With one last swirl of oceanic power, Reginald hung up. As the connection clicked out, Layla drew a deep breath. In the cool Prague wind, she could still feel an echo of those high-north seas, and she drew a deeper breath at the window, placing everything Reginald had said deep inside her heart like iron armor. It had only been three minutes when the phone was suddenly ringing again with a different number. Answering quickly, Layla’s heart soared to hear her Royal Storm Dragon Rhennic Erdhelm’s elegant voice on the other end.
“Layla! I’ve been calling you and Adrian for two days! I just got a call from Reginald about Dusk. What in hells blazes?”
Layla laughed even as her heart leaped to Rhennic, seeing him in the back of a black limo, dressed in a fine tux. The car was parked in a busy city and beyond the tinted windows, flashes of cameras popped right and left. Layla could just see the edge of a red velvet rope beyond the car windows, a mass of people behind it as if Rhennic was attending some kind of gala. But he had no date with him, and as he lifted his chiseled chin with his short red-blond beard, his brush-cut blond hair sexily styled for the evening over his arresting Viking-French handsomeness, Layla fell into his royal purple eyes from a distance. As if he could see her, his gaze sharpened upon Layla, and as she stood at the window, she felt a curl of storm wind reach out, caressing her face.
“You’re crying.” Rhennic growled softly. “King Markus. What has he done to you?”
“Nothing.” Layla gasped, loving the fierce care of her Royal Storm Dragon. “Nothing yet. Dusk and I just had an audience with him, but he’s made it plain that he wants to kill Dusk in his Trials. I don’t know how soon everything is going down. And Dusk and I have been separated. I have Dragon-guards on my doors.”
“I don’t like any of that.” Rhennic spoke with another growl, his eyes flashing with flickers of lightning now. “King Markus is a vicious beast and has a bad reputation with women, Layla. It ties me in knots that you’re alone in his palace, unprotected. I’ve cleared my schedule for the next week. Reginald’s mustering his clan, and I will be as soon as I get off the phone with you.”
“Where are you?” Layla asked, curious. “Are you in France?”
“L.A.” Rhennic spoke briskly. “There was a Storm Gala here I was supposed to attend as Regent, but this is far more important. Galas can be missed. Protecting you cannot. What do you need before I arrive? How can I help?”
“I don’t know.” Layla spoke, currying the fingers of one hand distractedly through her long curls. “No one’s moved to harm me, I’m just under lockdown. Technically, I’ll be allowed to watch Dusk’s Trials as his Witness, but I can’t see him otherwise.”
“Strict Intercessoria laws protect Witnesses to any succession or Lineage Testing event, Layla.” Rhennic spoke quietly. “Technically, King Markus can’t harm you for the duration of the witnessed event, and afterwards you are supposed to have safe passage out of enemy territory. But he’s known for doing things his own way, and the Royals he has at court never speak of his atrocities to the authorities. I’ve only gotten tidbits over the years, from a few Crystal Dragons who escaped his clutches at great personal risk. But what I’ve heard is bad. Don’t trust him – and don’t go anywhere alone with him.”
“That’s what Reginald said also.” Layla spoke, a deep fear taking her now that Rhennic had heard all the same things about King Markus.
“Any chance you can escape out the window?” Rhennic spoke softly. “Can you shift into your Dragon and fly on the wind yet?”
“I can’t.” Layla spoke, her throat gipping as she shook her head. “I don’t know how to fly on the wind, and besides, I can’t just leave Dusk here alone.”
“Of course.” Rhennic sighed. “No, I wouldn’t either. Hang tight then, your cavalry is coming. Reginald is far closer than I am, but I’ll be there as soon as I can with Lightning-Striker backup, as many as I can summon on such short notice. I love you.”
“I love you, too.” As Layla said it, her heart opened wide to Rhennic, smelling his good lavender and heather scent in the cool Prague wind. Suddenly, she felt as if that wind wrapped around her with Rhennic’s big arms, enfolding her into his towering embrace. As Rhennic closed his eyes in the limo, Layla felt him nuzzle her nose. And then she felt his decadent lips press hers as a deep roll of thunder passed through the cloudy sky.
“I’ll be there soon. Stay strong.”
With that, Rhennic was gone, already in action just as much as Reginald.
Hanging up the phone, Layla set it beneath her chin as she stared out over the vast rooflines of the palace. Her room had an east view over the river, but she wanted to face west, as if it might speed her Royal Siren and her Royal Storm Dragon coming to her. Tapping the edge of the phone on her chin, Layla moved back to the gargantuan bed and curled up on it. Kicking off her high heels, she tucked her knees up beneath her chin with Adrian’s cell phone clutched to her heart.
The only noise in her room was the ticking of an ornate gold and crystal clock on the fireplace’s mantle. Her room had no radiators and the fireplace was unlit, and Layla curled the duvet around her, swaddling herself in its comfort. The clock on the mantle ticked and ticked as Layla dove into a dark place within. As if Hunter himself had summoned it, the black pit of despair she’d thought nearly banished with her Binding of Rhennic at Yule surfaced, devouring her Dragon’s talons and trying to pull her under.
As a knock came at her doors, Layla jolted, realizing she had delved deep into that dark void. But as she sat up, staring at the door, she suddenly felt a strong desire to go open it. Rising, she padded to the door, throwing it wide. Between the two guards stood a tall, slender Crystal Dragon in a crisp white apron and modern black server’s attire. Rolling in a gilded tray of steaming foodstuffs with a few bottles of wine, he lifted blond eyebrows at her as a flash of gold scales showed at his temples and high cheekbones.
“Supper, ma’am.” He spoke, his calm eyes opal-grey. “Where would you like it?”
“Over by the table. Thank you.” Layla stepped back, some part of her relieved that at least King Markus wasn’t going to starve her. He was treating her civilly, and something about that made Layla unclench from her despair just a bit. Rolling the trolley in and closing the doors, her server was all brisk professionalism as he went to the windows and shut them, then to her cold fireplace, getting a blaze going in the logs. Moving back to the trolley, he briskly unloaded everything onto Layla’s gilded dining table.
Removing her sapphire and diamond earrings and setting them aside by the bed, Layla found her gaze continually tracking back to the server as he worked. Sexy with a nice smile, he had good shoulders and a lean body, but wasn’t jaw-droppingly handsome. And yet, something about him was intensely compelling as he gave her a subtle smile that suddenly stole Layla’s breath for no reason at all. His opal eyes twinkled with a renegade appeal, flaring with gold – and Layla’s Dragon rose in a rush, her heart skipping a beat as her drakaina coiled over inside her veins, urging Layla to go toss herself into the server’s arms. She actually had to brace a hand on a nearby chair to stop herself, and as Layla stared, she smelled a spiced jasmine scent flood the air.
As she watched, the server’s grey-gold irises swirled to a burning aqua, lovely as the Mediterranean at sunrise.
“This is how I would die into the love I have for you,” he spoke softly. “As pieces of cloud dissolve in sunlight.”
“Adrian!”
Layla was rushing to him even before he finished his Rumi quote. As he caught her, it was suddenly Adrian’s hands and body embracing her – his beautiful face and eyes and achingly high cheekbones present as he caught her close. Devouring her with his warm, sensual lips, they kissed, his desert-spice fragrance swirling around her in a blessed wind. Curls of etheric golden flame burst into the air as Layla and Adrian’s Dragons coiled through each other with desperate need, tasting each other with a raking passion. As Adrian breathed his power down her throat in a tremendous bolstering wave, Layla gasped, rolled in a scorching bliss.
Her black despair banished.
Without breaking their kiss, Adrian scooped her up and took her to the bed, tumbling them both down upon it. Pulling the golden cords of the canopied bed, Adrian shut out the room, swaddling them in brocaded silk curtains devoid of crystals. Layla’s arms wrapped around his strong shoulders as they kissed, her hands sliding under his shirt, tasting his skin as she drank him in. His hips ground into her and Layla gasped, twining her legs up around him as her high-slit skirt fell away. Adrian slid a hand up her bare thigh, gripping her and making her cry out as he gasped also, pressing her down to the bed and kissing her neck possessively.
“Layla! Thank gods you’re safe.” Adrian growled into her neck, keeping his voice low despite the heavy curtains. “Listen close, for I haven’t much time. King Markus has set Dusk’s date; his Trials will all happen two days from now – all on the same day. It’s unprecedented to not have healing time between Trials, and all the palace is talking about it.”
