Reginald’s blue eyes were wrathful as he surged from the ocean. But his wrath wasn’t for Layla as he shifted down fast in a liquid-smooth motion, his coils condensing in a wash of opal-gold light. Naked, he strode from the sea and up the icy steps, palming back his golden hair as he came – now so long from his shift that it flowed all the way to his hips as he exited the water.
Fury was fast on his heels. Breaking the surface also, Fury’s quicksilver-black and gold Siren was rent with dozens of talon-cuts and bites as he heaved from the sea. But like Reginald, he didn’t pause, simply flowed down in a flood of silver light beneath the moon, into human.
His dark eyes full of anguish.
“Reginald! Please! How many times do I have to apologize to you?!” Fury yelled after his twin as Reginald strode to Layla. Wet and shivering on the ice, Layla realized they’d been yelling at each other mind-to-mind as they fought beneath the waves, a roaring argument as their Sirens that she’d not been party to.
“It’s not me you need to apologize to, wretch!” Moving to Layla, Reginald sank down on one knee with the most terrible gaze she had ever seen. It was concern and wrath and a vast sadness all at once as he reached out to her. But he hesitated before his fingers stroked her wet curls, a flash of uncertainty moving through his eyes before he finally caressed her. “Layla? Are you alright?”
“I… I don’t know.” Still in shock, Layla shivered from the enormity of everything that had just occurred. She still couldn’t comprehend how fast it had all happened. She had thought Reginald would be furious with her for having Dragon-sex with Fury and Binding him beneath the waves, but it was the opposite. Though Reginald’s wrath emanated from him for his brother, he was only tenderness as he helped Layla rise. She came to him, letting him cuddle her with a tenderness she’d never felt in him before. His lips were sweet upon her brow as she clutched him close.
And then a sob left her, as she felt her heart suddenly break. “Reginald! I’m so sorry! Oh my God, I’m so sorry…!”
“Shh… it’s not your fault.” He spoke softly. “It’s my fault; I shouldn’t have brought you here. Fury’s Dragon is a creature unhinged. I should have known he would try something. I am so sorry, Layla, this is all my fault.”
“I just…” Layla hitched a breath, suddenly feeling jangled, though her drakaina roared in her veins with triumph. “I just want to go inside. Can we soak in the hot pools? I just… I need to process.”
“Of course.” Reginald was all kindness as he turned to escort her up the icy steps. But Layla didn’t miss the furious lance of gold-white energy he shot back at Fury like a harpoon. It was so acute and vicious, it staggered Fury as he watched Layla and Reginald move back inside the hall of columns. Watching Layla with anguish, Fury’s silver Dragon was banished from his eyes as his sea-arts rose up around them again. But even Layla saw how jilted and strange those arts were now – as if Fury couldn’t quite manage them since the Bind. She saw him give a hard blink at his misshapen sculptures, and as his body gave a tremendous shudder, they suddenly collapsed.
Looking back to Layla, Fury didn’t follow her and Reginald as they went back inside.
But still, Layla felt a vast power stretch between her and Fury as Reginald took her into the glacier’s halls. Moving Layla through their bedroom, Reginald took her to a bathroom with hot pools adjacent. Encrusted with white salts and minerals, the hot pools were natural, coming up through exposed rock in the floor. The bathroom was decorated in wrought-iron Victorian furniture, complete with a porcelain toilet and sink plumbed right into the ice wall. Reginald escorted Layla to the pools, but the moment she stepped down into the water, she suddenly froze.
“I’m sorry, I…” Layla blinked, shuddering as tears sprang to her eyes. Covering her face with both hands, she was suddenly weeping naked where she stood with one foot in the hot pool and one still on the ice. It was Layla’s lowest moment ever as Reginald curled his arms gently around her, holding her while she cried. Without speaking, he helped her move into the pool. Easing them both into the steaming water, he pulled her close, cradling her in his arms with her back to his front.
Reginald was sweet while Layla cried, saying nothing as he poured his soothing oceans through her. Eventually, Layla hitched a few last sobs, relaxing back into him. Setting her forehead to his cheek, she drifted as they breathed together. Curling her in his warm, strong arms, Reginald didn’t crush or possess her.
Only held her gently in the deep of the night.
CHAPTER 20 – DARK
Cuddled close to Reginald in the hot pools, Layla drifted on his soothing tides. Even though his power flowed through her, she felt distant, as if she didn’t want to come back to her body now that her drakaina was quiet. As if her sudden passion with Fury had burned itself out leaving only emptiness inside, Layla just felt drained now as she drifted in Reginald’s arms.
As the edge of a dark pit opened up inside her.
“What the hell just happened?” Layla breathed, her lips at Reginald’s neck.
“You just had sex as your drakaina for the first time. And Bound Fury. Are you alright?” Reginald spoke just as softly back, turning his head to press his lips to her brow.
“I don’t know.” Layla breathed, feeling the dark pit inside her slowly rise, beckoning her to slide into it. “It all happened so fast. One moment we were talking up on the ice shelf, and then I was walking away and he—”
“Rolled you. With his mesmeric power.” Reginald spoke quietly. Drawing a deep breath, he heaved a sigh. “Using our powers that way is forbidden among Sirens, Layla. Forcing a woman or man to be yours is strictly taboo among our society. It still happens, and some do it on purpose. But Fury can’t control his drake. Though that’s no excuse for what he did.”
“But it wasn’t just him,” Layla argued, trying to reason her way through what had just happened, still feeling strange and convoluted. “He called me with his mesmeric power, but he was asking me to do something his Siren didn’t want, so it rolled me into the ocean. My drakaina’s only option was to Bind him to stop drowning us… but she was attracted to him. I was. And when we… engaged… I liked it. My Dragon wanted it. I wanted it…”
“But his actions took your choice from you, Layla.” Reginald spoke, and Layla could feel him scowl as he put the pieces together also, feeling her confusion through the Bind. “Even though you’re as attracted to Fury as you are to me, would you have chosen to have sex with him and Bind him if he had not attacked you and left Binding as your only option? Especially when this sex was your first time as your Dragon?”
“No.” Layla spoke, feeling tears well up in her eyes again. “I wanted to save it for Adrian. I wanted my first time as my drakaina to be the two of us…”
Suddenly, Layla was breaking all over again as she turned into Reginald’s chest and wound her arms up around his neck. Holding her close, he stroked her back sweetly as she sobbed. Layla knew the truth now – that it hadn’t been her desire to take Fury. Even though her Dragon had been blistering for it, the human part of her hadn’t wanted it. And now Fury was part of the Bind; all his wrath and unstable darkness. He was a part of Layla now, and even as she sobbed on Reginald’s chest, she could feel Fury back up on some pinnacle of the island, facing the waves and roaring at himself as he roared at the sea, trying to make it do his bidding.
But it wouldn’t. He was all jangled inside from being forced to come to terms so suddenly with his beast, and everything was confused now inside his body, just as confused as Layla’s emotions currently were. Now, Layla understood Reginald’s wrath with his brother. Her Partner had known she would have chosen differently – wanting her first time as her Dragon to be with a Bound mate that she loved.
And not wanting to take someone unstable into their Bind.
But it was done, and Layla had no words as she sobbed harder on Reginald’s chest. She had backed away from becoming a Courtesan because she hadn’t wanted to deal with magical bullshit like this; of having a disagreement with her Dragon over whether or not she wanted someone. She’d been relieved when she’d Bound Reginald and gained his control, so her Dragon wouldn’t be a wanton creature of lust with everyone she met. But Fury had stripped all that control away with a flash of his dark blue eyes, and Layla had fallen into it – hard. Now she regretted it, clinging to Reginald like he was her only port in the storm.
As the black darkness inside her rushed up fast.
