Her favorite drink.
“Calm yourself, Layla Price.” The Head Courtier’s voice eased to Layla like a smooth wash of ocean tides. “Much will be demanded of you in this place, not the least of which is learning how to control your emotions, and therefore control your beast.”
Layla drew a deep breath, focusing on easing her rage. The rioting sensation inside her quieted somewhat, and opening her eyes, she met Reginald Durant’s gaze. “Does it feel like this for all of you?”
“Not everyone here is a Dragon.” It was Dusk who answered her rather than Reginald, holding her gaze with a steady intensity. “But yes. Each Twilight Lineage has their own challenges.” Turning his attention back to Adrian, Dusk’s gaze was accusatory as he stroked his fingertips over the gilded arm of his chair. “You know the High Court will get involved in this, Adrian. They’ll want to incarcerate Layla once they find out she exists – send the Intercessoria Judiciary to collect her.”
“Which is why I’ve sought employment for Layla here; to be protected. By Hotel bylaws the High Court is not allowed to subpoena any Hotel employee to come in for magical examination. Not without extreme due cause.” Adrian countered, watching Dusk with a fierce gaze.
“But – I thought I was working here based on merit?” Layla asked, confused, a resurgent heat turning over inside her body again.
“You have earned a place here based on merit, yes.” Adrian murmured, his aqua eyes watching Layla, unreadable. “The Hotel Board of Owners approved your application, and I am only one member on that Board. But I pushed you to apply and secured the necessary pre-approvals so that you would also be protected here as a Hotel employee.”
“You’re invoking the Magna Dicta, and using the Hotel’s policy to back it up.” Dusk gave a soft laugh, his gaze incredulous as he lifted a hand and rubbed his lips again. “Oh, Adrian. You aresoraising a shit-storm on our heads.”
“This is how Layla gets protection, Dusk.”
“I’m not arguing that,” Dusk glanced at Layla, his gaze complicated. “But you’re putting our Hotel under a microscope. I hope you know that.”
“I’m aware of my actions and their repercussions.” Adrian’s aqua eyes flashed, the gold in them darkening as he stared Dusk down. “Need I remind you of the repercussions of your own agreements?”
Dusk set his jaw, maintaining serious eye contact with Adrian. Layla thought he might roll his challenging vibrations through the room again, but he didn’t. He just sat there, tapping his fingers on the arm of his chair while everyone else frowned at the two of them. Clearly, whatever agreement existed between the Head Concierge and the Hotel Head wasn’t public knowledge to the rest of the assembly.
At last, Dusk sighed. “I’m aware of my agreements, Adrian. Thank you. I don’t need to be reminded.”
Layla had the feeling she wouldn’t get anywhere if she pried into the relationship between the two of them, as it was obviously complicated. But there was one piece of the whole situation she felt like she could ask about, and needed to. “What is the Magna Dicta? And what does it have to do with me?”
But yet again, before Adrian could open his mouth, Dusk spoke up in his brisk, no-nonsense manner. “You have rights in the Twilight Realm, Layla, just as you have in the human world. We have laws here, upheld by the High Court and enforced by a division called the Intercessoria, which is our police force. As the last of your Lineage, you fall under the protection of a very ancient law called the Magna Dicta. The Magna Dicta states that any person who is Last of their Lineage is entitled to protection – even if their magic is dangerous. Technically, it’s within anyone’s right to protect someone who falls under the Magna Dicta, and it’s the protectee’s right to live free – under their protector’s supervision. But the protector / protectee relationship iscloselyscrutinized by the High Court. And if the protector cannot keep their protectee well in hand… then the High Court has the right to use the Intercessoria to hunt down and incarcerate both parties. Especially if they have evidence that the relationship is becoming dangerous to the public.”
“What?” Layla blinked. “Dangerous? What do you mean?”
Dusk held her gaze, tough though compassionate. “Adrian has invoked the Magna Dicta by bringing you here, Layla. He has assumed the role of your protector, and you are his protectee. He used the talisman to force your magic to open and brought you here because we couldn’t take the chance of your magic opening on its own. As a Royal Dragon Bind, you would have been a danger in the human world – a danger anywhere, really. The High Court know that. Which is why they’ve hunted Binds for hundreds of years, quietly, trying to exterminate thembeforesomeone can rise as their protector. So congratulations. You flew under the radar for twenty-eight years, passing as human without your magic awake. You might have flown under the radar for a few more, but you’re already an incredible statistical anomaly, resisting magical maturation for so long. Dragons usually open to their magic as children, learning how to manage it gradually. But when the change comes late in life… it’s explosive. And not in a good way.”
With Dusk’s words, Layla suddenly understood something she hadn’t before. Something that made her royally pissed. She turned toward Adrian, watching him as Dusk finished speaking. Adrian didn’t say anything but the truth of it all shone from his eyes – so bright and strong that it rolled Layla to the quick. Her head reeled and fury snapped up within her; rage searing through her veins and sending a volley of blistering shivers over her skin.
“This – all this. This wasn’t just about getting me to come work for you as some secret infiltrator to the Hotel. This was about tricking me to come here – so you couldcontrolme.”
“Layla it’s not like—” Adrian protested, alarm lifting his dark brows, but Layla interrupted before he could finish.
“You bastard!” She growled, in a voice so low and frigid it almost wasn’t hers. “This was all just a con, wasn’t it? Meeting meaccidentallyat the art gallery. Pursuing me to work for you. Disguising yourself to earn my trust. Howdareyou!”
Rising from her chair, Layla’s whole world suddenly shivered red. An enormous, furious sensation rolled inside her body, shuddering her; raising a simmering heat that roared out from her in a wash of desert-spice and orange-citrus scent. Passion and rage razed through Layla like a forest fire and she felt insane for a moment; blistering. Making a fist with her left hand, she felt that fist roar like it held fire, or darkness – or maybe both.
“Be calm!”
It wasn’t Adrian, but Reginald Durant’s voice that suddenly slammed through Layla’s wrath, bringing a wash of storm-energy that sluiced over Layla like a chill dark ocean. Her gaze met Reginald’s, and a wave of black water rushed through her, pushing all her rising heat back with a tremendous force – trapping it deep inside her core so that it roiled and screamed but was unable to get out. Ice flooded Layla’s veins, a dark water so cold she felt like she’d been plunged into a frozen lake. She cried out in pain, her whole system shocked to stillness – even her breath pluming white in the air with a chill frost.
“You will be calm in this establishment, Layla Price!” Reginald’s voice was scathing with cold fury, his husky-blue eyes flashing. “Adrian may have lured you here under false pretenses but you are an employee of this Hotel now, and as such, you will act with decorum! You will be calm and pleasant with our guests, you will be patient and attentive learning your position under the Head Concierge, and you will begratefulthat Adriansaved your life.”
“What do you mean, saved my life?” Layla growled, furious and frustrated, the great beast of her rage trapped inside her and writhing.
“Feel that blistering heat inside you,” the Head Courtier snarled back, merciless. “And ask yourself – if you were in the human world right now, how long would it take before all that heat and fire suddenly snapped? Maybe with someone you love, maybe with a friend. Maybe in a whole city full of innocents who would suddenly feel the power and fire of a Dragon – and pay yourprice, Layla. For what you never knew but which Adrian does, is that you are aliability. And everyone you’ve ever loved would have paid your price if you had stayed where you were. Be grateful for what Adrian has done. Because bringing you here didn’t just saveyourlife. Think about it.”
It was a scathing tirade and something about Reginald’s words devoured Layla to the quick. Feeling her terrible heat simmering inside her, the beast of her nature wanting to roar out and punish Adrian for his deception but held back by Reginald’s incredible oceanic energy, she suddenly knew that Reginald was right. This fire, this rage would have hurt her friends. Give it a day or a year – if she had stayed in Seattle, she would have lashed out.
And seriously hurt someone.
Layla thought of Arron, Celia, and Charlie. And Luke. She’d been feeling so heated against Luke lately, like something had been driving her anger and passion to catastrophic heights against him. Something that hadn’t been awake before, but which had woken with the Moroccan cuff when it had been bound upon her wrist. Like a beast inside her, that had wanted to make Luke hurt. It had wanted to hurt him.
