Page 2 of Petals for Deadly Power

Hope

Oncetherewasagirl raised in the woods who killed through life to survive.

Now there was a woman looking through the crystal walls of the rooftop safe house in the capital of Thyria, the four-petal guarded island controlled by the Organ Mandor.

Hope Nevada’s jaw clenched as his face crossed her mind.

The Organ Mandor and his immense magic, unmatched to any other panom in Thyria. Who happened to also be her father. The same man who killed her mother, Aurora. And the very bastard Hope couldn’t wait to kill to avenge the death of the strongest woman she had ever encountered. The woman she had learned everything from during her twenty-four years living in Verdania.

Cardinals, how she missed her mother. Even if Aurora Nevada had kept the most important truths of Hope’s life locked away for many years, with the excuse of keeping her daughter safe.

The three biggest secrets had been that panoms existed, and the Cardinals had blessed these males and females with the power to control magic; that Hope possessed panom magic in her blood; and that she had said blood because her father was the Organ Mandor of Thyria, making her the rightful heir of Organ House and successor to the throne.

Not a day went by without the sharpness of her grief and anger stinging her chest. She would walk down a corridor and visualize the black blade that felled her mother coming out of nowhere, only for it to fade in her imagination before it could graze Hope’s own chest.

That her father had also tried to kill Hope with the same Black Lawful Stab mere minutes after slaying Aurora probably didn’t help keep such visions at bay.

Hope wondered if the visions would go away when she finally killed her father. Notifshe killed her father, butwhen.

The human beings carrying on with their lives in the streets of Corentre under the sunset didn’t know about any of this, of course. Not that they could do much with that information, anyway.

A quick knock on her door was followed by the entrance of a smiling, white-haired young woman with ocean-blue eyes.

“Are you coming? I think they’re ready,” she said. Nina Avert didn’t need to say more. Hope knew perfectly well who was ready for her. She had been waiting for them to stop arguing for the Fifth knew how long.

“Thanks.” Hope smiled back. “Do you want to join?”

“It would be a great idea to know how to slice someone up the way you do, you know? But I much prefer learning from Indianna about other ways to slice beings up.”

Hope chuckled. “All about healers’ vocation, calling, and all of that.”

“There is healing involved, sometimes. Most times.” Nina raised her eyebrows as if trying to prove her point.

They walked through the wide apartment towards one of the largest and brightest rooms. It had recently been named “Badassery Suite”, after a few complaints from certain beings about why calling it “Learning Room” wasboring as fuck, and “Research Nook” wastoo formal for their own good.

Nina muttered a quick “See you later” before disappearing behind a black door where she and Indianna spent the most part of their days looking after Nina’s brother, Raoul.

After months of worrying whether Raoul was safe, Hope knew what a relief it was for Nina to know her brother was conscious, and within reach, both mentally and physically. After they had rescued him from the Beftac Center for Injured Beings, his mind hadn’t been his. And even now, sometimes he had episodes when one could doubt whether he was truly a human being. Or if he thought like one.

But at least he was alive and awake. That was something.

The first thing Hope saw when she entered the Badassery Suite were two red-haired twins arguing at the back. The second thing, next to the archway she just crossed, was an amused, black-haired man looking at said twins.

“Are you having fun?” Hope asked her half-brother.

Without sparing her a glance, the corner of Jake’s lips tugged upwards.

“You have no idea.” He bit his bottom lip while looking at the fieriest twin in a way that Hope was surprised didn't take her clothes off. But luckily or unluckily for Lenna, panom magic was not controlled with eyes but hands.

Jake opened his hand and Gave himself a bowl full of light pink petals with an edible appearance. At the crunchy noise of Jake eating one, Lenna turned her neck from her twin sister Ayla to him.

“Are you taking the absolute piss, Jake Coralt?”

For a moment, Hope thought Jake was going to offer Lenna some petals, but maybe something changed his mind. The something was likely to be the stunning flame-haired woman with golden eyes that was now storming towards them.

“Fucking corolla snacks?” Lenna’s hands were on her hips, marking the generous curves of her body even more than her black, tight shirt and its very low neckline already did.

“You can have some. But please, carry on arguing.” His voice was full of mischief.

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