“I’m afraid of losing you,” he breathed, reaching a hand out to cup her cheek tenderly.
“You’re afraid of more than that.” Layla’s gaze was honest as she reached up, cradling his hand to her cheek.
“I am.” His words were low, his eyes raw and dark. As he stared at her, she felt his energy swirl into a tense knot. Like a ball of snakes writhing in and in upon each other, it was a sensation Layla knew well. It was the same feeling she had when she was terrified, like her Dragon was coiling in and in upon itself, descending into a deep, black pit. Adrian was terrified and he was letting her feel it – letting her experience his true fear for the very first time.
Trusting her with it.
“I’m afraid of the… the thing I can’t see in the darkness, Layla.” He breathed at last. “I’m afraid of the shadow in the void.”
Layla blinked. Her lips fell open. Adrian’s words echoed precisely the Phoenix King when he’d spoken about the void-shadow that had once hunted him, and now was hunting Layla. Her world reeled as her body contracted, as tense and fierce as the snakes she still felt writhing in Adrian’s energy. And suddenly, so much about Adrian came clear – and why he’d kept her in the dark about the dangers he faced.
“The void-shadow. You know about it.” She breathed. “The visage-shifting Royal Dragon that King Falliro Arini warned me about. The thing he once committed suicide to escape…”
“Why do you think the Phoenix King and I are allies?” Adrian breathed back. His demeanor was dire as his tense energy whirled the air inside the vaulted drawing-room, just like the October winds whirled the leaves outside. “That thing killed my mother five years ago, Layla. It’s killed every woman I’ve ever let myself get close to. I’ve been hunting it all my life – just like it’s been hunting me. And just like it’s been hunting you.”
CHAPTER 19 – VOID
Layla stared at Adrian from where she knelt, her mouth fallen open, her mind spinning as autumn winds whirled outside the vaulted drawing-room. Adrian had just revealed that the void-shadow the Phoenix King had warned her about had been hunting Adrian all his life. Layla settled to her heels on the thick carpet before the fireplace, stunned, her hands fallen to Adrian’s knees where he sat in his high-backed chair.
“That thing is here at the Hotel, Adrian. It’s been tracking me. King Falliro said he’s felt it a few times since he’s been here.”
“I know. It’s the real reason I organized the Dragon gathering. Because I’ve been feeling it too, ever since we got you here.” Adrian spoke darkly. Reaching out, he brushed his fingers tenderly over her cheek, his aqua-gold gaze deep.
“You knew this void-shadow was following me?”
“It’s been around for years, Layla.” Adrian wrung his hands and Layla set her hands over his. He stopped, but truthfulness was suddenly pouring from him in a wave of intense cinnamon-jasmine musk. “It’s been haunting my home in Morocco since the day you were born. Since you arrived in this world, it’s been stalking you. And Dusk and I.”
“This thing has been hunting the three of us since I wasborn?” Layla breathed, incredulous.
“It was the strongest reason Mimi spirited you away to the States.” Adrian murmured, intensity simmering from him along with his honesty. “Only a few people knew about the creature. Me, my mother Juliette, your mother Mimi, and Dusk. I didn’t find out until later about King Arini. Dusk was the first one to feel the void-shadow back when you were born. He was there the day you were born, same as me. He had intense nightmares for the next month, feeling a black presence watching our palace of Riad Rhakvir from the dunes. He experienced its nightmares – of the world before civilization. Of theTwilight Realmbefore civilization, which goes back at least fifty thousand years.”
“My god.” Layla breathed.
“This thing is old, Layla.” Adrian continued. “Dusk found out he was resonating with its dreams, though at some point it realized a powerful young Crystal Dragon was reading its nightmares and it started guarding its mind. But not before Dusk saw an infant in those dreams. You. And he felt the void-creature’s intention – that it wanted you. That it would plow through Dusk and I, and anyone else who tried to protect you, to get to you. Dusk told Mimi, and the rest was put in motion quickly to get you away from Morocco. What I told you about the High Council wanting to eliminate Royal Dragon Binds is also true, and that was an additional reason Mimi took you away from our home. But this was the deepest reason.”
“But it found me.” Layla breathed, fear flooding her as her Dragon coiled tight into her stomach, making her want to vomit.
“It did.” Adrian reached out, brushing a curl of Layla’s hair back from her face. “The same way I found you. Mimi was reckless in not using a pseudonym when she went into hiding. Though she had a powerful magical talisman that obscured her imprint from being found, and yours, she had hubris about her life as the Twilight Realm’s most prominent chanteuse. She kept her real name. And when that name showed up in the Seattle obituaries after her death, her talisman no longer working to hide you after she died, Dusk and I were able to find out where you were. And so did the void-shadow.”
“And it’s been following me ever since.” With a dark, sinking sensation deep inside her, Layla suddenly understood everything. “That’s the real reason you pushed the Hamsa Bind on me. So you could feel me if I was in trouble. So our magics could be bound together, stronger as one. Against this thing.”
“It was getting too close.” Adrian breathed, dire truth in his eyes. “Dusk and I felt it near you a number of times after Mimi died. You were exposed; I had to act. I had to do something to protect us all. My one regret is that I didn’t come clean to Dusk about which talisman I was about to use – and I didn’t come clean to you about it, either.”
“But… why did you leave me after we were bound together?” Layla spoke, trying to understand. “Wouldn’t we have been stronger against this thing if you’d stayed at the Hotel with me?”
“I tried leaving you alone, to see if it was following me,” Adrian spoke, a terrible apology and sorrow in his eyes now. “But Dusk said it stayed here, though it did follow me to Morocco at one point, though I can’t figure out why. So I came back, and devised a plan to use the four of us as bait to try and draw it out.”
“Four of us?” Layla’s brows knit.
“You, me, Dusk, and Arini,” Adrian spoke softly, “the only four people we know it’s hunted. It both worked and it didn’t. The void-shadow is here in the Hotel, but it’s so sporadic that Dusk and I can’t trace it, and neither can Arini.”
Adrian’s gaze was level with Layla as her world spun like a badly thrown top. She had that lightheaded sensation again of standing outside her body looking down from the highest corner of the room as she felt her blood wash with a dark cold. It was her own terror she was feeling now rather than Adrian’s, her Dragon coiling over and over upon itself and baring fangs.
Layla drew back. Pushing up from the floor, she stood. Too many emotions rioted through her, but when Adrian stood, smoothing his hands down her shoulders, Layla found herself leaning into his touch, wanting to be held. Needing it. Adrian curled her into his arms, holding her tenderly and Layla breathed in his warm spice scent at his collarbones. Adrian wound her closer in his arms, breathing softly by her temple.
“Are you alright?” He murmured.
“No. I’m terrified.” Layla spoke bluntly, feeling her Dragon still churning inside her, coiling tighter and tighter. Black and sinister like a void of Layla’s own had opened up deep inside her, the cold would have been overwhelming had it not been for her hamsa-cuff sending pulses of warmth into her body. “Is this the reason you’ve been away from the Hotel so much?”
