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Hope

O nce there was a girl raised in the woods who killed through life to survive.

Now there was a woman looking through the crystal walls of the rooftop safe house in the capital of Thyria, the four-petal guarded island controlled by the Organ Mandor.

Hope Nevada’s jaw clenched as his face crossed her mind.

The Organ Mandor and his immense magic, unmatched to any other panom in Thyria. Who happened to also be her father. The same man who killed her mother, Aurora. And the very bastard Hope couldn’t wait to kill to avenge the death of the strongest woman she had ever encountered. The woman she had learned everything from during her twenty-four years living in Verdania.

Cardinals, how she missed her mother. Even if Aurora Nevada had kept the most important truths of Hope’s life locked away for many years, with the excuse of keeping her daughter safe.

The three biggest secrets had been that panoms existed, and the Cardinals had blessed these males and females with the power to control magic; that Hope possessed panom magic in her blood; and that she had said blood because her father was the Organ Mandor of Thyria, making her the rightful heir of Organ House and successor to the throne.

Not a day went by without the sharpness of her grief and anger stinging her chest. She would walk down a corridor and visualize the black blade that felled her mother coming out of nowhere, only for it to fade in her imagination before it could graze Hope’s own chest.

That her father had also tried to kill Hope with the same Black Lawful Stab mere minutes after slaying Aurora probably didn’t help keep such visions at bay.

Hope wondered if the visions would go away when she finally killed her father. Not if she killed her father, but when .

The human beings carrying on with their lives in the streets of Corentre under the sunset didn’t know about any of this, of course. Not that they could do much with that information, anyway.

A quick knock on her door was followed by the entrance of a smiling, white-haired young woman with ocean-blue eyes.

“Are you coming? I think they’re ready,” she said. Nina Avert didn’t need to say more. Hope knew perfectly well who was ready for her. She had been waiting for them to stop arguing for the Fifth knew how long.

“Thanks.” Hope smiled back. “Do you want to join?”

“It would be a great idea to know how to slice someone up the way you do, you know? But I much prefer learning from Indianna about other ways to slice beings up.”

Hope chuckled. “All about healers’ vocation, calling, and all of that.”

“There is healing involved, sometimes. Most times.” Nina raised her eyebrows as if trying to prove her point.

They walked through the wide apartment towards one of the largest and brightest rooms. It had recently been named “Badassery Suite”, after a few complaints from certain beings about why calling it “Learning Room” was boring as fuck , and “Research Nook” was too formal for their own good .

Nina muttered a quick “See you later” before disappearing behind a black door where she and Indianna spent the most part of their days looking after Nina’s brother, Raoul.

After months of worrying whether Raoul was safe, Hope knew what a relief it was for Nina to know her brother was conscious, and within reach, both mentally and physically. After they had rescued him from the Beftac Center for Injured Beings, his mind hadn’t been his. And even now, sometimes he had episodes when one could doubt whether he was truly a human being. Or if he thought like one.

But at least he was alive and awake. That was something.

The first thing Hope saw when she entered the Badassery Suite were two red-haired twins arguing at the back. The second thing, next to the archway she just crossed, was an amused, black-haired man looking at said twins.

“Are you having fun?” Hope asked her half-brother.

Without sparing her a glance, the corner of Jake’s lips tugged upwards.

“You have no idea.” He bit his bottom lip while looking at the fieriest twin in a way that Hope was surprised didn't take her clothes off. But luckily or unluckily for Lenna, panom magic was not controlled with eyes but hands.

Jake opened his hand and Gave himself a bowl full of light pink petals with an edible appearance. At the crunchy noise of Jake eating one, Lenna turned her neck from her twin sister Ayla to him.

“Are you taking the absolute piss, Jake Coralt?”

For a moment, Hope thought Jake was going to offer Lenna some petals, but maybe something changed his mind. The something was likely to be the stunning flame-haired woman with golden eyes that was now storming towards them.

“Fucking corolla snacks?” Lenna’s hands were on her hips, marking the generous curves of her body even more than her black, tight shirt and its very low neckline already did.

“You can have some. But please, carry on arguing.” His voice was full of mischief.

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.”

“You wish you 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 teasing is useful, 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 knowing the basic stuff is 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. Or above their 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 hearing Jake and honor in 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.