CHAPTER 27 – PARTINGS
After the Owner’s meeting, Adrian escorted Layla back up to her rooms, where they stood a long while, kissing. As his sweet lips finally parted from hers, Adrian drew Layla close, and she laid her head on his shoulder. Nuzzling his nose into her hair, he breathed deep, then let it out in a long sigh. Layla heaved a sigh of relief also as she felt the tension gradually draining out of them both. Slow and calm, she could feel her Dragon and Adrian’s sliding through each other’s coils – not a dance of hot passion tonight, but of deep solace. Layla closed her eyes, drinking in Adrian’s warmth as she felt him close his eyes and surrender to her also, pressing his lips to her temple.
“Are we out of hot water?” She asked, still cuddled close, not wanting to let him go.
“I don’t know for sure.” He murmured, his resonant baritone beautiful in the quiet of her rooms. Reaching up, Adrian stroked her neck, and Layla shivered in bliss at his touch. “It’s a good sign that the remaining Owners accepted me back into their ranks. Whether they’ll let me re-organize them remains to be seen. But many of those left have been friendly to me in the past, and it’s encouraging. With Quindici’s help, I think we can get it done.”
“Do you think you still have enemies among those left?” Layla asked, soothed by Adrian’s caresses.
“Maybe.” Adrian frowned slightly at her cheek. “Heathren said there are three more Crimson Circle members out there, as yet unidentified, who worked directly for Hunter. We still need to find them, and rout out any supporters they have on the Board. But all this is uncharted territory for me. Plus, we’ve dealt Hunter a severe blow that I’m not entirely certain he saw coming, and I can’t predict what he’ll do next.”
Layla knew what Adrian meant. With the White Chalice fallen, the Storm Queen dead, Layla bound to both Luke and Rhennic now, and with Dusk in a coma, his crystal sarcophagus under heavy guard in his rooms on the fourth floor, everything seemed upside-down. But all the same, a deep quietude had taken Layla to know Adrian was no longer being hunted. At last, he could stand at her side out in the open.
At last, they could hold each other and be together – just like this.
As Adrian set another kiss to her temple, Layla sighed again. Lifting up, she kissed his lips, then pulled back to see his eyes. “What now?”
“I believe Arron and Luke are eager to return home to Seattle,” he spoke quietly, his fingers still stroking her neck as he watched her. “And I need to meet briefly with Quindici and the Madame. You should go say goodbye.”
Layla nodded, heaviness in her heart. She wasn’t looking forward to either conversation. She’d barely said three words to Arron and Luke after the battle at Chartres, and neither had really wanted to approach her. Giving her a kiss on the forehead, Adrian led her towards the doors. They exited, and after kissing him goodbye and watching him depart down the stairs with a retinue of Guards, Layla moved across the hall to knock on Arron’s heavily-guarded apartment doors.
Arron opened his doors, still dressed in his tux from the evening. With a lack of surprise in his grey eyes, he ushered Layla in, then moved to the bed and sat down, clasping his hands over his knees as Layla sat beside him.
“Hey.” Layla spoke softly, glancing at Arron.
“Hey.” Arron smiled wryly as his grey eyes glanced to her then back to his clasped hands, tension stretching between them. But the only thing that had ever solved tension between her and Arron was touch, and as Layla reached out, clasping her hand upon Arron’s, he gave a deep sigh. Layla felt something tight in him begin to unwind as he chuckled wryly. At last, he looked up, meeting her gaze in a way Layla knew meant they were going to have a no-bullshit heart-to-heart.
“So you probably think I’m a fool. Marrying a woman.” Arron spoke quietly, watching her with a deep vulnerability in his grey eyes.
It was the last thing Layla had been thinking, and she blinked in astonishment. She had thought Arron was going to chastise her for getting involved in all this. She had thought he was going to be furious that her new life had put him and Celia and Charlie so deeply in danger and cast them into a war-zone. But it struck Layla suddenly that Arron had been avoiding her because he was deeply embarrassed about things that had happened with the Smoke Faunus woman Giselle. As Layla’s heart opened wide for her best friend, she inhaled a choking breath, turning and gathering him into her arms as they sat upon the bed.
“You’re not a fool, Arron. Gods, you’re not!” Layla breathed as she stroked his soft ash-blond hair. “You were taken advantage of, drugged and under magical coercion. It’s not your fault. None of anything that happened is your fault.”
“I hadsexwith that woman, Layla!” Arron rasped, even as she felt him wrap his long arms around her, clinging to her suddenly as he released his emotions at last. “Sex. I haven’t had sex with a woman… ever! And now I did it with a… athing.A tree-thing. God, I don’t even know quite what she was.”
“It’s not your fault,” Layla repeated, stroking his hair as he gave a hard sigh. Tears pricked her eyes, but she didn’t let them shed, staying strong for her friend. “You were under magical sway, you couldn’t have helped it.”
“Is this how it feels?” He rasped with a sad, dire chuckle. “Is this how being in a world of magic goes? This horrible feeling like you can’t control anything?”
“Sometimes.” Layla admitted, knowing that sensation of helplessness like there was nothing she could do against certain sways. In so many ways, the human world felt predictable to her now, the rules defined, the laws set. But the Twilight Realm was a wild place, and it felt wilder, more dangerous to her now than ever before, since her human friends had gotten so disastrously hurt. As she held Arron, stroking his hair, she felt that knowledge seared deep into them both.
Layla’s new life was dangerous – and humans didn’t belong anywhere in it.
“Well, I don’t want it, honey.” Arron was resolute as he pulled away, briskly wiping tears from his cheeks as he regarded her with red-rimmed gray eyes. “This is shit. I wish you could just come home to Seattle… come be with us again.”
“Some part of me wishes I could, too.” Layla spoke, as she and Arron twined their fingers together. But she knew she never could. Layla was in too deep – and too deep in love to leave. Adrian’s beloved face rose in her mind, then Dusk’s. On its heels from somewhere far away came Reginald, turning to look at her through their Bind, then Rhennic, lifting his head with a sharp vibrance in his lavender eyes as he felt her presence.
And then Luke’s green eyes, piercing her with a vivid intensity.
Quietly, Layla banished them all, sitting with Arron once more. They were both gazing at their twined fingers when he spoke again. “I want to stay friends, chica.”
“I know. I do, too.” Layla spoke earnestly.
“No matter all that’s happened. No matter how dangerous your world is, or your magic. When you come visit the human world, please come see me. I just… I don’t think I can come here again.” Arron looked up, and the look in his grey eyes was so haunted, it broke Layla’s heart. She felt her love for her friend expand as she reached up, cradling his cheek with her hand.
“I will come visit you,” she spoke. “I promise.”
Nodding, Arron brushed away more tears. Rising, he drew her into a deep hug, holding her close. Layla felt the finality in it; he was never coming back to the Twilight Realm. Once he left, that was it. But Layla could visit the human world, and she promised herself she would, firming her intention to not leave Arron behind as a friend – not like she had done with Luke.
