“I think so. Crisis averted.” Layla murmured sleepily as she gave a smile. Her eyelids were so heavy, and they fluttered closed as Dusk reached up, stroking her cheek with his warm knuckles. “I can’t feel Reginald anymore… I’m just tired.”
“She feels like she’s been drugged,” Adrian’s murmur was dark at her back as her kissed her shoulder.
“She’s alive, Adrian.” Dusk spoke calmly as he kissed Layla’s lips again. “Be grateful for what Luke did. Don’t be a dick. Reginald’s self-hate would have taken her down and you know it. And if Layla goes—”
“We all go. I know.” Adrian sighed harshly, as if continuing a conversation he and Dusk had had previously that Layla had not been party to. Her eyes fully closed now as she cuddled into them, feeling them so warm and soothing on either side of her that she was almost tipping over that edge of sleep now, she heard Adrian speak again. “I remember the visions Layla had of Hunter’s trio. If she falls, or if one of us does—”
“It might drive the others insane. Or even kill one of us. Or more.” Dusk’s words were very quiet now as his sweet river-water breath eased over Layla’s lips. “The Bind is giving us insight into each other, letting us feel and borrow each other’s magics to some degree, but it truly is a Bind, Adrian. Our life-forces are getting tied together, deep inside.”
“I know. I can feel it.” Layla felt Adrian reach up, massaging a hand to his chest as if his heart hurt. Sliding that hand around Layla, he pressed his palm to her heart in a deeply soothing gesture. “We’re tied to her life-force, too. I can feel Luke’snullaxinside her, drowning her passion like a vast white mist.”
“Like a vast white nothing.” Dusk agreed softly.
Layla felt Adrian and Dusk share a look over her shoulder, though she didn’t see it. She was already slipping into sleep, tipping over that diaphanous edge with their warmth and safety cuddling her, a vast white emptiness seeping up to claim her. Images of an endless plain rolled through her, emptiness surrounding her like a blank white void. It was serene somehow, and as Layla fell into it, she felt calm rise up to take her. As if her Dragon was the source of her fury, her bright rage, and her darkness also, she felt it all washed away with that smooth white mist.
Empty.
Layla didn’t know she’d slept until she woke. Dusk and Adrian were no longer in bed, and she saw through the open canopy-drapes that though a fire still roared in her fireplace, the thin grey light of early morning was rising in the room. Clouds were heavy in the sky outside as she gazed out the vaulted windows, with the dense look of more snow. At the clink of cutlery, Layla glanced over to see Dusk at the table, eating breakfast and studying his tablet. Looking around as if sensing her wake, his summer-blue eyes found her and he paused, then set everything down and rose, coming to her with a gentle smile. Sitting on the bed, Dusk reached out, brushing back a curl of Layla’s hair. Layla’s inner fire immediately roared, swamping her as a heady citrus scent blossomed from her skin.
“Whoa!” Dusk chuckled, lifting his eyebrows at Layla’s reaction to his touch. Her breath heaved and she felt her cheeks flush as her Dragon rolled over deep inside her, fully awake. Luke’s mist from the night before was gone, and as Dusk touched her it was as if Layla’s passions rose tenfold, the drakaina’s heat clenching everything almost like she’d never bound Reginald. It shivered her, but not from cold – from that scalding, delicious sensation sliding all through her body.
“Someone’s feeling better this morning.” Dusk chuckled, a bit breathless now.
“I feel amazing, actually.” Layla blew out a breath, trying to steady her Dragon as the creature roiled. Sitting up in bed and tucking the covers around her nakedness, Layla glanced at Dusk. “My drakaina’s back on-line this morning, that’s for sure.”
“Temperamental little reptile you have in there.” Dusk spoke with a grin, though his teasing gaze was also shrewdly assessing. “Any leftover chill? Anything from Reginald?”
“Nothing.” Layla shook her head, feeling decidedly hale. Sitting a moment, she eased her way along the golden cord that bound her to Reginald. She could feel him, but when she turned her inner sight in his direction it was still vague, as if swaddled in that dense white mist of Luke’snullax, and Layla frowned. “I can feel Reginald’s Bind, but… it’s like someone’s white-washed that entire section of my mind. Luke’s magic has mostly washed out of me this morning, or I slept it off, but that area of the Bind still feels vague.”
“Nulled,” Dusk nodded soberly, his hand touching hers on the covers. “Nullaxcan have either a temporary or a permanent effect, depending on how it’s used. Luke stopped by early this morning to see if his power had any… problematic effects on you.”
“Diminishing my Bind to Reginald could be a problem if it persists. His magic controls my drakaina from trying to Bind every Royal in sight.” Layla frowned, suddenly wondering what Luke might be capable of if he could fully undo one of her Binds. “Do you think it’ll persist?”
“I have no idea.” Dusk frowned, rocking back and clasping his knee in his hands. “The person who would have that information is Queen Justine Toulet. We need to get ready, Layla. I’ve already packed a suitcase for you, but you should take a look and make sure everything you need is there. Luke, Rikyava, Adrian, and I are ready to go to Chambord, and Adrian’s got his jet warming up at the airfield. But before we go, I have to ask… did you feel anything happen with Luke last night?” Dusk gave her a look, and Layla felt herself blush.
“You mean besides what happened in the tub?” Layla squirmed, suddenly feeling squeamish about her sudden tryst with Luke in the bathroom.
“We heard it.” Dusk’s smile was wry, and something about it hard-edged, though Layla could tell he was trying to be magnanimous. “And saw the beginning of it. And felt the whole damn thing through our Bind.”
“Shit.” Covering her face with her hands, Layla massaged her eyebrows then looked back up, knowing she had to face it. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s ok.” Twining his fingers through hers, Dusk’s smile was sad but truthful. “Luke saved your life, and a lot of magic is stronger through sex, especially when a person is fully able to use the emotions they carry deep inside. You both still care for each other, and it’s obvious.”
“Aren’t you jealous of what happened with Luke?” Layla hedged, deeply worried.
“I was when it was happening,” Dusk reached up, smoothing one of Layla’s curls back from her face, “but I can reason through the magical necessity of things. Adrian’s stewing, though. He might try to take a chunk out of Luke in the next few days.”
“One more problem in a boatload of trouble.” Layla sighed, leaning into Dusk’s touch.
“But what I was asking before, is if you felt the Bind engage Luke?” Dusk spoke as his touch eased down her neck, stroking her collarbones as he watched her intently.
Stilling, Layla thought about it. Spreading her awareness deep though her body, she could feel her golden Bind-connections to Adrian and Dusk bright this morning, even though the one to Reginald was still dulled. But as she thought about Luke, to feel out and see if she had any magical connection to him, she felt nothing. “No, I don’t think we were Bound. I’m not feeling any metaphysical connection when I think about Luke this morning. Just all my regular emotions about him. I wonder if hisnullaxgives him the ability to resist my Bind?”
“Could be.” Dusk spoke with a frown. “But I’ll thank our stars your magic didn’t Bind Luke last night. I think he and Adrian would tear each other to bits. Having Reginald and Adrian trying to get along is hard enough with all their history… but Adrian thinks Luke is a selfish asshole, and I know Luke views Adrian far worse.”
“Do you think Luke could break our Bind?” Layla asked, the thought truly scary to her as she felt again the mist still covering her connection to Reginald.
“I don’t know, Layla.” Dusk frowned as his gaze held hers. “If Luke truly hasnullax, then he’s got more power than any of us. A scary power all Dragons fear. He could take away our magic, our ability to shift into our beast, everything. We would become human, living in a dangerous world that expects us to be a Dragon – weak among the powerful.”
