Chapter 37: Chapter 37

REYNA

Later that evening, Nana helped me into my red rose dress for the first time. She fussed over me like a mother hen, combing the thick mass of light brown hair until it fell to my back and shoulders in shining, soft strands.

Then I applied light makeup to my face. The dress fit me so well you’d think it was sewn onto my body.

I liked the feeling it gave me; it made me feel powerful as well as sexy, now that I knew what that really meant. Although I thought it was a bit tight on my chest, the leather corset was too tight and constricting.

It pushed my breasts to high heaven, half of which had swollen out of the red gown. The flowy skirt had a long slit that went all the way to my right thigh.

The dark red, knee-length high-heeled boots gave me a few extra inches. I strapped my daggers to the harness on my left thigh, keeping them concealed.

Overall, I looked like a different person, and I felt it too. After the induction ceremony, I was going to steal the key from my mother’s quarters and free Casvan.

The thought of my beast leaving devastated me, but I had to do this. For him, even if it made me a traitor to my queendom.

The communal hall was decorated with roses of different colors. Hundreds of candles had been lit.

Food and beverages were laid out on two huge tables. Marlenians had gathered, as was tradition, to witness the induction.

Sabrina had told us there would be a private celebration later, just among the Roses. All the new Roses were in attendance, seated at the front rows of chairs.

The older Roses were seated at the raised dais with the queen and council. Each girl had been called forth to take her oath of service and receive a dagger as a symbol of her Rose’s training completion.

When it was my turn, I was so nervous and deeply in thought that I didn’t hear my name being called the first and second time, until Chloe bumped my knees the third time.

“Hey, are you okay? They are calling you,” Chloe whispered.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.”

I rose and walked to the raised dais overlooking everyone. My mother was waiting for me, watching me strangely.

I smiled at her and inhaled. When she said the oath, I repeated after her. Then she gave me the new silver dagger.

I took it and thanked her. Cassandra gave me a hug and a kiss.

“You have made me so proud, Reyna,” she whispered, staring at me with a softness she rarely showed.

“Thank you, Mother,” I replied with a broad smile.

I had done it. I had finally gotten my mother’s approval.

I had made her proud. I walked down from the dais with a smile on my face.

Wiping the tears that had slipped from my eyes. Even if she found out what I did and went back to hating me, I’d still cherish this memory of her.

Throughout the party, I chatted, ate, drank, and laughed freely with the guests and other attendees. Outwardly, I was happy, enjoying the fact that I had accomplished my dream of becoming a Rose.

But inside, every second that passed sent my heart panicking and my nerves skyrocketing. When the clock struck midnight, the other girls and I were led away from the partying crowds by Sabrina to the secret room below.

But to my surprise, we didn’t stop at the round room. Instead, Sabrina opened the door to the tunnels.

My heart pounded with dread, wondering if Sabrina was taking us to kill Casvan. Was this how my mother intended to kill him?

But to my greatest relief, Sabrina took a different route—the route to the right. The one I had never walked through or explored.

We walked for a while before we came across a door. Sabrina punched in the password.

When we entered the room, Amara, Cassandra, Elizabeth, and a few witches were there. All looked as mysterious as could be.

This room was also round but bigger than the training room. In the middle, a pentagram was drawn with white chalk—or was it salt?

I wasn’t sure. Each of us was told to stand at each point of the five-star.

I was unsure where I should stand until Sabrina pointed to the last unoccupied spot. I went and stood there, nervous, my heart pounding.

I knew this part. I had been told what to expect, on what to do, but I felt like bolting right out the door.

“As Roses, you’re the greatest secret of Marlenia. You are women who have sacrificed your lives and happiness for the greater good. You’ve sworn to protect our queendom from those who would capture and use us,” Cassandra’s voice echoed in the big chamber.

“Sworn to obey your queen without question, sworn to kill all of Marlenia’s enemies, and that has made you the heart of this queendom. I hope you never forget who you are.”

My heart hammered in my chest. I felt like an imposter, a traitor to my people.

But God forgive me, I couldn’t sacrifice Cas for anything. Amara walked closer and began to chant. That was the sign we’d been waiting for.

Each of us cut open our palms with our new daggers and let a few droplets of blood fall on the drawn lines. Then we raised our daggers vertically to our faces and said the secret oath together.

~Oaths that every rose through time had said before.~

~With beauty we’ll lure you, enthrall you so,~

~Your soul will be ours, if we wish it so.~

~Consumed you’ll be, when caught in our web.~

~We’re the roses with sharpest thorns.~

~We’ll capture your eyes and cut your flesh,~

~With knife, kisses, hearts, and body,~

~We’ll end you.~

~We are no one’s slaves,~

~We’re no damsels in distress,~

~We’re the wild roses.~

~I’m the poisoned rose with the sharpest thorns. My life is for sisters, as theirs is for mine. This oath I take until I breathe my last!~

As I repeated these words with the girls, I could swear there was something greater at work. The blood on the lines was gone, just disappeared, and the wind howled and blew.

The lights flickered and the witches kept chanting in low, echoing voices that made me shiver as goosebumps covered my skin. Then it was suddenly over.

Together, my mother and the others left. Sabrina led us down another narrow tunnel until we stopped outside a large steel door. She knocked. A little window opened in the door, revealing half the face of a woman.

“It’s the new inductees’ night,” she said.

The window closed and a few seconds later the large door opened wide to let us in. A tall, broad woman stood behind the door; she was even bigger than Lydia. Tall and muscular.

I tried not to stare at her. My eyes went past the woman, and I gasped, surprised to hear music filtering outside.

When we all walked in, my jaw dropped to the floor, and I wasn’t the only one.

“Welcome, Roses, to the Chamber!” Sabrina announced with a big smile.

“What the hell is this place!” I shouted. My eyes followed the men and women in different stages of undress and levels of intimacy, fucking each other’s brains out.

My eyes fixed on a woman being pleasured by a man and a woman. The man was buried deep inside her while the woman played with her breasts.

“This is the best secret of Marlenia. Have you ever wondered where or how the people spend the token given to them by the queen? Or why they exchange their food ration for one silver token? Well, this is it. Women come here and use the token to get and experience what being with a man really is, or whatever strikes their fancy.”

My eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets as I watched a woman take a man from behind with some kind of contraption that was strapped on her thighs and inside her sex.

I think Elise, our other trainer besides Sabrina, had called it a double dildo strap-on.

“Which brings us to why we are here,” Sabrina continued, pausing for effect before thundering, “Tonight, you girls are getting fucked. So don’t be shy. Choose your partner for the night and enjoy—this is an order by the queen. Tomorrow, you’ll go on your first mission to the outside world.”

Sabrina ended with a laugh, winking at us.