'll kill me for this but… fuck it, Lenna thought as she moved her hand in small circles to gather all the exploring sparks. She sent the sparks with a message to Theon:

She hadn’t seen how the sparkly messages looked like when they appeared on his skin, but she hoped they were not too bright or too obvious in case he had some company.

She suddenly realized her message had been way too serious, and she was probably overthinking it, but sent some more golden sparks his way:

And that was it. Inks sent. Silence. This one-way conversation was not even half fun without hearing his laugh or reading whatever sneaky reply he’d come up with.

“House, lights off,” she said out loud. The bright lights on her ceiling left space to small dim lights on different corners of her bedroom.

Lenna made new sparks float around her as she laid on the bed, on top of her bronze-colored duvet with floral details. There was a way to know about Raoul, though. She knew she could get in trouble if the Rulers found out that she had been using her magic before becoming a panom, but she trusted Ciaran to not put her in trouble. Not when he could already have done so when he found Ayla and her in the West House grounds.

Lenna didn’t even know if her message would travel as far as the West House, but it was worth a try. She knew all the emotions and thoughts would not let her sleep much tonight otherwise. If at least she could have answers in one front. She sent the sparks, thinking about Ciaran and hoping he would know the message was from her.

Less than a minute later, her forearm felt a soft tickle, and she sat up with a halt. Dark wet ink appeared on her skin:

And as soon as she finished reading it, it was gone. She touched her left forearm with her index. She had never felt such a gentle, barely noticeable sensation.

Lenna laid down again and stared at a picture of dawn falling over the Radel Sea on her wall. No news was not always good news, clearly. She could have hoped for many other answers to her hopeful question. “He’s awake”, “His mind is back”, “He’s safe” or “He’s fine” being some of them. Ciaran was not the most expressive of all people she knew, but still. At least he had replied. But… See you tomorrow?

Her parents had never gone into much detail about the Fifth Ceremony, and never actually said much other than the five Rulers would be there and that only panoms were allowed. Which Lenna had always assumed it meant her mother would be present. But if Ciaran was going to be there, there was a high chance that panoms of every House would also be there, and she knew of another silver-eyed panom who was likely to make a presence too. Lenna took a deep breath.

It didn’t seem like Theon was going to make it to her balcony anytime soon, if he even wanted to bother. It had been stupid to even ask him. And if she was going to have panoms of every House as the audience while she became one of them, the best thing she could do was to get some sleep. Because her life was about to change.

13

Lenna

Lenna opened her eyes and miraculously resisted a scream when she saw Theon sitting on her chair, his arms crossed and his head leaning on the wall next to him. She had left the balcony door open on purpose, in case he came, even though a part of her had felt stupid doing so. Cardinals, how long had he been sleeping in that chair? It was still pitch dark outside.

“Theon,” she whispered from under the duvet. He didn’t even move. His breathing was so quiet and relaxing. “Theon,” she insisted, a bit louder, with no success.

Lenna stood up, ruffling her hair and regretting the open door as she felt the cool air on her exposed legs. She walked towards the chair he was sitting on and kneeled in front of him. She didn’t want him to sleep in a chair for the rest of the night. Especially not when he had come because she had asked him to. And because no matter how much his body was used to being tired, the position of his neck couldn’t be comfortable.

Lenna slowly put a hand on his thigh, feeling the texture of his dark jeans, hoping to wake him up without a scare. Theon opened his green eyes moving no other part of his body and stared at her.

“Hi,” she whispered with a smile. She looked at the clock on her wall and… Damn, she had finally fallen asleep after ante meridiem and it was two fucking thirty. She couldn’t go to the Fifth Ceremony with two hours of sleep. Minor powers the Rulers would unleash if she couldn’t keep herself awake for long enough. “I need to sleep some more; we can talk in a few hours.”

Theon looked at her and nodded in silence. He adjusted his position on the chair to get comfortable and to continue sleeping.

“You can come to the bed, if you want,” said Lenna, fully aware of how it sounded. “It’s big enough,” she added. It’s big enough that we won’t touch each other.

Theon cleared his throat. “Are you sure?” his voice was low and cautious.

Lenna stood up and went straight to her spot under the duvet on one side of the four-poster bed that would easily accommodate three people. “Unless you prefer to not be able to move your neck in the next couple of days,” she said, and tugged herself. The temperature under her silk duvet was so much nicer on her short-wearing legs and top-wearing chest. “Night.”

Theon didn’t move from the chair for a couple of minutes. Two minutes that felt like two hours. He then took slow steps towards the other side of the bed and—Was that him removing his shirt? Cardinals’ fuck.

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