“It is true.” Reginald spoke honestly as he watched her. “I’ve wanted to return to the Hotel this entire time, but father has continually pushed me to act as Clan Second, threatening me with banishment again if I leave, but pretending like he’ll let me go if I fulfill enough of his wishes. I don’t want an active position in my clan, Layla. Atlantos and I have had many a talk, and Leni also, and I would be more than happy to turn my position over to either of them, both fair and levelheaded like our mother. Now that I know Léviathan has no intention of letting me return to the Hotel, I have an easier decision. I just…”
As Reginald’s gaze strayed far out over the shining city, Layla understood. Reaching up, she cradled his beautifully austere face in her hands, making him look at her. Though there were no tears in his blue eyes, the grey in them was stormy, the gold bright – and Layla knew his heart, feeling it through their Bind.
“You don’t want to be banished from your home again.” She spoke, feeling his suffering.
“The Paris Hotel is my home.” Reginald rasped stolidly.
“No, it’s not.” Layla spoke quietly, still cradling his face in her hands. “Just like Dusk, you live there and love it, but it’s not really your home.”
“No. It’s not.” With a deep inhalation and a harsh sigh like a surging ocean, Reginald gave the smallest smile of his perfect lips, wry and awful.
CHAPTER 6 – DARKNESS
Reginald’s siblings Leni and Vindaris had departed, making their goodbyes to Layla and promising to see her later at the soirée being held in her honor. It wasn’t a full-court affair, apparently, only a small gathering for her to meet the extended family of the King – and Reginald. Like a Concierge, Vindaris had shown Layla to a coral closet in her rooms, filled with fabulously opulent gowns that she could use for dinner if she wanted. And with a bright smile, he and Leni were gone.
Though Layla could tell Leni was still stewing that her youngest brother would not topple their aging father from his throne.
After the waterfall doors to Layla’s suite closed, Reginald came to her. He didn’t hesitate, simply strode to her in a wave of graceful ardor, clasping her and pressing kisses into her like a man possessed. Layla gasped at his beautiful, dominant body as it pressed hard against her. Reginald’s hand corralled her neck so he could kiss her deeper, his other hand at her back, hauling her firmly against his hips. She could feel his need so hot and hard beneath his trousers. But with a gasp, Reginald broke their kiss, setting his forehead to hers as he caught his breath.
“Forgive me!” He spoke, shuddering like a man possessed. “Your presence after all these months. It’s—”
“Overwhelming?” Layla gasped, feeling their Dragons twist into each other as their Bind surged. Reginald’s opal-gold drake slid against Layla’s fire-bright drakaina, smooth scales touching every part of Layla now through their auras. She could feel Reginald’s enormous drake coiling her drakaina up with his muscled power, corralling her with decadent eros. As he pinned his jaws around her neck, Layla’s drakaina writhed to be so deliciously dominated by her Partner, and Layla gasped, feeling Reginald’s immense power wrap around her wrists, ankles, and neck as it coiled deep inside her. She whimpered as she felt his drake’s bite; dominant and hot. Layla fell against Reginald’s firm chest – succumbing to him as her whole body shuddered.
“I love how you surrender to me…” He breathed as he held her close.
“I love how you dominate me.” Layla whispered, needing him, every scale and barb and fang.
“Patience, Layla.” Reginald murmured in his smooth baritone, and Layla felt his cruel smile at her temple as he brightened now with ardor after the tense conversation. It was a game Layla loved as another surge of fire rushed through her; Reginald’s power coiling around her more firmly. “We have all the time in the world to become reacquainted in the next few days.”
“Well, knowing you want to return to Paris makes things easier.” Layla spoke, glancing up. “I don’t have to worry about convincing you to return to the Hotel for Quinn.”
“No, you don’t.” Reginald smiled, his Head Courtier’s indomitable presence in his eyes now. “I know how valuable I am to the Hotel, and my life there is valuable to me. Father is already feeling my lack of income on the clan – a bargaining chip I have yet to play, though I intend to. But I sense you are also here on another errand, something you have not spoken of yet.” Reginald said as his grey-blue eyes pierced her. “Are you going to tell me, my Partner?”
“Maybe you have to convince me to tell you.” Layla spoke impudently.
“Do I?” Reginald hissed, his sexual dominance increasing tenfold as he rolled another wave of power through Layla so hard her entire body clenched deliciously. This sexy defiance was part of the game they played also, even though they weren’t technically Partnered anymore since Yule. But it had become a sweet intrigue between them these past months on the phone, and as Reginald eased his coils of power around her, the grip of his hands firm upon her hips, Layla heated all over again. But she did want to tell him what she had forgotten in the bustle of the past twenty-four hours, and pushing back her ardor, Layla spoke.
“Actually, I did want to bring that up. Adrian’s gotten word that one of his scientists here at Deep Harbor has made a breakthrough in tech that might help us locate Hunter.”
“One of his—” Reginald blinked, and then a vicious smile took his face as he suddenly understood. “Leni’s discovered something with that altered-sonar technology she’s been working on. Something that might help us pinpoint Hunter. But she didn’t want to tell me until someone arrived who could confirm the Bind… and that I’m not Hunter in disguise. Clever.”
“So your half-sister really is Adrian’s secret inventor?” Layla smiled, not having taken the immensely supermodel-elegant Leni for a sciencey type. Though with her direct, no-bullshit attitude, Layla had to admit it was a good fit.
“Leni’s inventions aren’t a secret, though the fact that she shares them with Adrian is.” Reginald countered, gazing down at Layla. “She inherited our mother’s brains and ferociously strong magic – Siren women are often thus – but she uses it in the science arena rather than the political one because Léviathan has barred her from rising any higher in the court than Clan Fourth.”
“Could she be higher?” Layla asked, curious.
“Oh, yes.” Reginald lifted an eyebrow at Layla. “Leni’s stronger than Atlantos, and was stronger than Bastien before he died. She was stronger than me before you and I became Bound and my scales acquired their gold. She’s a Midnight Siren, born beneath a black moon at midnight; very rare. Her powers are uncannily strong, and devastatingly so beneath a midnight sky with no moon like the tides of her birth. She pushes me to fight Léviathan and become King, but what she tells no one is that she could probably fight him and become Queen instead, if she waited for the right night. But Leni and my father have a… difficult history. She generally avoids him because of it, rather than push him to acknowledge her.”
“Why? Doesn’t she want to rise higher in the clan?” Layla asked, frowning.
“She does.” Reginald nodded, though a dark glint took his eyes now. “But she’s safer living out of court, using her inventions to better our clan’s life and staying out of sight in her lab beneath the island. Today was one of her first court appearances in weeks, and only because you were here.”
“How come?” Layla pushed again, feeling a strange sinking sensation in her gut.
“Because Léviathan wants more heirs before he dies.” Reginald spoke quietly. “And Leni is the most powerfulSirennain our entire Lineage now that our mother is dead.”
Layla’s gut twisted, and she realized why she’d had that sick sensation. “Hunter told me in Manarola that Siren courts were incestuous. That’s horrifying.”
