“Don’t.” She pleaded. “Don’t ruin your beauty to punish yourself for everything that just happened. It wasn’t your fault, Reginald. It wasn’t your failing.”
Reginald stopped. Gazing at her with amazement, he slowly lowered the knife. “How did you know I cut my hair short because I’m punishing myself for my failures?”
“I’m your Partner.” Layla spoke softly, her hand curling into his and slowly taking the knife away, closing it. “Just like you can feel me, I can feel you. My Dragon knows you mangle your beauty and make yourself more severe because you don’t believe you deserve to be what you are. Just like you once hid all your incredible beauty beneath outdated couture at the Paris Hotel.”
“And what am I?” Reginald breathed, watching her with his bright storm-grey and gold eyes.
“Amazing.” Layla breathed, lifting up and pressing a soft kiss to his lips.
He kissed her back. Winding his arms around her, Reginald kissed her deeply and slow, and Layla felt an incredible passion surge between them, borne of a fundamental understanding they held now. When Reginald at last pulled away, it was with a will, and even he was unsteady as he breathed out, his eyelashes flickering with ecstasy as Layla moulded close to him. Smoothing his long hands over her back, he kissed her lips one last time, then nodded towards the exit.
“Are you ready to go?”
“Definitely.”
With a nod, Reginald turned, heaving up their bags in one hand. He didn’t look back as he escorted Layla to the main hall. Moving back down the ice-stairs to the harbor, Layla saw the eastern rim of the ocean was lightening, the sun about to rise above the horizon as the stars were banished from the sky. As sun hit the pinnacle of the glacier, Layla was suddenly compelled to look back, pausing just before taking Reginald’s hand to climb onto the yacht.
Standing atop the glacier was Fury, gazing down at Layla from a terrible height. He was naked still, his long silver hair blowing glorious and free in the dawn wind. Even from a distance, Layla could feel the drowning color of his dark blue eyes as he watched her. His Siren swirled in them now, rioting and chaotic, and Layla felt its frustrated scream as it twisted through the oceanic sculptures, misshapen as they rose and crashed, and crashed again. Fury was twisted up inside, just as misshapen as his sculptures now from their Bind and everything it had done to him because his Siren had pushed it. He was hurting; vastly so as he stared down at her and careened deep inside, forced to come to terms with his beast. Layla couldn’t fault him for what had happened earlier with his Siren, what it had compelled them to do to each other.
But she wouldn’t excuse him from it, either – no matter how much pain he was in now.
Pulling her gaze away, she took Reginald’s hand and let him help her to the yacht. She felt Fury’s agony roar all through her as she turned her back on him. She felt his anguish and his Siren’s wrath as she chose the brighter twin over the darker one, eschewing Fury’s Bind and his tortured love. But she knew now that the three of them held a tenuous balance, each one tipping to the darkness, ready to go down at any moment. Fury was a liability, Layla knew as she went with Reginald up to the bridge and he fired up the engines, pulling the boat away from the dock.
A liability that was better left alone in the ocean far away – despite their Bind.
As Reginald pulled the yacht from the dock, smoothing the sea to steady their path, Layla felt Fury’s heartbreak roar all through her. Lacing her arm through Reginald’s as they left the White Deeps, Layla exhaled in relief when there was nothing but open ocean surrounding them, Fury’s raging emotions far behind. With every mile they put between them and the ice island, Layla felt Fury’s influence on the Bind fade. Although she could never truly sunder it unless she called for Luke Murphy’s help, she could leave it be; leave it behind on some god-forsaken island she would never visit again.
And as Fury’s deep inner darkness pulled her, Layla knew that’s how it had to be.
Forever.
CHAPTER 21 – STORM
Layla and Reginald had fallen into a deep sleep in the master cabin of the yacht, after he’d finished moving icebergs from their path. Exhausted from battling Fury’s Siren-drake at the White Deeps, they slept cuddled around each other in bed, fully dressed and without ardor other than a few kisses. The foghorn alarm had woken them as they neared Deep Harbor, and clasping his pearl clip into his ultra-long hair and combing it over one shoulder, Reginald had gone back up to the bridge to guide them in along the jetty as Layla splashed away dark dreams in the yacht’s bathroom.
Neither of them saying anything about how they’d left Fury and his Bind at the White Deeps.
After they’d docked, Reginald had escorted Layla back to her suite. With a tender kiss, he’d entreated her to stay put, as he had clan-issues to take care of now that they’d returned. They still hadn’t said anything about what Layla had done; leaving Fury rather than deal with that mess just now. But Reginald had pressed Layla’s pearl earrings, bracelet, and necklace into her hand as they embraced. He had given her a quick kiss and said he would return in a few hours after looking over Leni’s data and talking with his father King Léviathan, who was apparently roaring to see Reginald in private about his abandoned duties yesterday.
And who was not actually Reginald’s father.
Left alone, Layla had taken her lunch out to her balcony overlooking the Siren city. Though it was a fantastic view, Layla hardly saw it, still processing everything that had happened earlier. Despite the bright day, dark thoughts swirled through her from Fury, and about him. Part of her wondered if Hunter had orchestrated all of it. She couldn’t imagine him seeing that much detail into the future, but as she thought about her and Fury’s devastating reaction to each other, and everything that had happened because of it, Layla found she wasn’t so sure.
Staring out over the harbor, Layla stewed. Even though he was distant now up at the White Deeps, Layla could feel Fury in the Bind, just like she could feel all her men. He was still raging with self-loathing at her departure, hurling blasts of raw energy at the sea and roaring when he couldn’t make it do his bidding. He was churning, trying to come to grips with his Siren-drake forcefully reunited with his human self. Even from so far away, Layla had a mental image of his eyes flashing silver, then blue, then silver again as scales rippled out across his skin over and over. He was half-shifting, out-of-control as he tried to come to grips with himself and failed.
Taking a deep breath, Layla knew she had made the right decision, leaving him.
Though she had no idea what she was going to do about it for the future.
Eventually, the brisk spring wind became too cold and Layla moved back inside, gazing over the foodstuffs on her table. Still feeling strange after such interrupted sleep and her Bind with Fury, she decided on coffee and some ladyfinger cookies. As she poured a coffee, something pulled her to her purse, cast aside on the table. Moving to it, Layla’s hand reached instinctually for her phone, but rather than dialing Adrian or Dusk or even Rhennic, her thumb hovered over her ex-boyfriend Luke Murphy’s number. Luke had the unique power to dissolve Binds with his Storm Dragonnullax-magic, they had learned at Yule. But even as Layla hesitated, she realized Fury would have to agree to an un-Binding for Luke to do it. Luke was a doctor now in the Twilight Realm and had a code of ethics, which didn’t include nullifying someone’s magic if they didn’t want it done.
With a sigh, Layla set her phone down, churning and knowing it was mostly Fury still influencing her. Turning back to the cookies, she had just popped a cookie in her mouth when a sea-chime came at her doors. Moving over, Layla set her palm to the glossy corals to open them, wondering if it was Reginald returned early from his duties.
Stopping in her tracks, staring at the person it actually was.
“Hello, stranger.”
The man who stood on the other side of the door was probably the last person Layla had expected, and half-choking on her cookie, she stared at him in surprise. Tall and fiercely elegant, her Bound lover and Storm Dragon Regent Rhennic Erdhelm stood before her with a great big grin. Wearing a smart charcoal suit with deep purple pinstripes that fit his massive, lean stature like a dream, plus a gold watch and navy pocket square, he was handsomely elegant – and it smote Layla hard after so many months away from him. They’d really only ever gotten to be around each other at Yule and at the Crystal Plateau back in February, though that week had been ridiculously busy with Dusk’s Kingship events. Layla had gotten hardly any time alone with Rhennic in Egypt, and with everything that had happened in the following months, he and Layla had still not been able to arrange any personal time together.
