Page 78 of Petals for Deadly Power

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Hope

Thesightofthefive Cardinals splaying their magnificent, red-feathered wings was breathtaking.

Each of them was unique, and yet there were so many similarities between the sisters who had brought Thyria and panom magic to life. Their irises and hair were the color of their wings, the color Hope was more than familiar with. Their dresses were cut in different shapes, all of them made of red feathers that trailed down to the ground.

The North Cardinal wore a thin diadem crowning her hair and her feathers faded to a lighter tone of rose on the tips. She was glaring at Ayla intently in a way that lifted the hair on Hope’s arms.

The South Cardinal’s face could have been sculpted in stone, and it would have shown the same amount of emotion. Her impeccable face was utterly impenetrable, and she didn’t even look at Lenna, who observed her with her arms crossed and her golden eyes narrowed.

The skin of the West Cardinal was covered in small, symmetrical red marks that trailed up the tips of her middle fingers, up her shoulders, and disappeared behind her back. When Ciaran met her apparently candid stare, she blinked.

The East Cardinal was the tallest. Her face—Hope held in a gasp. Her face was a wicked canvas of innumerable white scars, and when her blood-stained teeth flashed at the sight of Jake in front of her, her grin was vicious and cruel.

The biggest force came from the Core Cardinal, right in front of Hope, standing on the pedestal in the middle of the four-petal flower-shaped chamber. Her eyes were pinning, and there was no trace of the kind smile Hope had seen on the two occasions they'd met. The only sign of acknowledgment towards Hope was the smallest nod, and a whisper that didn't move her Cardinal-red lips, meant only for her. “Daughter of Red.”

Hope smiled, feeling her blood rushing with excitement and adrenaline, her hands on the sheaths of her blades like anytime she welcomed a challenge.

“Sisters, you may sit,” the Core Cardinal indicated, and the four goddesses who created the petals sat on their thrones, theirs wings fitting perfectly, allowing for their full splendor to shine. “Strivers, present now the crystal feathers, tokens of your worth, that grant you entry into this fateful gamble.”

At once, Jake, Ayla, Ciaran, and Hope moved, freeing the feathers they had gained in their ordeals. The feathers they had suffered for, the ones they had almost died for. The red crystal shone in Hope’s hand, and she swallowed the tinge of doubt that came with understanding the Cardinal’s words.

The feathers didn’t grant them the Fifth Power. They granted them a place here and now, in the Fifth Judgment.

If the Core Cardinal minded that Lenna didn’t have a feather in her hands, she didn’t say or hint that she had realized.

“The Cardinal of your ordeal will demand her due. Should you desire the Fifth Power, the price must be met, or an offering of equal worth presented in its stead.”

These winged goddesses had pushed them to their limits, had toyed with their lives as if they meant nothing, and clearly, that wasn’tpriceenough.

Hope clenched her jaw, hoping she didn’t have to wait much longer to find out what her price was meant to be. She needed the Fifth Power to kill her father, and there was little she wouldn’t offer to obtain it. Luckily, she didn’t have to wait at all, for the Core Cardinal towered from her pedestal over her.

“Hope Nevada, successful striver of the Core ordeal. Do you present your feather to unveil the fate of your gamble?”

Hope lifted her open palm, the crystal feather shimmering under the dim lights around the dome. “Here it is. What price do you want me to pay?”

The Core Cardinal smiled, her eyes gleaming with pride and hope as she made the feather float between them.

“The only price that will annihilate the risk of destruction of our beloved land: the life of the man you love.”

The blood in her veins froze, the image of Ciaran’s blue eyes in her mind freezing any rational thought she could have ever had. She could hear her heart thundering in her chest, her forced breaths struggling to keep their usual pace.

There was no point trying to pretend this price was anything she had expected.

There was no price that could hurt more.

It didn’t matter how much she wanted the death of her mother avenged and her father wiped out of the living plane of Terrha. It didn’t matter how much she wanted—sheneeded—the Fifth Power.

She didn’t need to look at Ciaran to know her answer, but she couldn’t resist looking back. When their eyes met, she inhaled as if it was the first gulp of fresh air she had taken in years. The deepness of his blue eyes was enough to fill the Radel Sea and her own heart.

Ciaran had prioritized her, cared for her, saved her. Ciaran had made her feel desired, wanted, protected—loved.

“I’d rather die myself.” The absolute certainty of her thought left her mouth before she could rephrase it, her voice echoing in the chamber.

“No.” The sharpness in Ciaran’s voice was no match to her best blades.

The Core Cardinal shook her head slowly. The finger of the goddess touched her red-stained bottom lip in a way that was too similar to an order of silence to be a coincidence. “Is that the price you offer in place of mine?”

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