Page 80 of Petals for Vicious Secrets

“We need one more petal and we are good to go,” Ciaran said. “Two Fifth Ceremonies in one. The Cardinals won’t know what has hit them. Any ideas of someone who could donate you a petal?”

Lenna hesitated, an option forming in her mind.

The chances of pure offering coming from her Ayla’s guilt were slim. But Lenna had some bits of information that she could use to blackmail her into donating a petal. Information that Ayla would not like her parents to know, like some illegal magical devices she owned, the net of spies she had formed in the North House, and some of her escapades from it.

She lifted a hand and sent her very useful golden ink with a wicked smile on her face.

51

Hope

“I’m not leaving my daggers here,” Hope said point-blatantly. “I don’t care how sacred the Cardinals Temple is.”

In the wide, dark living room, Sasha let out an exasperated sigh.

“I took a blade to my first Fifth Ceremony and nothing happened,” Lenna said without lifting her gaze from the book Sasha had given her. The red-haired woman was dressed in an impressively tight dress fully made of transparent beads like the one Hope was meant to go into after the daggers’ debate was settled.

“You what?” Jake asked. “I examined every single part of your body that day and I didn’t see anything.”

Lenna’s eyes jumped from the page on her book and winked at Jake, smirking. “Every single part of my body, uh?”

Jake’s eyes darkened as he looked at Lenna from head to toes with no rush whatsoever. The Fifth only knew what these two were constantly playing at.

“The Cardinals didn’t mind about Lenna’s dagger. They won’t mind about a few of mine,” Hope concluded, heading to the guest room where a few minutes earlier Ciaran had made her dress appear.

Putting this dress on was somewhere very high amongst the most awkward things Hope had ever done.

This dress was everything that she would never be. It was luxurious, seductive, ostentatious, and unavoidably provocative. Unavoidably, because no matter how many times Hope tried to readjust it to cover some parts of her skin better, the beaded tissue only readapted its shape to her body. She might feel less exposed if she was truly naked instead.

“Are you sure this is the only way to fully channel my inner powers?” Hope asked Ciaran as she walked into the living room after braiding her long hair in a crown. She had three thin black belts in her hands that she still hadn’t decided where to put. Each with multiple sheaths with their correspondent daggers.

Ciaran’s gaze didn’t move from Hope’s eyes despite her reference to the very exposing dress, and she was grateful for that. She had never missed the protection of her leathers more, and even the pitch black clothes from the courtrades. He held her stare for a while before he said, “The male version is not a dress but pants.”

“That would make my life easier,” Hope said, looking at the belts she was holding.

“Do you really need to take all these weapons?” Ciaran asked, and the metal ring on his bottom lip bobbed as if he was trying to contain a smile.

“You never know when they might come in handy.”

Ciaran moved his hands and the skirt of Hope’s dress split in two legs, wrapping around her skin as this tissue did.

She smiled, pure relief and joy at the fact that if she had to use her weapons, this would allow free movement when fighting. She wrapped a belt in each thigh, adjusting them to get a perfect fit. As for the remaining and longer belt, she put a strap under her chest, circling it around her back and lifting side straps atop her shoulders that connected the strap under her breasts. The daggers were securely sheathed immediately after.

Much, much better. Still feeling naked, but well armed.

“I think the Cardinals would absolutely be onboard with this total badass vibe, you know.” Sasha nodded with approval.

“If she is truly the heir of the Organ House, the Cardinals might already be onboard with it,” Lenna replied, as if Hope wasn’t there. “Because they must have kept a close eye on her all her life, I mean.” She lifted her eyes from the page she was reading, grabbed her cup of tea and asked Jake, “Are you sure your father will be distracted enough?”

Jake scoffed. “Sure as the Fifth. Nothing like a national alert that criminal organizations have attacked the four Cardinal Houses simultaneously and are holding their members hostage in unknown locations.”

Lenna made a weird sound and said, lifting her eyebrows, “You almost made me choke.”

Jake smirked as he said, “You are not the first woman to say that to me.”

Lenna seemed to hesitate for a moment, as if she was internally debating rolling her eyes, but snorted and said, “I earned that one. But have you actually let criminal organizations inside the Houses?”

“No. I held a few members of each House hostage myself and left them in random places within their cities. Before you ask, no one is irreversibly hurt, just temporarily unconscious. And hopefully it will take a few hours of every roixer and panom’s attention to find every being and, more importantly, the criminals,” Jake chuckled.

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