Page 76 of Petals for Deadly Power

“What’s the matter?” she asked, frowning, walking towards him and putting a hand on his metallic one.

“I think I know who this is,” he whispered, his voice shaking as much as his hand as he lifted the photography of a family of four members so Hope could see.

Her eyes widened. She thought she knew, too. She knew the blue eyes of one of the little girls in the picture like her own heartbeat. Which made Stevian—

“I think he is my grandfather, Hope.”

There were so many feelings to unpack, so many questions to ask, so many things to discuss, so many answers to get—and yet, that truth was irrevocable. Her own eyes glittering, her arms surrounded his chest, and she gave him a tight hug that he welcomed as if it was the first breath of his life.

When Hope and Ciaran returned to the living room, Lenna sighed. “Why so many weapons, Hope? You’re making me feel empty-handed.”

“Call it a comfort thing.”

“Sure. You’re not planning on killing any birds tonight, are you?” Lenna’s side smile with a cocked eyebrow was dangerous.

Hope chuckled. “I’m planning on getting the Fifth Power tonight, trouble-seeker. Are we going?”

Lenna stood up in a jump, a hand on her hip as the other flicked the mass of red hair back. “For once and once only, I’m not going to make any theatrics with goodbyes, okay?” Lenna’s tone was matter of fact and take-no-shit at the same time. “There is no reason to be overly dramatic. We go, you get the Fifth Power, I tell the Cardinals off a bit, we come back. End of.”

Hope smiled. “And then I will destroy the Organ Mandor, and we’ll live in peace forever after.”

“He killed my mother, too, and amputated my arm trying to get rid of my courtrade blood, I remind you,” Ciaran added, clenching and unclenching his metallic hand. “Share his death. Don’t be greedy.”

“Ourfather tortured me during childhood and for centuries of my life, and I saw him torture Lenna in front of my eyes. Surely you can spare half his head for me to have fun with, sister?” Jake winked.

Hope grinned. It was the first time Jake called her ‘sister’. “I’ll have a think.”

“We moure, then?” Ayla asked.

“We moure.” Hope nodded. “To the Birthing Pit of Blackness in the Veiled Mountains of Orizane.”

48

Lenna

TheBirthingPitofBlackness was anything but black.

Whoever had given this place its name was a liar, and a bad one at that.Someone Likes Red Sparks,Massacre After a Head Smashes, orPretty-Explosive Bloody Showerwould have been more suitable names.

The red moon shone as bright as ever in the dark sky, its red shade falling over the tall trees, its light peeking through the narrow spots between branches until it touched the rocky ground. The tall trees were covered—covered, from leaves to trunk to branches—in red sparks. The same color of—

“Cardinal red,” Ciaran muttered. “Fuck.”

“I’ve never been here before,” Hope said, her voice trembling. She walked towards the closest trunk, her hand suspended in front of the shining redness before she inhaled deeply and touched it. The sparks didn’t move, didn’t react.

They didn’t react because they weren’t sparks. “It’s like . . . permanent ink.”

“The color of your magic, your sparks, your mark,” Ayla said, looking at the equally red, four-petal mark at the back of Hope’s neck her two braids left exposed.

“Yes, and no. The color of my magic, but also . . . The color of the Cardinals.” Her black eyes narrowed, as if she couldn’t make sense of it.

“They told you all to come here, didn’t they? Casually leaving me out of their messages. Well then, where the fuck are they?” Lenna asked.

It could have been Hope touching the ink or the presence of five panoms in the Birthing Pit of Non-Blackness, or it could have been Lenna’s words. It could have been ante meridiem striking the night’s clock or everything at once, but a path appeared between the red-painted rocks and moss. A path of red feathers, guiding themintothe pit.

Hope didn’t hesitate, her steps not faltering. Ciaran followed her lead, Ayla in the middle before Jake and Lenna holding hands closed the rear.

Feathers and sparks led them into a narrow opening into the rocky surface of the Veiled Mountains, and when they stepped inside, shadows engulfed them.

---