Page 50 of Petals for Deadly Power

The fourth, that she had missed the golden lynx who was scratching the walls of the room so much.

And last, but very-fucking-much not least, that if Arabella D'Arcy told her once more that she was doing the simultaneous magic wrong, Lenna was going to strangle her.

“Simultaneous Giving and Taking. Si-mul-ta-neous. As in, at the same time,” Miss Nasty insisted.

The lynx cub hissed, and Lenna felt like a proud mom. She couldn't decide what she hated more. Arabella's patronizing, high-pitched tone, or the way her fingers interlaced under her perfect chin. “I know what it means, for Cardinals' sake,” Lenna spat.

Arabella smirked. “Then do it. Two hands, two powers. It's not that hard.”

Asshole. “Remind me how long it took you to master this again?”

The blond woman huffed. “Decades. But I can guarantee that if it takes you that long, you won't survive whatever ordeal the South Cardinal has prepared for you.”

Lenna snorted. As if she wasn't well aware of how risky it was to let her inner scale be unbalanced. Unless the Taking ordeal didn't involve an insane amount of Taking—and that would be a Cardinals-blessed miracle she was definitely not relying on—there was no chance she wouldn't end up collapsing with dizziness. Fan-bloody-tastic.

“You're in a mood today,” Arabella said.

Lenna cracked a laugh. “That's putting it lightly.”

Arabella examined her, considering. When she next spoke, the nasty high pitch was gone. “We can practice tomorrow.”

Was that pity in her voice? Compassion? It didn't matter if it was, or it had been Lenna's imagination.

Lenna lifted her hands again, a fist ready to open and Give, and a palm ready to close and Take.

“There may be no tomorrow.”

The sound of Sasha's laughter filled her ears before Lenna stepped out to the deck of the navia, and it automatically made her smile.

Her curly-haired friend was surrounded by the three courtrades in charge of the vehicle, a grin on her beautiful face when she spotted her.

“Here you are,” Lenna said, hugging Sasha.

“Here I am, talking to the poor guys in charge of keeping us afloat.”

The bald, tall courtrade—Nevan—chuckled. “Not poor at all. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us.”

“Don't you courtrades pilot these things all the time?” Lenna asked.

“Navias?” The eyebrows of the short-haired woman called Annie lifted. “In Orizane, where most of our society lives, maybe. But in Thyria? I'd never seen one of these in my life. Whatever favor Marcus owed you, it must have been a big one.”

“He didn't owemeany favors.” Lenna smiled, the proud feeling when she’d found out Hope got her feather still lingering.

“What exactly is Orizane? An island?” Sasha asked.

The mute courtrade, Franklin, nodded. Lifting his hand, shadows solidified on the palm of his other hand. Shadows in the shape of a thick crescent, with two straight lines crossing it.

“That's your symbol, right? Looks like the navia,” Lenna said.

“Like the mark on our skins, and the shape of the island Llunal created for us and our magic,” Annie said.

Sasha put a finger on her top lip. “Is it far? It must be.”

“From where we are now, almost in line with the South of the Organ House, it’s a few days away. It would depend on how fast we travel,” Nevan said.

“And how little we sleep,” finished Annie.

Cardinals only knew exactly where they would go once they got the five crystal feathers—ifthey managed to get the five feathers. Lenna had no doubt Ciaran would get his.

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