Page 84 of Petals for Deadly Power

“If male honesty is ever allowed, I have no doubt you’d have ensured I wasn’t successful in your ordeal, Core Cardinal, which I think is deeply unethical and unfairly biased. Your interests and mine have never aligned. But the truth is, by the time I realized what these five beings were doing, my precious bird told me the South ordeal was the only remaining one to be completed.”

“South?” Core Cardinal asked, her voice raising an octave and making the rocky dome tremble, some small stones falling to the ground.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“I missed your bleeding inks, Father. I wondered why.” Was Hope—

Lenna narrowed her eyes, trying to confirm that—Yes, Hope was fuckingsmiling. Of course, that woman was bloody smiling when her biggest enemy was in front of her.

His silver eyes were cold and sharp as he stared at the black irises of his bastard daughter, heir to his throne. “I stopped sending you inks because I had bigger commitments in mind.”

Then, it hit Lenna.

The outlandish force of water that would have hit their navia when they traveled to the South ordeal, the one Jake stopped before it could drown them all. He hadn’t been able to identify what it was, but he had known it wasn’t nature.

The ink from the CardinalsbeforeLenna had arrived at her ordeal.The feathers are claimed, it had read on their skins.The message had been Cardinal-cursed clear, and it hadn’t been sent to Lenna.

And when Lenna had entered the ordeal, after stubbornly promising “I am going to do the South ordeal even if it’s the last thing I do.”

The South Cardinal hadallowedher to enter it, but there was nothing to gain. Because the feather of the Taking ordeal, shining in the fist of Rhei Coralt, had already been claimed.

How had she been so painfully narrow-minded and dumb? All the signs had been there. Signs, inks, and even a gigantic water force against their navia, for Fifth’s damned sake.

Everything had been there, except her opportunity to pause, analyze, understand, and prepare, and now it was too fucking late.

“Rhei Coralt, successful striver of the South ordeal. Do you present your feather to unveil the fate of your gamble?”

The hairs on Lenna’s spine rose with the words of the South Cardinal. The Organ Mandor lifted his fist and opened it, the crystal edges marked on the skin he had held tightly.

“Yours to take.”

“For the Fifth Power, I will take your feather, and I will take the life of someone who gave you something.”

His grin was immediate, and his silver eyes met Jake’s. From the look on his face, Jake’s ability to hate had multiplied exponentially for every bit of love he would never feel again.

“Please take the life of my wife, who gave me my son.”

The growl that left Jake’s throat was not of this world, his fists clenching as navy sparks raced around his hands, charging.

The South Cardinal nodded, and a woman with the same full lips and straight nose as Jake’s appeared in front of her throne. Before the woman could blink, the South Cardinal Took her heart.

Lenna lifted her hands to her throat, running to the dead body that crashed to the ground a few steps away from her. Organs couldn’t be Taken, but clearly the Taking Cardinal could do whatever the fuck she wanted.

Lenna’s skin tickled, and she tried to cover it as she read Hope’s words on her skin.

When Lenna looked up, she saw Ciaran lifting his head from his biological forearm, too.

“Where is it?” Rhei Coralt asked impatiently, not even glancing at the dead woman at his feet.

“Your Fifth Power is here. You may drink.”

The South Cardinal left the levitating liquefied mass of Fifth Power in the air, and then, as if their duties were completed and the Judgment had finished, the five Cardinals vanished.

54

Hope

TheinstantthefiveCardinals vanished, Rhei Coralt opened his mouth, walking towards the mass of Fifth Power floating in front of him as if nothing else existed, ready to drink it.

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