58. Lenna
58
Lenna
T here were roixers fucking everywhere.
One second, Lenna and Jake were in front of the closed door of the security vault, ready in case the beings inside noticed the kills next door and wrongly decided to be curious. The next second, that door had opened, and she couldn’t count how many roixers were there because there were so fucking many.
Multiple pairs of boots were hitting the surrounding floor, and a quick glimpse verified her greatest fears. There were roixers jumping from the damn ventilation panels in the ceiling. The corridor of the fifth floor on the Southern Wing was flooded with red uniforms.
Five different roixers held Sasha, Brendon, Carson, Indianna and Nina firmly. Each keeping their bodies locked in particular positions, and a variety of swords on their necks.
Ayla seemed to somehow managed to keep the roixers hands off her, or maybe they hadn’t attempted to restrain a panom. Which perhaps explained why they hadn’t touched Jake or Lenna either.
On the other side of the corridor, in front of the security vault where Raoul was meant to be, Hope was standing, a couple of different blades in her hands that she hadn’t yet thrown. Lenna followed Hope’s line of sight, to see that it was wholly focused on the blood dripping from Nina’s neck as the sword of the roixer pressed harder against her pale skin.
Lenna couldn’t see Ciaran or Theon, but considering how capable both of them were in different matters, she had little doubt that they could hold their safety and asses together.
“Stop that blade or I’ll stop your heart,” Hope said, her dark eyes locked with the blond roixer holding Nina. He seemed massive next to the trembling white-haired woman.
Jake moved next to Lenna and gently brushed his fingers on her waist.
“Talking about heartbeats… I would love to see how many of you I can Harm in one go,” Jake said, the corner of his lip curling upwards. “But I guess if so many of you are here, the Roix Reigner can’t be very far. Unless she’s hiding?”
“The Roix Reigner has never hidden before, so why the bloody hell would she hide now?” a female voice from the side of the corridor was approaching, and the mass of roixers moved to leave space as she walked.
“I knew you wouldn’t leave so many dogs off your leash,” Jake continued. “Their dependent, fried brains would have to work and wouldn’t even know where to start.”
“Worry not about them, Jake. You should worry about what your father will do to you when he hears about this.”
The woman in front of them was so similar to Indianna that a shiver went down Lenna’s spine. The hatred in her green eyes was different, and so was her perfectly straight fringe and tight high bun with a generous dose of gray hairs. The red uniform was full of thin, horizontal dark leathered lines that distinguished her from the rest. But the pink lips, the straight nose, even the high cheeks… Indianna and her mother were almost identical.
“What exactly do you think this is?” Jake asked the Roix Reigner. Lenna doubted Jake was about to go down the route of lying and saying they were here casually visiting a friend.
“An attempt at rescuing the discarded being that was unlawfully and mysteriously repatriated,” her expression was a mockery of a smile, mixed with a lip curling that most would define as repulsion. “What a friendly crowd of rebel fools.” The Roix Reigner looked around at all of them, stopping when she reached Indianna. “Why does it not surprise me you are one of them, daughter?”
There was no chance the Roix Reigner could have known this. Not when they had improvised the timing of their Fifth Ceremonies and had come here straight after Hope’s panomquake. Did the Roix Reigner have any clue about who was standing in front of the other security vault and had caused such a panomquake?
Lenna saw the realization of her own conclusion in Hope’s almost-black, lethally cold eyes.
Someone had betrayed them.
It couldn’t be. She trusted these people with her entire heart, save for Hope and Nina that she barely knew, but that Ciaran had left no space to not trust. Lenna’s neck almost snapped, twisting to face Ayla.
Ayla shook her head slowly, something like physical pain in her green eyes as she frowned. Had her twin sister agreed so easily to donate a fucking petal to her so she could then sell Lenna to the Roix? Had Lenna been so damn stupid to believe for half a second that there was something remotely similar to kindness in her sister’s heart? That her apologies, her will to help her out, her sadness after Lenna had been tortured, had been genuine ?
“You bitch,” Lenna muttered.
“It wasn’t me. I swear on the Fifth,” Ayla said, tears lining her green eyes. She had always been so good at theatrics—
“Was it the panom or the fighter?” Hope asked the Roix Reigner, her lips white in a thin line.
What the Cardinals’ fuck was she going on about? The heir of the Organ House must have hit her head harder than they had realized.
“The panom,” Lenna spat, pointing at Ayla. “ This fucking panom.”
“I swore on the Fifth, Lenna!” Ayla said, and the way her voice broke made her so much more believable. Master of spinning lies indeed.
“I didn’t mean that one,” Hope said. “ Who was it, Roix Reigner?”
“I guess there’s no pride in not owning the truth,” a voice that Lenna knew as well as her own said from behind the roixers.
This couldn’t be happening. This had to be a big fucking misunderstanding. Or a big fucking nightmare she was about to wake up from.
The roixers made space for a man that Lenna knew all too well. She had thought she knew all too well. A man who had been at her side for the past two years of her life, that she had cherished as her best friend and confidant, who had taught her how to defend herself and how to fight.
“Did you forget whose payroll I’m in?” Theon asked Lenna, and she wanted to punch his grin out of his face. Other than the immediate need to be aggressive, her brain had seemed to stop, unable to form any reasonable thoughts or say any words. She noticed Jake tensing next to her, navy sparks jumping from his fingertips.
“How?” Lenna asked, despite her mumble of a brain.
“How did I let your father know, or how did he inform the Roix Reigner? Or how the fuck have I waited this long pretending that I was your puppet friend that would move to another city just to be closer to you? Because I wonder that every single day too,” Theon said.
“How long have you had a petal?” Lenna asked, bile urging up her throat.
“Egocentric but not stupid, that’s what I like about you,” Theon winked. “Your father donated one to me the day he asked me to train you. So we could communicate through ink and he could keep a close eye on you. He almost revealed it when I told him you had confided in me your sneaky visit to the West House months ago, but he decided it was more useful to continue monitoring your moves through our pretend friendship. Why did you think he let me come to Corentre? You can’t genuinely think your father gives a shit about how well you fight.”
Each word was a direct hit to Lenna’s chest.
“The good thing about all of this is that I can finally go back to my normal life. Even though the red uniform I haven’t missed so much, to be honest. Never been a fan,” he smiled, looking at the Roix Reigner.
“You are lucky that your father is busy with a simultaneous attack in all the Houses,” the Roix Reigner said. “Otherwise he would kill you himself.” Lenna wasn’t sure if she was talking to her, Ayla, or Jake, but she was pretty sure that in all cases her statement would be true and applicable.
Jake scoffed. “He has always been very selective with the inks he allows to receive.”
“A simultaneous attack, Reigner?” a roixer with a white band on top of his uniform asked.
“A bunch of organized criminals and the fucking courtrades causing trouble again. Nothing that we can’t manage.”
The fucking what causing trouble? Lenna could have sworn she saw a hint of a smile on Hope’s lips, but was too busy refusing to believe Theon was a traitor to figure out why. Lenna felt golden sparks on her fingertips.
“Can I kill him?” Jake asked Lenna with all the deathly calm in the world, without taking his silver eyes from Theon.
A movement on Lenna’s right made her look. Carson had gotten free of the roixer’s grip and hit the roixer with an elbow into his nose. Theon was in front of him in no time, twisting his neck and leaving him dead on the floor.
Sasha gasped, a raw scream leaving her throat, “You fucking traitor!”
Theon had just killed Sasha’s brother in front of her, and hadn’t even bothered to avoid stepping on his lifeless hand as he returned to the Roix Reigner’s side.
From the corner of her eye, Lenna thought the shadows around Hope seemed to emanate anger, but she couldn’t get her eyes off Theon to see how could that even be possible.
“I’d rather kill him myself,” Lenna said.