“You could have been.” Layla’s gaze was honest upon Adrian. “You could have been the first to show me Julis, to show me the true nature of the Twilight Realm beyond the Hotel, if you had trusted me. My magic may be newly opened, but I’m still me, Adrian. Everything you’ve read in my dossier; every reason you hired me to take this position at the Hotel in the first place. What Adam showed me last night is that this magic has always been inside me, always strong. I’ve always been furious, and passionate. You were right when we spoke at that restaurant in Seattle; my rage does make me strong, Adrian. My Dragon has always been here, and just like I’ve learned to live with it these past twenty-eight years, I can learn to master it and aid us. I’m not stupid to my power, Adrian. And you don’t have to protect me the way you think you do. Trust me. Trust that whatever it is – I can help.”
“You sound like Dusk.” Adrian’s lips quirked, sadness in his gaze. “He said exactly the same thing to me… years ago.”
“Does Dusk know about all of this? About whatever it is you’re still hiding from me?”
“Far more than Adam.” Adrian drew a breath, then let it out shakily. “I trust Dusk with my life, Layla, and with yours. It’s one of the reasons I left you in his care all these months. He and I have never really gotten along, but Dusk is honest to his bones. Dusk is the man you see everyday, and has been ever since we were young. He just has many facets to him that come out at different times, like turning a cut gemstone through the light. It used to heat me so badly, his blunt, crystalline reflection of my every wrong, his judgement of me. But I trust it. Adam, however…”
Layla’s brows rose as Adrian trailed off, understanding something profound. “You don’t trust your Clan Second. Your own cousin.”
“Adam smiles, but there’s something dark behind his smile, Layla.” Adrian’s visage was terrible, brooding now. “He’s never given me reason to not trust him—”
“But you don’t.” Layla inhaled, thinking of how Adam had snuck out tendrils of energy multiple times now, touching her in a clandestine way no one else noticed. She thought about how his eyes had darkened on the ridge, and in the Gypsun bar last night. That look, as if he’d seen terrible things he could never recover from – as if it had darkened his very soul somehow. Adrian must have seen something on her face, because his brows furrowed. Layla’s hand slipped from his cheek and he readjusted his hands, clasping hers.
“Are you alright?” He asked.
“It’s just Adam…” Layla murmured. “Did Dusk tell you what Adam did when he and I first met at the Concierge desk?”
“Dusk told me Adam tried to mate-taste you.” Adrian’s eyes darkened again, and he set his jaw. “He’s done it before with Dragon women I’ve dated. He has a jealous streak in him, Layla. Something he doesn’t like to show.”
“He also touched me… during the hunt. And again at the Gypsun bar last night.”
“Touched youhow?” Layla felt the first heat of Adrian’s scorched temper surge around her.
“Just a caress of energy on my cheek, and on my neck,” Layla found herself being vague at Adrian’s sudden whip of jealousy. “But no one else noticed.”
“Adam has impeccable control of his power.” Adrian’s gaze had darkened considerably, as his hands pressed hers a little too tightly now. “I’ve heard second-hand accounts of how my cousin can wield his magic without anyone else knowing. I didn’t think they were true until there were too many of them to be ignored. As a Royal Dragon Chimeric, he doesn’t have my ability to visage-shift, but he’s got a stealth to his energy I could never hope to match. Be careful around Adam, Layla. Dusk trusts him, but…”
“You keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
“Adam’s not my enemy.” Adrian’s face was drawn.
“But if he was your friend, would he have told me the things he did last night?” Layla adjusted her hands so Adrian’s fingers weren’t gripping her quite so hard. He noticed and eased his touch; smoothing his fingers over hers gently now.
“Adam’s like Dusk, he doesn’t appreciate secrets.”
“And yet he keeps secrets from his Clan First.” Layla lifted an eyebrow pointedly.
“I don’t know that for certain.” Adrian’s gaze held a tinge of warning now. “Though Adam has a dimension to his magics I can’t feel, Layla, it doesn’t mean he’s a problem for the clan. He’s a capable Second and keeps me in line more often than not. Don’t be so quick to judge a situation you are new to. Dusk is far more of a loose cannon than Adam and always has been.”
“That I don’t believe.” Layla snorted, remembering Adam’s energy hitting her fast and hard at the desk.
“Trust me.” Adrian’s gaze was intense, his smile hard. “Dusk has his passions. Just because you haven’t seen them in action yet doesn’t mean they don’t exist. And when he erupts, you better hope there is someone around who can whip that crystal energy back and control him. Crystals are hard until they shatter. And when they do, they explode into a million razor-sharp shards.”
Layla sobered, considering it. Dusk’s energy was so busy, like he never gave himself a chance to get to that place where he might explode in anger. But Layla had felt him shake the ground the night she’d almost shifted. She had felt his tremendous strength; as if Dusk was a live fault line ready to crack and release a hundred years of stress. Everyone had warned her that he was more formidable than he seemed. Everyone but Dusk himself – as if he didn’t even know quite how deep his own power went.
“So what do we do now?” Layla asked, meeting Adrian’s beautiful eyes.
“We?” He gave a wry twist of lips, though there was humor there now. “You mean you still want me after all the shit you heard from Adam?”
“Maybe.” Layla’s lips twisted into a small smile also. “It depends.”
“On?”
“On,” Layla stroked his fingers, still feeling her and Adrian together in that tender space. “Whether you can trust me or not.”
Adrian drew a deep breath. His nostrils flared and Layla felt him draw a curl of her scent deep into his lungs. His eyes softened, something amazed in them as a complex smile touched his lips. “I do trust you, Layla. More than anyone in my life, strangely enough, excepting Dusk and my own mother, rest her soul.”
“Good.” A smile beamed from Layla as she gripped Adrian’s hands, feeling their Bind strengthen in a way she couldn’t describe. But it was as if her own scent contained cinnamon in it suddenly, and Adrian’s held a trace of sweet bourbon. “Then trust me to be strong, Adrian. Dusk is teaching me about the Twilight Realm; I’m making capable friends. When you first told me about this job, you said it would use every skill I have. I just didn’t know the job was actually understanding the complexity of my new life, and navigating yours. I’m not weak, Adrian. Not as a human and not as a Dragon. Teach me. Help me, so we can hold your secrets together. Whatever it is you’re afraid of—”
