Page 36 of Petals for Deadly Power

No.

No, no, no,no.

She couldn’t have asked that. She was going to throw herself over the rail and hope the Cardinals were kind enough to drown her. She felt her cheeks flush, her heart fluttering in a way that couldn’t be healthy.

“I have never been with anyone.” His blue eyes were curious, assessing.

The next question slipped from Hope’s mouth before she could stop it. The Cardinals didn’t even know what mercy was.

“Why?”

His teeth racked his bottom lip. He took a long time to answer, but when he finally spoke, his words shook Hope in a way no panomquake could have.

“Why would I? I was waiting for you.”

24

Jake

Hereshecomes,washis first thought when a tug in his chest claimed Jake out of bed.

He knew who was claiming his presence, but goddesses could wait when he had way more important matters in his hands—on his body. Nothing would ever be more important than his fire woman.

Cardinals, wasn’t she beautiful when she was a sleeping naked fire.

He caressed the skin from Lenna’s waist to the breast pressed against his exposed torso. Her red waves tickled his knuckles. He inhaled deeply, her scent of jasmine and ashes blurring any rational thoughts.

He definitely had time to lick her pretty pussy before his ordeal. His cock hardened at the thought of how delicious she was.

Another tug, rougher this time, wanted to pull him out of this paradise.Impatient Cardinal.

Lenna moved in her sleep, adjusting even more of her body to the shape of his, fittingsoperfectly. It was a blessing.

If he woke her up with his tongue, she would see him going to his ordeal.

He was intrigued by what the East Cardinal would come up with to make him prove he was worthy of the Harming feather.

He had been Harmed since he had memory, and he had Harmed since he could. He was going to be fine in his ordeal. But Lenna . . . Her golden eyes had betrayed her these past few days, letting the silent worry speak for her.

His woman was going to be pissed if he left without telling her.

He could deal with her anger, but not with her suffering. It was unnecessary to make her suffer when there was no need to.

Carefully moving her, Jake gave Lenna a kiss in the soft spot between her closed eyes, another kiss barely touching the sensitive skin on the golden panom mark between her breasts. He covered her with multiple blankets and stood.

There would be time for making her scream his name later. Now, the Goddess of the East was waiting to give him hell, and he was going to give her hell back.

The invisible tug, constant now that he was finally answering his calling, guided him to the bottom of stairs he hadn’t seen in the navia before. The stairs were dark like night, cold as ice, and steep as a pain in Llunal’s ass.

The tug claimed his presence, and so Jake climbed up the windowless spiral staircase.

He climbed, and climbed, and climbed. There were only two parts of the vehicle that went that high. He knew he was at the top of one of the edges of the crescent shape of the navia before he opened the black door above him and pushed himself outside.

At the peak of the moon's shape was a small, circular, metallic platform. The vast expansion of the sea and the sky surrounded it from all sides. His eyes didn’t take long to readjust from the pitch-black darkness to the clear light.

He would have been surprised if the courtrades had bothered to put rails. He walked to the edge of the platform, the breeze against his skin cool and pleasant. Jake tapped his foot on the corner of the precipice connecting the platform with the deck of the navia and the sea underneath.

What a simple and efficient way to kill someone.

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