Page 4 of Petals for Deadly Power

Lenna wanted to threaten him and tell him to be careful with what he came up with, unless he wanted his balls to suffer challenges in multiple ways, but she bit her tongue. Maybe it would truly be a useful chance to practice the four powers they had mastered. Especially if they were planning to obtain the Fifth Power in the near future.

“Don’t break my house,” Ciaran warned from the archway.

“I wouldn’t dare,” Jake said. “I can behave like a civilized guest.”

Lenna lifted her eyebrows. “That doesn’t mean you do.”

Jake winked at her, and her blood wanted to warm up thinking about all the ways he was everything but civilized and controlled. Her blood didn’t have time, though.

Jake’s arms expanded in front of his chest, and he opened his hands—thoseveryskilled hands— and Gave a floating red crystal orb in the middle of the Badassery Suite.

Lenna hadn’t missed the damned orbs.

As soon as it appeared, Ayla, Hope, and Lenna readjusted their positions. They formed an equilateral triangle, all of them keeping a safe distance from the orb in the middle.

From Lenna’s spot, she saw Ayla extending her arms in front of her, ready to wield her powers depending on what happened next. Lenna’s own hands were half opened closer to her body, keeping the gravitational center stable. She didn’t need to see Hope to know her hands were on her blades, the ever-present companions of the black-eyed and black-haired woman.

The orb cracked loudly, and three red-feathered arrows shot towards the three of them simultaneously.

Lenna closed her hand and Took the arrow away, making it vanish. Ayla opened her hand to Give an invisible wall, and the arrow hit against it, breaking before falling on the floor. Hope moved a step to the side and caught the arrow by the shaft mid-air and then Gave a spark of fire that combusted the whole thing in a few seconds.

“I doubt the Cardinals will appreciate the use of red feathers in arrows,” Ayla said, not putting her hands down.

“I appreciate the appreciation. Our goddesses are welcome to come and complain.” Lenna didn’t need to look at Jake to know he couldn’t care less about bothering the five red Cardinals who created Thyria.

The next crack of the orb was followed by ten arrows aimed at each of them, and Lenna was too fucking busy Taking the arrows away before they hit her to spare a glance at the others to see their strategies. Hope didn’t have ten hands to catch so many arrows, that was for sure.

Lenna Took two arrows away before realizing their speed would make it difficult to vanish all of them in time. She Gave herself a metallic shield to hold which was painfully heavy but sufficient, so the eight remaining arrows collided against it.

Now she was safe until Jake Gave them another brilliant scenario, she saw Ayla protected behind the same invisible wall as before, more arrows spread on the surrounding floor.

Lenna turned around to see that Hope had taken matters into her own hands and—

“How the actual Fifth have you cut every single arrow in half?” Lenna frowned.

“With my daggers.”

“Without magic?” Lenna asked. Hope nodded, swallowing and looking slightly disappointed. Was she disappointed in herself for not having used magic? As if she had remembered that the practice today was meant to be magic and not blades, Hope Took the twenty halves away, making them disappear.

“Buthow? They were fast,” Lenna insisted.

Hope looked slightly puzzled, as if she found explaining something as basic was really complicated. Except there wasn’t anything basic in what she had done, and there shouldn’t be that much complication in explaining her steps.

“The arrows were aligned in two parallel lines and equally distant. I stepped forward a few steps to be in the middle of both lines and I cut them top to bottom when the time and distance were right.”

Lenna’s golden eyes widened. Every time she thought she got used to the extreme abilities the heir of the Organ House had, Hope proved they had yet to see so much more. “Cardinals fucking guide me,” Lenna whispered. Ayla muttered something that sounded like agreement.

Lenna looked at Jake, wondering if that had been the whole display and they had been lucky that evening. Jake only said, “Eyes not on me, Brachyan.”

Lenna snorted while turning around. She doubted he would say that line many other times.

The crystal orb made a gulping noise, and total darkness followed, then silence.

Lenna Gave an invisible shield around her, unable to see if anything came out of the orb but hearing a clear hiss on the ground.

Lenna inhaled sharply, her jaw tensing. If Jake had brought a slithering beast to the room, she was going to destroy him. Later. When and if they made sure the beast didn’t destroy them first.

Red sparks floated across the room, coming from Hope’s hands, illuminating it slightly. Lenna Gave her golden sparks, the same hue as the panom mark between her breasts, making them float around as well. Ayla’s came after.

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