Page 27 of Petals for Vicious Secrets

“Hold on a second, Brachyan,” Jake said, stepping closer to her. But he slammed against another invisible wall, raised by Ciaran.

“You don’t learn, Jake,” Ciaran repeated in a grave, menacing voice that sounded like a final warning.

Lenna put her hands on her hips and angled her head with a bitter smile. She wanted to shout at Jake what the fuck he thought he was doing, but she calmly said, “Your audacity has no limits, does it?” Without taking her eyes off Jake, she added, “Get your wall off, Ciaran. Let’s hear what this prick has to say.”

Jake stepped closer, wall now gone, and angled his head, meeting her stare. “He doesn’t know you don’t want a superior man protecting you, does he? Maybe he doesn’t see what I see in you. Maybe he doesn’t feel your power as I do. You will get to know me very well, Brachyan. You and all your golden light and sunshine.”

“Oh, I don’t think so. I don’t waste a second of my life with entitled assholes.”

Jake chuckled, biting his lips with true amusement. “Sorry to disappoint, but as your personal Panom Guidor, you are going to see me every single day of the next few months of your life. We’ll have lots of fun.”

Whatever Jake saw on her face pleased him enough to make the invisible barrier vanish as he went back to the chamber where the Rulers were, not looking back at the white-faced woman and wide-eyed man he was leaving behind.

16

Hope

Hope was holding the compassom with both hands. That she had kept it with her for the most part of the previous day didn’t change the mix of fear and awe she felt since she first saw it. A compassom here in Verdania. A compassom in the rose assigned to her.

Her mother’s jaw had dropped dramatically when she had seen it, and Nina’s gasp meant she had been no less surprised. Yet that didn’t change the fact that Hope had decided enough was enough. She needed answers. She needed them now. And by the looks of it, whoever sent her that gift thought the same.

“Let’s do this.” Her mother sat next to her in front of the small pond full of colorful water lilies and lotus flowers.

Hope looked at her, lifting an eyebrow. She refrained from saying About time to avoid changing the apparent predisposition to talk. A very unusual, yet finally forced by the circumstances, predisposition. “I’m all ears,” she said instead.

Aurora scratched her neck, as if looking for the right words. She shook her head and said, “You are going to be mad at me.”

“Can we try to not go around in circles? Can you please get to the point for once?” Hope didn’t want to be rude, but she was not having another I will tell you more another day. No way. She’d had plenty of that all her life.

“Okay. What do you want to know?” Aurora’s face was solemn, yet determined.

Hope left the compassom on the floor next to her. So, this was finally happening. She braced herself as she asked, “Who is my father?”

“Cutting to the chase,” Aurora sighed. “Your father is a very influential person in Thyria.” Not as direct as Hope would like, but for a first actual answer in twenty-four years, she was going to take is as a good sign.

“How did you meet?” Hope’s throat felt so tight.

“I was the commander of the Roix, as you already know, so I had to answer to the high rankings regularly. I was in touch with him for years. We got close, and then I fell pregnant”, Aurora was looking at the pond with a painful frown. As if remembering it hurt her deeply.

“But if you were the Roix Reigner, who were your high rankings? The Reigner is the top ranking of the Roix, isn’t it?”

“Yes. I meant I had to answer to the Rulers.”

Hope swallowed. “You got close with a Ruler?”

“Yes,” Aurora said, letting go of a long exhale to gather strength.

Fucking Fifth. That meant—

“So, I am the bastard daughter of a Ruler, correct?”

Aurora nodded in silence, now looking at her.

“Is that why they discarded you?”

“Yes, and no. When I told your father I was pregnant, he said it changed nothing. He loved me, he said,” Aurora chuckled with deep sadness. “I thought we would carry on in our secret love bubble as we had always done. I was stupid.” She shook her head slowly, her top lip curling upward. “So fucking stupid.”

“What happened?” Hope asked, a knot in her chest at seeing her mother’s pain.

---