Page 5 of Petals for Vicious Secrets

“Whatever it is, it doesn't look like something we'd want to give to your brother or my mother unless we want them gone for good or Fifth knows where.”

“Is your mother hurt?” Nina’s blue eyes were full of concern.

“She was attacked during the Trading last week, but she’ll survive.” Hope was convinced of it. She would have it in no other way.

Nina lifted one corner of her mouth in a smile.

“I'm sure she will. Which one shall we try now?” Nina was holding the blue and red vials in each hand.

“You pick. The colors and their properties change every time,” Hope said, admiring the redness of the surrounding poppies. It was brighter than the blood soaking Nina’s cloth around her leg.

Nina opened the red vial and carefully let a drop fall between the red petals of the poppy. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the petals shrunk, and the poppy died in front of them.

“Oh.” Nina sighed.

Hope wondered if the red liquid would work that easily with people or animals. It would be a quick way to get rid of enemies or predators.

Hope opened her blue vial and was about to try it on another poppy when they heard a man scream. She stood up in one move and her body became alert, looking for any signs of peril nearby.

Nina's already pale face had gone paler. “Raoul.”

Hope started running towards the cave at the same time she grabbed her daggers. She didn’t want to leave Nina behind, but her leg wouldn’t let her sprint to the cave. If it was a wild animal that wandered the cave, it would be easy to help Raoul. Hope couldn’t think what other thing might have happened to him to cause such a scream.

When Hope reached the entrance of the cave, she moved, listening for any noise that could help her guess what was happening inside. She couldn’t hear anything at all. A quick look inside told her there was no wild animal there. At least not a big one, because the deadliest ones were the smallest. The sunny rays through the cave’s natural cavities illuminated a completely empty space.

There was nobody there. Not even Raoul.

Nina arrived inside the cave. The way she stood up without limping made her think maybe she had indeed found out if the blue vial was a medicine and taken some herself.

“How did they—” Nina started in a silent voice filled with the same horror that her blue eyes showed. She started walking towards the corner where her brother had been a few minutes before.

“Who are they?” Hope was not worried about animals of any sort, but she did not like the pure fear shown in the eyes of this young woman. She took cautious, silent steps and followed Nina inside. If this was some trap, she would fall right on it. There were warning bells sounding on her head, and her intuition was telling her to get out of there right now. Only the silent goosebumps on her back seemed to tell her to get closer and continue going forward.

“Why did they…” Nina continued, talking to herself in the same quiet voice, as if she hadn’t heard Hope.

“What is this about, Nina? Who the Fifth are they?”

Nina reached the mattress where his brother had been, and after looking at the wall, she fell to her knees and started weeping without taking her eyes off a spot on the wall. Hope approached her and laid a hand on her shoulder, trying to give her some sort of reassurance. She wasn’t sure why she felt the need to comfort someone who she’d known for a handful of hours. She bent her knees to get closer to the spot Nina had her eyes fixed on while tears run down her cheeks.

Only then, Hope saw the carving that had appeared on the stone with black ink. The four-petal shape of Thyria that no one ever wanted to encounter.

“We have to run,” was all she said before grabbing Nina’s arm and pulling her out of there.

4

Lenna

Lenna was on her way to Leo’s class in the East Wing of the North House, smiling while remembering how Theon and she teased each other. Theon probably was to her what most people would consider a friend. Except as a member of a House, she could not have friends outside the Elite. And a trainer was nowhere near that. Quite the opposite: they were merely considered education servants.

“What could make my angry-with-the-world sister smile?” asked Ayla, appearing from behind a door.

People always said they were not similar enough to be considered pure twins. They were both standard height for the North, Ayla more straight-built than her, and Lenna was quite proud of her wildly appreciated curves. The fire-red tone of their hair was identical, but the waves of Lenna’s were as uncontrollable as her character, completely different from the sleek curtain of Ayla’s. And then there were their eyes. Ayla’s green ones, which were narrowing right now, looking at Lenna’s golden ones.

“What do you want, my pain-in-the-ass sister?” asked Lenna with an ironic forced smile, without stopping her steps.

“I wouldn’t be so rude if I were you,” Ayla said, walking next to her, her steps echoing in the empty corridor.

Lenna rolled her eyes. “You might trick mother and father into believing you are a pleasant human being, but you can quit your bloody act with me. I might vomit.”

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