“To the woman with a warm heart.” He kissed her lips softly, and such organ jumped with joy she was still not used to.
Interestingly, the floating, never-ceasing white petals hadn’t stopped nor changed their course or speed because of thepanomquake, but more interestingly, two walls on the top floor had ended up in pieces, leaving massive gaps in the building's structure. One hole revealed a half-naked, old man whose snores clearly hadn’t bothered being perturbed by this nuisance. The second hole, though, on the very end of the top tower, revealed nothing inside. The inside looked like a dark pit of blackness.
Hope sent her words in the Cardinal-red ink of her magic to everyone who had been in the Crystal Clear Safehouse.
She saw her own words appear and disappear on Ciaran’s biological forearm, next to her. Lenna’s golden handwriting didn’t take long to arrive.
Jake’s navy ink arrived a second after:
Ciaran and Hope looked at each other. “What do you reckon is going on there?”
“At least they’re talking to each other. I guess it could be worse. Maybe she is getting somewhere.”
“She might not be the most focused on finding that piece of heart. You know that already,” said Ciaran.
Hope nodded. “As long as she has some focus and motivation keeping her alive, I honestly don’t care. We can always go find that piece of heart later.”
Ciaran cocked an eyebrow, a side smile on his lips. “After we get the South, the West and the Core ones.”
Hope hesitated for the time it took her to blink. “If Lenna doesn’t find it, perhaps we go get the East piecebeforethe Core one, so we get closer to the Cardinal Queen when we are actually ready to kill her.”
“Have I ever told you how much I love and admire your determination, vision, and purpose?”
Hope chuckled at the same time as shadow ink arrived to her forearm, with a handwriting she had never seen.
Followed by:
Ciaran inhaled deeply at his grandfather’s words, silver lining his blue eyes. They didn’t have time to discuss it because Ayla’s silver ink arrived next, and Hope’s jaw dropped.
Lenna’s ink was so fast it almost appeared written on top of Ayla’s still-fading words.
Ciaran whistled lowly. “She killed her own father? I always thought she, unlike Lenna, got along well with him. Llunal shade me, that’s intense.” He then looked at Hope, who stared at him with a blank expression as she thought about Jake and herself, and he added, “Nevermind.”
Ayla’s answer didn’t take long to arrive.
Lenna’s reply made Hope smile and nod fervently.
23
Lenna
The words of Jake’s ink repeated in Lenna’s mind as her high heels echoed on the floor of the West House. “Bored, are you, Brachyan? Come find me.” She didn’t know if the message had been only to herself or to everyone else, but she couldn’t care less.
He had called, she was on her way, and he better deliver something remotely interesting. She had never coped well with promises that weren’t fulfilled.
In the past few minutes, there had also been Ayla’s revelation of the murder of their father and her new title as one of the five Rulers of Thyria. A part of Lenna wanted to know exactly howfucked up their father’s actions or words had been to piss Ayla off so much, and who were the two people Ayla cared enough to kill her own parent for them. But Lenna would surely find that out, eventually. Whatever the reason, if Ayla had made that call, it was the right one, and Lenna would back her up no matter what.
Before Lenna had to perforate her hand and reopen not-so-old wounds by knocking or pushing Jake’s stupidly way-too-spiky door, the door opened wide in front of her. The fire integrated into the circular walls crackled, but the sound didn’t muffle Jake’s tongue ticking as he shook his head.
“You were about to hurt yourself again,” he said, with his eyes a shade darker than their usual silver. Since Lenna had known him, that had only ever meant two things: animalistic anger, or animalistic lust. His authentic emotions taking over. “You don’t learn.”
She winked, mastering a significant amount of self-control to avoid flinching at the burning fire before she dared cross the doorway. “Such a naughty guest with little self-preservation instinct, aren’t I?”
“I need you whole tonight.”
Lenna cocked an eyebrow, a side-smile on her face that appeared before she could control it. His gravel tone was doing all sorts of things to her thighs, her nipples, and her core.
“The Ruler needs his naughty guest.”
