Page 40 of Petals for Deadly Power

He didn’t move for what seemed like the longest pause, and then he nodded, his eyes still closed. “Only you can heal me.”

Lenna carefully closed her hand above his, Taking away the crystal shard, making it vanish. It left a horrendous hole across his palm that moved her guts in a way she didn’t enjoy. And despite that, she couldn’t take her eyes off it.

A panom needed hands to perform any magic. How the actual hell was she going to fixthis? Surely the East Cardinal wouldn’t have Harmed him permanently, leaving him as good as panomless for the rest of his long life.

Surely. Fucking. Not.

Lenna was glad Jake’s eyes were closed as she couldn’t stop the tears, fueled by the biggest fear, from flowing again.

There was no way she could Heal his hands. She was not a good Healer, that was a shameful fucking fact. Maybe such damage, inflicted by the crystal of a Cardinal, was not able to be fixed at all.

Lenna lifted her hand over his other hand, the second and last red crystal protruding from his skin. She knew what she was going to see as soon as she Took it away. A second, perhaps also unrepairable hole.

She inhaled deeply and Took it.

A loud gasp of shock, fear, and hope left Lenna’s mouth as a gasp of sudden relief left Jake’s.

The crystal hadn’t vanished.

The crystal hadtransformed.

It wasn’t a sharp shard of red crystal anymore. It was a Cardinal-red crystal feather.

Thefeather, floating in front of Jake, waiting for him to pick it up.

His hands—magically repaired, full hands, completely unharmed, with no holes or missing flesh—lifted, wariness in his light silver eyes, and he held the feather of the East Cardinal. The feather of his ordeal.

Suddenly, his eyes opened wide, his jaw clenching as he swallowed. After a few seconds, his body relaxed, he lowered his hands and the feather on top of his chest.

“Did she speak to you?” Lenna asked, already knowing the answer.

Jake narrowed his eyes as he looked at the darkening sky above them. “She said a worthy striver can’t have broken hands. And that I should consider killing everyone in the East Petal because no one in Terrha deserves being the Ruler of her Petal and her House as much as I do.”

26

Hope

Theredmoonshonein the dark sky across the window when Hope’s forearm tickled, and golden ink appeared:

Lenna’s ink disappeared as soon as Hope read her words. It was a very factual, brief message, not like Lenna at all. Hope sent her red ink:

A second later, golden words traced Hope’s skin:

The Fifth only knew what that ordeal entailed. Hope sighed, removing the daggers she had thrown against the opposite wall of her cabin and placing them carefully under her pillow, in the drawers, and behind the bathroom door.

She closed the door silently, waiting in the corridor, listening. Not a sound. Either most people were already asleep, or they were somewhere in the upper levels. The courtrades had been taking it in turns to push the navia towards the West, and Hope didn’t know who of them was on duty tonight.

Still, she started walking, heading towards the stairs that led to the rooms they spent most of their time in. It was only when she slipped by Ayla’s room that Nina’s voice made her stop.

“It wasn’t easy to assume I wasn’t going to see or talk to them again. It was . . . painful.” Nina’s voice halted for long moments before she continued. “I didn’t want to let them go. I couldn’t let theirmemoriesgo, because if I did, then there was going to be nothing keeping them alive.”

Hope’s black eyes fixed on a spot on the floor. Nina was talking about her and Raoul’s parents. She had briefly explained to Hope that her parents, servants of the North House who ended up working at the West House, had disappeared years ago. Neither of the siblings found them in Verdania, so Nina thought they hadn’t been discarded. The guess of the white-haired woman was they had been killed, even though their bodies were never found.

Hope doubted for half a second whether to knock and tell Ayla and Nina that the East ordeal had been successfully completed, but Ayla spoke before Hope could lift her hand—

The quiet sound of a hand caressing clothes was followed by Ayla’s even quieter whisper. “Your parents . . . They are not dead, Nina.”

“How do you know?”

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