The Name-Bearer (Flowers of Prophecy #1)

by Natalia Hernandez

La señora Awaq pinched her, not unkindly, a reminder to stay still, lest she be impaled by pins.

“Flowers do not talk,” she had argued, a frown etched on her young brows. “Not all flowers,” her mentor had agreed. “Only the Flowers of Prophecy.” She had regarded him suspiciously. “But... they don’t have mouths.”

She had addressed he Flowers respectfully. She hadn’t erred. Had she?

You can't catch all of the mistakes.

“A future king was born this morn, but not unto the queen.”

“If found and brought to us to discover his true name, it will ring in a peace to this realm that will last for centuries.”

She understood what he was saying, but not what it meant.

It seemed that any young woman was given an equal opportunity to become a warrior, they were each fiercer than the next and all devastatingly beautiful in their strength and resilience.

She witnessed firsthand how femininity was not exclusive to soft spoken words and fancy dress, and that embracing more traditional “feminine things'' in no way made anyone weaker.

“Honestly, it’s just such a shame that you force Damika to cater to you as you do. She is far more skilled than you; do you not worry that you are holding her back in her training? Do you not think that you do her a disservice by making her stoop to your level?”

Before she could examine the emotion further, Damika reached across the small space between them and dragged her thumb over Phanessa's forehead, smoothing out the wrinkles from her frown and making Phanessa swallow hard.

“I was afraid Damika would find me in my dreams and make me run some more!” “If anyone could manage it, it’d be Damika!” Petra interjected, having joined them at the back of the pack.

The fact was that she hadn’t experienced any sort of interest in anyone, male or female, except for Damika.

There was no reason to feel guilty over what you were or how you were built.