“You came.” He spoke, glancing at her with his subtly shining eyes. “I didn’t think you would.”
“I didn’t know I was going to.” Layla spoke as she glanced out over the midnight sea, not wanting to look his mad Dragon in the eyes lest it roll her with its mesmeric powers again. Even so, Layla could feel it stroking and caressing her all around, soothing her into her current dreamlike state. It wanted her here, it wanted alone time with her – and that was exactly what it had gotten, despite some deep part of her knowing this shouldn’t be happening. “Why did you call me?”
“I didn’t, exactly. My drake did. He wishes us to speak. Though I also would like to speak with you.”
The way Fury said it sent shivers up Layla’s spine, though she tried to keep her cool. It confirmed everything she was feeling right now; that Fury didn’t precisely want to talk with her alone, but his Dragon did. But Fury wasn’t menacing her, and he had his Dragon in check. Or his Dragon was cooperating right now because it wanted her nearby. Which was a stranger, slightly scarier thought that Layla tried to banish.
“Well, I’m here. Talk.” She spoke, taking a deep inhalation to steady herself, keeping her own Dragon in check as they sat together upon the ice.
“I know you and Reginald have been speaking about my darkness, and the darkness of our parentage, him and I.” Fury spoke quietly, turning back to watch the ocean. “And I’d… like you to help me transform that darkness into light.”
“Excuse me?” Layla blinked at him, and without missing a beat, Fury turned to look at her. Giving her the full force of his stunning silver-dark eyes, he held her gaze with that same iron-hard sensation she had felt in him before.
“Reginald thinks he is the weak link for your Bind, but the truth is that I am a far weaker link than he.” Fury spoke quietly, his voice seeming to surge around Layla with oceanic chimes in the night. “I can feel how my drake wants you, Layla. I can feel the attraction rioting between our Dragons. But know that I would never let my drake enter your Bind, ever.”
“Because your drake’s wildness would destabilize the Bind.” Layla understood, to her core.
“Yes, but it’s more than that.” Fury spoke, his very essence seeming to flow around Layla in a stream of silver starlight and moonlight now as he spoke, rolling her with his beautifully haunting gaze. “If I should die, by Hunter’s hand or anyone else’s, Reginald would suffer. He would become unhinged and destabilize the control in the Bind that you depend on him for. Don’t even try to deny it; I can feel my twin’s power surging through you, and I know what he provides you. If Hunter killed me, it would drive him mad. And I wonder now, whether this was what Hunter had planned all along – that one of us would become lodged in the Bind, and one of us would be the instrument to break it. I think you and I both know that can’t happen. Which is why I called you tonight.”
“What do you mean?” Layla asked, feeling like she had slipped into some sort of strange dream, facing this incredibly aware Fury. He wasn’t mad, she suddenly realized, he was simply trapped by the volatility of his Dragon. Trapped inside his body, trapped on this island – trapped by his drake’s desires. Rather than insane, Fury was deeply aware of his drake’s needs, but they were so far from human that he tried every day to not allow it to wreck ruin with its vast power.
And tank his real life, or the lives of people he loved.
“I need you to do something for me, Layla. And in exchange, I will give you this.” Turning up his hand, Fury showed Layla a smooth silver pearl held between his fingertips.
“What is that?” Layla frowned.
“A pearl of my own making.” Fury glanced at her, then took up a small, ornately-worked silver case from the ice beside him and tucked the pearl into its satin lining, closing the box. “It is imbued with my powers – most importantly, my ability to locate Hunter; to feel his whereabouts and track the void he produces. You will not need Leni’s machine if you take this from me, Layla, and you will not have her machine’s limitations. You will have my power; I will give it unto your Bind of my own free will. But you must do something for me first.”
“What do you want me to do?” Layla asked, frowning at him and feeling strangely cold now, fearing what he might ask her as the night moved quietly around them both.
“I want you to kill me.” Fury spoke solemnly. “I want you to kill me and Bind my spirit, as I heard you were able to do in Prague with the Crystal Dragons. I have discovered how to imbue objects with my power, and have already trapped my essence in this pearl.” Stroking his fingertips over the silver box, Fury held Layla’s gaze with a terrible precision in the night. “My Dragon will not be able to escape it once the weakness of my body is gone. It will not be able to rampage inside flesh any longer. If you wear this pearl with my Dragon Bound to you, but its essence trapped inside the pearl… you will be able to control it. And if you kill me and Bind my wild Dragon to you… it will never be useful to Hunter’s schemes.”
Layla could only stare at Fury beneath the sickled moonlight. For a moment, she could hear nothing but the ocean crashing below as her ears buzzed, her entire system in shock. She couldn’t believe he had just asked her to kill him, sitting calmly beside her on the ice like it was all just a casual conversation. Struggling up, Layla heaved hard breaths, her Dragon churning with a fire-bright resistance inside her veins as a scorched bourbon-orange scent rioted from her. She knew her lips had fallen open as she stared at Fury in horror.
“No!” Layla spoke once her faculties returned. “Fuck! No! How could you even ask that of me? Do you know what that would do to Reginald if I killed you?”
“He would take it far better than if Hunter killed me, Layla.” Beneath the sickled moon and bright stars, Fury was elegant grace as he pushed to standing also, watching her with his dark eyes. “I heard about Prague. You are a strong drakaina, Dragon Bind. You have the power needed to wield my Siren. I cannot – I have tried for centuries to control this thing without success. Please, this is the only way to keep Hunter from using me against my brother. Or against your entire Bind.”
“No!” Layla shook her head, backing up on the ice. “You’re important to Reginald. If I killed you—”
“He would forgive you, I know he would.” Fury pressed, moving toward her with a brighter shine in his eyes now, like a man possessed by zealotry.
“No. Absolutely not.” Layla shook her head as she backed up again, feeling a deep fear at being alone with Fury suddenly, wishing she had woken Reginald or at least stopped to grab her pearls before coming up here. But it had been a vast mesmerization that had caused her to come here alone and without protection, and she knew now that this had been Fury’s intent.
So he could convince her to do this heinous deed.
“I’m going back to bed.” Layla spoke again, firming her resolve against his magic with a bright roar of fire inside her veins. “Kill yourself if you want to, but I’m not helping. You want to slit your fucking throat and trap your Dragon in that pearl? You have to wield the knife. I’m not breaking Reginald’s heart like that. Ever.”
Turning, Layla stalked towards the stairs that led back inside. But just as she reached them, she felt a massive heave of Fury’s power. Arresting her, it flowed all around her like a dark tide and Layla moaned, her heat and passion suddenly raging so high in her veins that she had to actually swallow fire down inside her human throat. But it wasn’t heat protecting her against Fury’s desires anymore.
It was the heat of wanting him.
Layla’s drakaina roared to have Fury, the enormity of his power insane as it stroked her; cajoling, caressing. No longer slamming into her like earlier, it had learned what a Royal Dragon Bind was, and wanted to merge with the power of her drakaina. Layla’s beast surged up through her throat in response to that tremendously powerful, sexual drake, her skin crawling with the desire to split and shift. Fire-red and gold scales rippled out all over her body as Fury’s enormous power slowly convinced her to turn back.
And stare into his eyes.
“Don’t go, Layla.” He spoke softly, as those eyes drowned her beneath the sickled moon like twin pools of silver midnight. “Don’t deny me.”
