Page 40 of Petals for Vicious Secrets

“It is,” Marcus looked at her as if she had insulted him. “So be thankful.” He continued analyzing the small clone of the living map that the vehicle had built in at the front cabin, where the drivers sat.

Aurora spun around in a full circle, as if trying to find some hidden part of the cellholt that she had missed. She shook her head in desperation as she got closer to the corner where Hope and Nina were sitting on some of the food crates, silently whispering, “This place is going to start smelling soon.”

Hope chuckled and quickly turned that into a fake cough. The last thing she wanted was to piss Marcus off when they had to be stuck in a small space with no exit for five weeks. She lowered her voice. “I bet it will smell in a week.”

Nina was looking through the crystal wall on the side of the cellholt, already in motion as they were moving through the vessels. The sea was dark and clear, nearby fishes and other sea creatures a blur at their speed. She shook her head as she said, “No way, I give it two days. There are more than twenty of us in here.”

“Twenty-five passengers. I can’t believe he has actually taken all these people with him. It just makes things way more complicated.” Aurora scratched the scar on her neck distractedly.

Hope nodded, biting her bottom lip. They still did not know why Marcus needed twenty-one courtrades in Thyria on top of him and why he was so desperate to get there that he had planned this for over two decades. But he hadn’t asked for details of their mission to get there, so they hadn’t asked him either. Hope preferred it this way.

Nina crossed her arms over the tight, black leathered clothes that the courtrades had given to all of them. The ones they had been using since they got to Cralia and ended up in their quarters. “Not only because of the space, but also the food and water all of us are going to consume in such a long time.”

Because right now, five weeks seemed like a very long time. But precisely that was what five courtrades seemed to arrange at the other end of the cellholt. The daily rations of tinned food and water pouches assigned to each of them. The walls were full of shelves, probably used to transport stock and supplies across the islands, so that was helpful.

Along a whole side of the cellholt, another group was piling blankets on top of the crates they had brought in. Some were carefully drilling on the glass walls and ceiling, placing hangers where they hung hammocks from. They would sleep in set timed shifts, never more than eight people at a time, so that they would be ready should any incident occur, and also to occupy less space.

On the other side of the cellholt there were three small closed cabins: a washroom, a lavatory and a changing room. All the privacy they would get here.

Hope was not worried about the lack of privacy or not having even her own sleeping space, but a shared one. She was already missing the fresh air, though. All the previous days in the quarters of the courtrades, she had missed it too, not daring to go outside should any roixers see them. She missed the sound of the wind while she stared at the movement of the leaves on the trees. The sound the squirrels made when they climbed and jumped and the wings of the birds flapping. She would miss her buddy, the one that had visited so many times since she had memory.

All she had taken with her from home were her weapons. Everything that had ever mattered in order to be safe. All that would ever matter, Hope thought as she closed her eyes and let her body feel the engine of the cellholt taking them across the Radel Sea.

23

Lenna

It had been a couple of weeks since Lenna had told Jake to fuck off. A couple of weeks without panom lessons and feeling like shit at the thought of not being able to progress further than Giving and Taking at a basic level. A couple of weeks that her Panom Guidor had used to send her ink at random times of the day. The morning after he had faked to burn her book of Cause, while she was still in bed:

One post meridiem when she was hanging out with Ciaran, Sasha, Indianna, Brendon and Carson at the apartment the last two shared:

Last night while she was removing her makeup:

His perseverance was almost admirable. Lenna would admit that. But his assholeness was something else. And Lenna had decided that she would only accept a full, explicit and whole-hearted apology. She deserved it. In the meantime, maybe she was enjoying seeing him chase her at different times during his very busy days. And nights.

Finishing arranging the front strands of her red hair into a small bun at the back of her head, Lenna grabbed the smutty book she had to return to Sasha. She had devoured it in one sitting until very late hours last night. Because nothing was as motivating as some indecent, dirty reading when her own sex life had been reduced to pretty much zero since her arrival to Corentre. Something she was determined to change as soon as fucking possible, thank you very much.

She closed the door to her private chambers and started walking down the corridor towards the Dawn Gate, her steps echoing across the marble thanks to her high heels. She heard Ayla bossing around someone before she saw her.

“And of course if you can wash my clothes properly, because I don’t exactly know what they think they do here but they are destroying my silks,” Ayla’s high-pitched voice was a confirmation of her very well practiced I-am-a-Brachyan-and-you-obey-me. Rolling her eyes, Lenna almost felt sorry for whoever was receiving the orders of her sister. She was about to take a different corridor to get to the Dawn Gate just to avoid her beloved twin when Ayla turned a corner with somebody else.

“What is she doing here?” Lenna asked, pointing at the lady wearing the dark brown uniform of the North House.

“Good post meridiem to you too, my dear sister,” Ayla’s chin lifted, as if she had realized that she had caught Lenna by surprise. “I’m guessing at this time of the day you are not going to the Atrium. Poor you, missing out on all the fun that is learning the four powers.”

Lenna tried to ignore the invisible punch in the gut. Cardinals knew how much had Gabrielle taught Ayla so far, if she was already referring to the four powers. She had barely managed two, and didn’t even know when she would learn any further at this pace. There was not even a pace, actually. Just a pause, because she was too damn proud to go back to Jake without his apology. Even if he had shown no intent to apologize at all.

But Lenna was definitely not giving her sister any reason to mock her. Plus, she truly wanted to know, so she repeated, “What is Lidia doing here?”

“Well, Lidia has proved her value all these years as my personal assistant back home, and the servants of this House clearly don’t meet my standards. So I requested for her to be brought here, and they obliged.”

Lenna didn’t even know where to start. If it was even worth starting. Lenna had sought Clara’s help twice since their arrival at the Organ House and she had always proved both efficient and resourceful. But she knew perfectly well that Ayla’s definition of “personal assistant” was closer to “personal slave”.

It was a miracle that the North House still employed Lidia and she hadn’t quit or pretended that she was very sick during her time assigned to Ayla. But if Ayla had permission to bring a member of their service to the Organ House…

“Who allowed her to come here?” Lenna asked almost breathlessly, a spark of excitement already in her chest.

Ayla shook her head slowly, narrowing her eyes as if she was worried about why Lenna was so dumb. “The Organ Mandor, obviously.”

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