Chapter 22
Hope
The shaking ground on the South Petal lasted long enough for Hope and Ciaran to exchange a questioning look, and for Hope’s adrenaline and problem-solving mode to kick in before the panomquake even stopped.
The panomquake finally ceased, and a quick inspection from the white balcony they stood on confirmed it hadn’t been the end of the world.
A dozen broken trees whose trunks hadn’t been stable and firm enough.
A huge couch that had somehow flown out of a room and had ended up in one of the serene garden pools, now bobbing ferociously on turbulent waters.
It had fallen on top of a very shouty man who was being aided by way too many people with way too little success.
Hope lifted her hand to the rail of the balcony, ready to close it and Take the couch or the water away and the man from his misery, but Ciaran’s metallic hand made her stop.
“Not a good idea, kind soul,” he said.
“He is going to drown before they figure out anything remotely similar to a plan.” She furrowed her brow when she saw the sudden and stupid idea of someone down below come to fruition, sending the man, and the couch, falling even deeper inside the pool.
“We will not let an unlucky being die at the hands of such…efficient and skilled others.” It wasn’t a question, and the glimpse in Ciaran’s blue eyes knew it.
“Of course not. But if you want not to be noticed here, making a big complication disappear in the faces of five men and four women isn’t the best way.”
Hope pursed her lips. “At this pace, only four men and four women would remember, anyway.”
They were too far to go down physically and help with strength and tactics.
They wouldn’t make it in time for the man to still have some oxygen in his brain, and they most definitely didn’t have time to convince the two masterminds who were leading the rescue catastrophe to cede their leadership to Ciaran and her.
It was a never-answered uncertainty of humanity how incompetent beings more often than not ended up leading masses.
It was no surprise that many times they led them to irreversible calamities and disasters.
As the seconds ticked by, and the man became still and paler, there was no doubt this was going to end only one way.
“Breeze and watercourse, then,” she sighed, and Hope opened her hands.
With one hand, she Gave a sudden, focused breeze that made the two self-acclaimed leaders and their six helpers cover their faces and ears to protect themselves from the noise and the impact.
“That’s a miniature hurricane, bloodrose,” Ciaran said, observing calmly with his arms crossed and the corner of his lips tugged upwards.
With her other hand, she Gave a watercourse strong enough to push the couch a few inches to the side.
The water was shaky and wavy since the panomquake, and with such a sudden breeze, no one truly focused on why this particular force had moved the furniture eight people hadn’t been able to. Weren’t the wonders of nature magical?
The man was free, but the people helping him were now too focused on their own survival to remember to help the one drowning underneath them.
“Seriously?” Hope asked. She had already stopped the breeze, so there was no need for them to continue making a fuss.
There was a significant need, though, for them to move their asses.
“For Llunal’s fucking sake,” Ciaran swore.
He swirled his hand, and extremely fast shadows wrapped around the black swimsuit of the man, pulling him upwards until his head was outside the water.
His loud gasp made the people look at him and finally do something useful and help him swim to the side of the pool, where he laid down, grabbing his parts with both hands.
“Excuse me,” Hope said, turning to look at him with a smile. “Did you squeeze your shadows too much?”
He shrugged. “Better to have your balls squeezed and sore than your blood cold.”
She chuckled. “Said the courtrade with cold blood.”
“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 the panomquake, 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 piece before the 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.