The way he saidsqueezesuddenly made Layla’s cheeks hot as her drakaina turned over with pleasure inside her veins. She and Rhennic had not had any time together since Yule, and though he was chivalrous and patient, there was still some mightily unresolved tension between them. Layla found herself blushing harder, and on the other end of the line, Rhennic gave a knowing chuckle. Layla saw his lavender eyes darken to a smoldering royal purple as he felt their tension heighten through the Bind.
“I like whatever is going on over there…” He murmured sexily.
“Shut up.” Layla grinned, suddenly wanting quite a lot of alone time with the stunningly handsome, and robustly enormous Rhennic.
He laughed. “You are quite the drakaina, woman! And you will fill me in on the entire story of Prague when I get to the Plateau? One moment, Reginald and I and our fighters were facing off with hundreds of furious Crystal Dragons, but before we had battled an hour, everything stopped. I felt some serious magic go down through the Bind, and Reginald did too, during that fight. You’re not going to weasel your way out of telling us what happened.”
“I will.” Layla smiled into the phone. “I promise.”
Just then, Layla heard a crystal safe chunk open near one of the tiers of bookshelves where they had made room for Markus’ library. Looking around, Layla saw Dusk had opened an enormous crystal safe from Prague, looking for more of Markus’ documents. But as Layla watched him, she saw Dusk pause, staring at something inside. A strange sensation crept over Layla, watching Dusk’s face. At the opal table, she saw Adrian set his ledger down, glancing up at Dusk also with a frown.
“Rhennic?” Layla spoke into the phone. “I need to go. I think Dusk’s discovered something we have to look at. Call me when you get to the Plateau. I can’t wait to see you.”
“I will. And it will be good to see you, too.” He smiled.
But they had no more time to talk as Dusk reached into the safe, drawing out a softly-glowing blue orb. It pulsed in his palm as if it were alive, and as he held it, a dark, terrible sensation crawled over Layla’s skin. Finishing her goodbyes with Rhennic, Layla hung up the phone, moving quickly from the window to where Dusk stood. Gaining his side with Adrian only a step behind, Layla gazed at the crystal orb in Dusk’s palm.
“What is that?” She spoke, sliding her phone away in her pocket.
“It’s a recording sphere,” Dusk frowned as he gazed at the orb, which Layla saw not only pulsed with a slow light, but also swirled deep in its aquamarine depths. “Crystal Dragons can record their most personal thoughts with these, thoughts they don’t want known by anyone else. When a Crystal Dragon is alive, the sphere imprints only to their resonance, and is un-crackable by anyone else. When they die, however—”
“The info inside is fair game.” Layla blinked, reaching out to touch the orb’s smooth surface. As she did, she got that gut-gripping sensation again, like scorpions had just crawled over her grave. Layla shuddered, pulling her hand back quickly. “Shit! What’s in that thing?”
“Everything Markus didn’t want anyone else to know about.” Dusk spoke darkly.
“Do we crack it?” Adrian asked, a matching wrath in his voice.
“Do you mean, do we want to know what Markus stored in his blackest of hearts?” Dusk spoke, glancing to Adrian.
“Something like that.” Adrian nodded, reaching out to touch the orb and pulling back his hand like Layla had, scowling as if it had bit him.
“I want to know.” Layla spoke determinedly, even though her skin still crawled to be near the orb. “It’s probably horrible information we might have nightmares about for months, but I think we need to know. Especially if Dusk is going to become Crystal Dragon King in three days.”
“Balls.” Dusk cussed with a wry smile, his energy churning as much as Layla’s and Adrian’s from holding the orb. “I’d really rather not dredge up all of Markus’ most heinous deeds. Though I do agree with you, Layla… it’s probably better if I know.”
Still, the three of them stood there, paused. With a hard sigh, Dusk gestured back to the opal table. “Over there. At least if we’re going to crack this nasty Easter egg open and see what evil prizes are inside, we’ll be more comfortable sitting down.”
Layla couldn’t refute his logic, and as they made their way back to the table, Layla and Adrian pulled their hourglass seats around so all of them were sitting on the same side. With a deep growl, Dusk set his hands to the orb. Closing his eyes, he poured a resonance through it like musical notes, shivering them up an ephemeral scale. The orb swirled brightly as he worked his unlocking, and faster. By the time Dusk hit his final note, the entire thing flared diamond-bright.
And then settled into a picture of Markus’ odious face.
“I take up this recording orb on the twentieth day of June, eighteen-hundred-and-sixty-five by the Common Reckoning,” Markus’ rolling basso voice came, disembodied from the orb as his lips spoke with a watery light.
“I grow weary of the Hunter’s games.” Markus continued, as shock smote Layla and her men to hear Hunter’s name mentioned, their nemesis. “He has backed me into a corner at every turn, and I am waning in funds for him to manipulate to his aims. Yet he calls me to the pinnacle of the Crimson Circle yet again, demanding I do his bidding through our contact in dreams. He is obsessed with two young Dragons recently born in North Africa, for what reasons I cannot fathom – one Dusk Arlohaim from my own Egyptian clan, and one Adrian Rhakvir of the Desert Dragons of Morocco.”
“What the hell?” Dusk swore softly, his gaze riveted to the orb as Layla and Adrian drew twin stunned breaths.
“Others have called Hunter’s attention in the recent past,” Markus’ recording continued, “most notably the Storm Queen’s son Rhennic Erdhelm, and the renegade Siren Courtier Reginald Durant. Like he did with those two, Hunter wishes to make young Dusk’s life a living nightmare, and has tasked me to see it through this time, while he focuses on the Desert Dragon child.”
“Fucking Christ!” Dusk swore again, horrified as the recording continued.
“Shit.” Adrian echoed, a vast fury in his eyes now as he watched the orb.
“I am reticent to push young Dusk.” King Markus continued from within the orb. “Hunter wants the child’s power pushed hard to see how far it will blossom, but Dusk is Sky Arlohaina’s son, and Omar Arlohaim’s, and both those ancient bloodlines run deep. If I push him, the boy may grow to rival my throne, which I cannot have. Perhaps there is a way to erupt a conflagration between the Tunisian and Egyptian clans, and have the boy killed by accident? I will think on it…”
“Jesus.” It was Layla’s turn to swear now, as they all watched the recording fade out to an end with sick fascination.
Just then, the orb swirled and Markus’ image returned, dressed in different garb. As they watched, Markus raked his hand though his wavy blond hair, his manner deeply distraught. “I take up this recording on the third of November, nineteen hundred and fifty-five. I have made a vast mistake, openly criticizing Hunter this past year. After he found out what I engineered between Tunisia and the Crystal Plateau, he tanked what was left of my already-ruined financial state, leaving my clan and Lineage destitute here in Prague.”
