Page 3 of Petals for Deadly Power

Lenna’s red, full lips frowned as she inhaled sharply. “You know where you can shove the Cardinals-damned corollas?”

Jake tilted his chin slightly upwards. “Are we talking about shoving things up deeply?” He looked around, a smile slowly spreading on his features. “I don't mind a bit of an audience, Brachyan. I'm all in.”

“Youwishyou were all in. Sadly, the only thing going in right now is your snack affair.” Lenna opened her hand, and a single corolla appeared between her index and middle finger. A corolla that she licked absolutely, shamelessly, and slowly while Jake’s eyes darkened.

The woman with green eyes and smoother hair than her sister’s wildfire-looking waves sighed. “Can you two stop teasing each other so we can do something useful?”

“But teasingisuseful, dear Ayla,” Jake said, closing his hand and Taking the bowl away as he walked towards Lenna. “And you always look so fucking sexy.”

The heir of the North House curled her upper lip in disgust, looking at her twin and the dark-haired man devouring her with his silver eyes. “Cardinals guide me somewhere out of here. Hope, shall we make a start?”

“Are we doing magic or blades?”

“Magic. Our disagreement was about who should lead and what we should practice,” Ayla explained.

Because Hope had received no formal panom training, and the Brachyan sisters had. Lenna’s Panom Guidor had been the man teasing her, and Ayla had learned from the Ruler of the South House.

Yet a certain person with night and pine scent had been teaching her as much as Hope could imagine any Panom Guidor doing.

“I told my beloved sister that you already know the basic stuff and can control each petal of your panom mark, but she insists on practicing more. I wanted to take it a step further and think about how we could use the powers and combine them in different real-life scenarios.”

“Because knowingthe basic stuffis not going to take her very far,” Ayla told Lenna. “She has to fully control and own each power, so the more she practices, the better. And it would be useful for us too. It has only been a few months since we had the Fifth Ceremony and I don’t know about you, but I feel I barely know my magic at its core.”

Hope wasn’t used to being talked about in third person when she was in the same conversation. But regardless of that, both sisters were right.

“We could practice each power individually and use them in scenarios that could happen in reality. We can combine powers, but working together towards the same goal,” Hope said.

The twins nodded, and Hope didn’t miss the slight narrowing of Jake’s eyes.

Being outlaws chased by the Roix—the military organization of Thyria commanded by the Organ Mandor—there was a vast number of scenarios they could encounter. It was ironic that the fugitives the roixers were so desperate to find were hiding in an invisible safehouse atop the highest building of the busiest square of Corentre. Right under their nose. Orabovetheir nose.

“If we Give a pretend scenario, we might be biased by already planning how to fix it. Jake, would you honor us?” Hope asked.

Lenna lifted an eyebrow, as if she wasn’t used to hearingJakeandhonorin the same sentence.

There hadn't been a noise by the archway, but Hope felt a presence that made her look. Her almost black irises locked with the blue eyes of the devastatingly beautiful man staring at her. His smooth dark hair fell casually over his inked shoulders, his metallic arm and his biological arm were crossed over his broad chest.

Ciaran Castel didn't say anything. A slight dip of his chin was the only visible greeting. He just observed Hope, his eyes not moving from hers, as if the rest of the room or the world were empty and meaningless.

“It would be my absolute pleasure,” Jake said.

2

Lenna

WhattheCardinals’fuckwas this woman thinking?

That Hope had asked Jake to give free reign to his imagination, creating a scenario for them, meant three things.

1. Hope had no clue her half-brother’s mind was as dark as they came.

2. She was utterly dauntless.

3. They were about to be in for a treat, and Jake would make sure it wasn’t an easy one.

The growing side smile on the face of the gorgeous man Lenna spent day and night worshiping was a dangerous reminder that Jake did not like limits or boundaries. Well, helikedthem in the sense that he enjoyed stepping on them, breaking and twisting them until they were dust.

As if Jake had read the honest worry in her frown, he whispered in her ear, “Don’t be so worried, my golden girl. You wouldn’t be my woman if you didn’t like a challenge.”

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