“Fucking hells.” Rhennic breathed, highly alert now. Pulling back so he could stare down at her, Rhennic’s gaze went to the necklace Layla wore. “No wonder your energy is all jangled right now and Reginald’s guarding his like a sonofabitch. And Fury’s darkness is rioting through the Bind today. Let me guess. Reginald gave you the new set of pearls he’s been making for you and blew things up with his father Léviathan. Then you all went to see Leni and got the bad news about her tech and Hunter possibly being here. You went to Fury to confirm it, but Fury is his own kind of trouble and things ended up blowing up there, vastly out of hand. And you had sex for the first time as your Dragon… but not with someone you love.”
“You’re far too astute for your own good sometimes, aren’t you?” Layla spoke quietly as her hand went to Reginald’s necklace, feeling awful. Deep inside, that black pit roared yet again, sending strangling tentacles up around her Dragon’s neck and trying to haul her under.
“I know you wouldn’t fuck Fury on purpose, Layla. Or Bind him.” Rhennic spoke quietly, a deeply knowing look in his violet eyes. “I know you’d never do anything to harm Reginald, just like he would never willingly hurt you. He loves you, deeply. He’s been hunting down those pearls you’re wearing for months. He called me in to take a look at the colors and design before he had everything finalized, then again when it was finished. He wouldn’t have taken you to the White Deeps to see Fury without considering the risks.”
“He warned me about Fury. I just… didn’t really understand at the time. Now I do.” Layla sighed, still touching the pearls at her neck and fighting the darkness inside her. “But Reginald called you in to consult on these? I didn’t know you two were close.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know about Reginald and I.” Rhennic spoke with a slight smile now. “He and Leni, Rikyava and I were something of the four musketeers once, trying to continually set up peace talks between all our clans around the North Sea. Most failed; bad blood for generations, though my mother Queen Justine and Reginald’s mother Queen Auriana did end up working on a peace pact. But that alliance was fucked by Reginald’s father when Queen Auriana died. Now we’re at a stalemate, though I’m still allowed here as Storm Dragon ambassador. And Regent.”
“He’s not Reginald’s father.” It was out of Layla’s mouth before she could put it back.
Pulling back, Rhennic gazed down at her, his blond brows narrowing. “What?”
“King Léviathan.” Layla continued as her heart clenched. “He’s not Reginald’s father, or Fury’s. Their father is Hunter. Queen Auriana told Fury on her deathbed; it’s what made Fury go mad after her death. Fury just told Reginald yesterday.”
With a slow blink, Rhennic went utterly still. Lightning devoured his violet eyes as his gaze went long with an intense emotion Layla couldn’t name, his handsome face rigid. She could feel him controlling his Storm Dragon power as it flared from his sudden shock, but even so, Layla saw blitzes of lighting crackle around them in the suite. A roll of thunder smote the cloud-scudded sky, and above the balcony it was suddenly darker as if a downpour might begin. Even as Layla watched, she heard the crack of hail upon the balcony. Deep inside, Layla felt even Rhennic’s indomitable brightness darken towards that black void.
A black void that rioted in their Bind now – since Layla had Bound both of Hunter’s sons.
With a shiver, Rhennic glanced down to Layla, and she saw the same knowledge in his eyes as Reginald earlier; that Rhennic could feel what was happening from Fury’s new influence on the Bind. Giving a wry smile, he pulled away from Layla, turning towards his suitcases.
“I don’t think alcohol is strong enough to deal with this new revelation, Layla, or the revelation before that, or the one before that. Hang on a sec.”
Moving to his suitcases, Rhennic knelt and unzipped one. Fishing out two objects, he held them in his big hand as he rose. As he turned, Layla saw they were the winter-preservedaurumpears his clan made at Château de Chambord. Their golden skins sparkled with a fine dust of sugar crystals as Rhennic returned. Lifting both pears to his lips, he closed his eyes, and Layla felt him summon the fullest brightness of his Dragon, blazing like the sun after a storm. Breathing over the pears, he blitzed a crackle of lightning into them, as a brief wind whirled through the room.
With a knowing look, Rhennic extended one pear.
“To push back the darkness,” he spoke, his lavender eyes entreating her to take it.
Layla did. As she lifted the pear to her lips, Rhennic did the same. As one, they bit into them.
And Layla’s world was devoured by light.
CHAPTER 22 – DATING
Biting into the winter-crystallized pear Rhennic had given her, Layla’s world was devoured by sunlight. As if the Storm Dragon delicacy had absorbed a year’s worth of sunshine and joy from every season at the Château in France, all that wealth of golden light was suddenly pouring through Layla. With one bite, her darkness was rolled back, opening up a space of love inside her – enough that she could take her first real breath all morning. A second bite happened quickly.
And by the third, Layla had forgotten the pear – drowning in Rhennic’s kiss instead.
Their pears were suddenly unimportant as they fell together; devouring each other instead of the sugary fruit as blessings careened through them both. Hands and hearts unleashed, Rhennic crushed Layla close to his tall, strong body with his big hands as she rose up high as she could get on her toes to kiss him harder. As Rhennic wound her tighter in his arms, Layla felt his radiance burn all through her. An etheric blaze burst from them as they kissed, and like a wraith, Layla’s inner void was cast back, liberating her Dragon and Rhennic’s in a tower of golden fire and lightning.
Layla was breathless by the time Rhennic pulled back, and so was he. Gazing up, she was smitten by his strength and kindness as he held her close. Golden light blazed all through her; the same searing through Rhennic’s violet eyes like a firestorm. It was astounding, and Layla’s drakaina roared as she watched that joyful power careen inside Rhennic. Though Rhennic was a creature of Storm-magic, Layla had learned not all Storm Dragons got their magic from turbulent emotions. Rhennic drew his power from pure light – the light that always returned after the storm. Yet even as he’d kissed her in such passion, Rhennic had remained a gentleman, not pushing their ecstasy further than Layla was ready to be pushed.
Especially considering everything that had happened last night.
“I like that look.” Rhennic chuckled gorgeously as he reached up to caress her jaw, very male and oh-so-sexy. “That look makes me want to kiss you all over again.”
“Then do it.” Layla spoke breathlessly, feeling her drakaina roil inside her, her inner darkness banished now.
“I would, but considering everything that just happened to you last night, I think you might still need time to process.” Rhennic spoke back, a sexy glint in his vivid purple eyes, though it was cautious now. “I want you, Layla, but some things take precedence to ardor. Like accidentally Binding and fucking your lover’s brother, then having to deal with the significant emotional – and real – aftermath. Theaurumpears are a great stopgap to roll back the darkness, but you still need time to come back to true equilibrium. What kind of gentleman would I be if I pushed my advantage today? Besides, that wouldn’t be courting you. Remember?”
“Fuck courting.” Layla spoke, her drakaina twisting with heat to have him, feeling amazing for the first time all day. For the first time since she’d Bound Fury, Layla wasn’t thinking about him. She wasn’t thinking about Hunter or death, sorrow or confusion, or falling into a black pit somewhere inside her. She was only thinking about Rhennic.
And having him wrapped all around her as she rode him, letting his beautiful light blaze through her like the brightest sunny sky.
“I don’t want to fuck courting, Layla; I want to fuckyou.” Rhennic spoke with a deep kindness now, though Layla still felt his passion rioting through their Bind. “And I can’t do that if you’re only using me to ease your inner darkness in the wake of Binding Fury.”
Layla blinked at Rhennic’s blunt refusal, her ardor cooling. Her drakaina surged up in anger that he was resisting this blazing passion between them, but the human part of her understood. Layla wasn’t herself today; she was the conglomeration of Fury’s rage and Reginald’s heartbreak and her own terrible anguish. Her emotions were careening right now like she’d had a one-night-stand, but wound up with something far worse than an unplanned pregnancy or an STD.
