Page 81 of Petals for Deadly Power

“Which is?”

The red-haired twin hesitated, and finally said, “If I am to lose my sight for the rest of my life, please allow me to see Nina Avert one last time.”

“As the Giving Cardinal, I find pride in being benevolent.” The Cardinal splayed her wings, her hands moving with sparks the color of her feathers, and then, Nina was there.

Hope inhaled sharply; her brow furrowed as the tips of her hands touched the hilt of her daggers. The white-haired young woman looked so out of place, her hesitant ocean-colored eyes taking in everything and everyone around her, her eyebrows shooting to the sky when she saw the five Cardinals in the room, her mouth half opened with endless questions that wouldn’t be answered. She wore a plain, pale pink dress over her pale skin, and she had never looked more fragile and vulnerablyhumanthan in this chamber of powerful panoms and cruel goddesses.

“Ayla, what’s happening? Are you okay?” Nina asked, her hand reaching Ayla’s, her eyes trying to decipher the emotions behind the green eyes of the woman in front of her.

Ayla smiled, a tear rolling down her cheek as she caressed Nina’s, putting a wavy, white strand of her hair behind her ear. “I will be okay. Sorry for disturbing you so late. I just needed to see you. I wanted to see you.”

Nina swallowed. “I’m glad to see you, too, but I don’t like seeing you cry.”

Ayla’s lips widened with a tense smile, her green eyes drinking Nina in for the final time, before she said to the North Cardinal. “Thank you. She may go back now, please. Nina, I’ll s—meet you very soon.”

A disconcerted frown didn’t suit the face of the North Cardinal. “But I granted you one condition, not two. Your friend here is welcome to stay the rest of the Fifth Judgment. Consider it a kindness. Now, if I may . . .” The joyful grin was back, and then, moving Nina to the side with a swipe of her hands, the Cardinal stood in front of Ayla, her hands in front of the green eyes she had gambled for.

There was no warning. One second, Ayla was staring with shock and determination at the goddess. The next, her eyeballs were floating out of her sockets and into the palms of the grinning Cardinal. Her ear-piercing screams filled the chamber as Lenna’s raging sobs resurfaced loudly behind Hope as she cursed, and Nina choked on any words, holding the wall with both hands as if that was all her body could do.

As if these noises were pure musical background, the North Cardinal hung Ayla’s eyeballs from a silver chain and placed it around her neck. She sat down on her throne with an unwavering smug smile, and when she looked back at Ayla, the North Cardinal lifted her hands, making everyone quiet, and somehow stopping Ayla’s pain. “Forgive my manners, I got overexcited. These are for you.”

Two metallic eyeballs floated from the Cardinal’s Giving hands, and replaced Ayla’s old ones, and when the heir of the North blinked, silver was all that was visible in her eyes.

Silver, the color of Ayla’s magic, her sparks, her ink, her mark, her dress. Silver, the color of her soul.

The powerful, liquefied mass of magic the feather of her ordeal had transformed into floated towards Ayla, and she seemed to sense it approaching, for she repositioned herself to align with it.

“Here is your Fifth Power, silver heir. Now, drink.”

52

Hope

Fearwasnotafeeling she was used to, and it was deeply uncomfortable. Her heart raced, her muscles were tense, the slight sweat on her palms felt clammy where they touched the hilts of her daggers. Hope couldn’t tell if the heightened senses—the way each sound was perceived and processed, every minuscule part her peripheral vision captured, the hyper-awareness of the contact of her feet on the ground—were caused by the Fifth Power or were part of the physical reaction of being scared.

How could she not be, when the Fifth Judgment was massacring their futures, their love stories, and their bodies. How could she not be when Ciaran was next?

The West Cardinal placed one hand over the other on her lap, sighing deeply as she removed her red stare from the new necklace her sister from the North was wearing.

Was there any point in praying the Healing goddess of the West would not be as cruel as her North and East sisters? That she’d have some mercy with Ciaran? That she wouldn’t ruin him as much?

Hope knew how desperate her thoughts were, fueled by the frustration and impotence at play in this wicked gambling game, fueled by the biggest fear that he would suffer. The Giving goddess hadn’t Given shit, so why would the Healing goddess be any better.

In fact, hadn’t it been theHealingCardinal who had thrown Hope from the peak of the navia and stabbed her with her own daggers to what could have been her end? The only reason Hope hadn’t met her end then was Ciaran. And it was to him that the Cardinal spoke.

“Ciaran Castel, successful striver of the West ordeal. Do you present your feather to unveil the fate of your gamble?”

He swallowed, and Hope knew it wasn’t in doubt, but preparation. “I have the feather of your ordeal, and I would like to offer an exchange.”

The red eyebrows of the Cardinal rose. “You might exchange the feather and my price for the Fifth Power.”

“I seek a different exchange. I wish not for the Fifth Power, but for something else.” Ciaran’s low voice held no trace of hesitation.

“You wish not for the Fifth Power, and yet you risked joining the Fifth Crusade and surviving your ordeal?” The West Cardinal leaned forwards on her throne, some feathers on her wings readjusting.

His chin dipped once. “I have no need for the Fifth Power. Being a striver on the Fifth Crusade was the only way to show my commitment to this cause and present my offer to you, West Cardinal.”

The eyes of the West Cardinal met those of the Core Cardinal for the briefest moment, and then they were focused again on Ciaran’s blue ones.

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