“I… for a while afterwards, it was hard for me to feel Reginald’s presence through the Bind.” Layla continued, not quite knowing where she was going with this but needing to hear her thoughts out anyway. “Our Bind felt thinned, obscured by this white void in my mind and in my body… faraway. After yournullaxtouched it.”
Luke blinked, and Layla saw it dawn on him what she was trying to say. “Are you saying you think I could break our Bind? Or… thin it with mynullax?”
“I think so.” Layla continued, moving closer. “Would you like to try?”
Luke blinked again, and Layla saw him draw a deep breath as his emerald gaze pierced her, flickering with lightning. “That could kill you, Layla. When the High Priest’snullax-lance hit Dusk during the battle, you collapsed. Your heart stopped. I had to do CPR while Adrian revived you with his magic. It didn’t take long, but still…”
“I know. But would you like to try?” Layla spoke, coming close enough that she could reach out and take Luke’s hand. The Bind thrummed as they touched and she saw Luke sway, his lips falling open as a deep passion surged between them. His emerald eyes lit, and then darkened, as Layla watched him try to resist her call.
“I would like to try.” He spoke softly, closing his eyes to steady himself. “I can’t—”
“Can’t live like this. I know.” She spoke gently. “I feel your heart Luke, though the Bind. I can feel how much you want to be free. I can feel what you truly desire, despite all the passion between us. And it’s ok. I understand.”
His eyes opened. They were the most impossibly vibrant color as he gazed at her, his dark brows knitting as he tried to form some kind of placating statement and failed. Staring at her, Luke’s gaze became furious, then bleak – then finally soft. Reaching up, he pulled a few pins from Layla’s hair. Her sable curls fell down around her shoulders and over her back, and Luke combed his fingers through them, watching the passage of his hands as he drew a deep breath. Layla felt his heart open as something beautiful and sad moved between them.
“God, I love you.” Luke murmured at last. “So regal. So beautiful. So terrible.”
“I know. I love you, too.” Layla spoke quietly as she reached up, taking his hand.
“Are you sure you want to try this?” Luke regarded her, caressing her fingers with his thumb. “What if you need me in the future? What if not having my power in the Bind makes you vulnerable against Hunter or other foes we know nothing about yet?”
“I’ll take that risk.” Layla spoke again, gripping his fingers tenderly. “If you love someone, you let them go, Luke. We need to let each other go. It’s long past time.”
He nodded, and Layla saw him process. Glancing down at their hands, he heaved a sigh. When he looked back up, his eyes were clear. “Maybe we should sit.”
Layla agreed, and together they moved to two high-backed chairs by the fireplace. Pulling them close, they faced each other, reaching out to hold each other’s hands as they took seats.
“Open the Bind.” Luke spoke, watching Layla with an intense emotion.
She nodded. Closing her eyes, she felt for the golden cord that bound them together now, that bound their hearts and bodies, their souls and magic. Layla felt Luke’s enormous white Dragon of lightning-mist rise in her mind; she felt it coil all around her as she summoned it. She felt that sensation hit Luke and rock him as he felt her Dragon coil around him also, fire-bright in its crimson and gold glory. She felt how their beasts twined together, writhing through each other’s scales as they bound close through Layla’s magic. She felt their energies sliding hot and smooth through each other, in an intricate dance of passion and need.
Though their true desires lay elsewhere.
“I’m ready.” Layla spoke, though it was with effort. A part of her had already dropped so deeply into her Dragon-mind that she couldn’t think like a human anymore.
“Open to me.” Luke breathed, and Layla felt his breath like a curling white mist as hisnullaxeased out around her.
A part of her tensed, resisting that dire sensation, but Layla forced her Dragon to be calm as she felt Luke’s diabolical power slide out, coiling all around her. In her mind’s eye, she saw Luke’s mist-white Dragon surround her crimson and gold one, growing enormous as it reared its head and flared a white-spiked mantle. In its eyes, she saw death and the void, an endless diamond night of cold and loneliness as the lightning of creation and eternal destruction flashed in its gaze.
Towering above her, the white Dragon lowered its head as Luke’s fingers gripped Layla’s before the fireplace. As the enormous white drake of endless nullification bent Layla’s drakaina backwards, making her surrender as they locked jaws in a kiss, Layla suddenly understood. Her power was not the master here, not anymore. As Luke breathed his drake’s magic deep into her drakaina’s body, Layla surrendered, not fighting that energy but allowing it to flow through her – and to go where the mist-white drake wanted it to go.
Layla felt Luke’snullaxpour through her like a cold mist beneath an endless swath of midnight stars. It had no time and it had no boundary as it moved, seeking magic to unmake. Layla felt it touch upon her heart, her own Dragon’s life-force, and move on with a shake of its mist-swirling mantle. It didn’t want her life, or her magic. She felt it slip into Dusk through their Bind, deep in his coma in his crystal cocoon yet still alive, and felt it pass him by. It didn’t want to hurt a friend. She felt it pass into Rhennic and make him shudder with alarm far away, but again left him behind as an ally. She felt it ease into Reginald, facing off with the Siren’s blackwater tides, and decide that this was no foe to tussle with, not at the moment.
And then she felt it pass into Adrian.
She felt Luke’s power hesitate. As that white, creeping mist paused inside Adrian’s body, Layla felt it think thoughts likeenemy, arrogant, demolish.But something fierce rose inside Layla, her drakaina breathing back against the dire mist as she struggled beneath the drake’s massive white jaws. Layla fought Luke’s power with everything she had then, instinct filling her as she struggled for Adrian’s life, thinkingmate, honor, love.
Beloved.
Beloved?She felt Luke’s magic pause, terribly still.
Beloved.She confirmed, exhaling a burning golden light deep into the drake’s mist-white body. She felt him shudder. She felt him lose all hope for their reunion, him and her.
And then, she felt him let her go.
With a sweet exhalation down her throat, Luke’s power eased deep into Layla’s body, finding the Bind between them. Part of Layla felt Luke draw near in the real world, standing as he pulled her to her feet. Pulling her close to his body by their twined hands, he wrapped an arm around her as he drew his lips to hers. She felt him kiss her, one last soft kiss as he exhaled deep down her throat in both the physical world and the metaphysical. And then his whitenullax-mist found their Bind, curled into it.
And devoured it from the inside out.
