Layla was about to protest and tell him to get Rikyava in here plus a few other Guards just in case, but Dusk stepped close. Pulling her in by the hands, he lowered his chin, pressing a soft kiss to her lips. Layla’s breath caught as something delicious rolled through her; feeling him, knowing him, understanding him in a deep, indescribable way. Entranced by the feel of Dusk’s soft lips, it was a moment before she realized he wasn’t using his magics – it was simply the feel of him kissing her that had caught her so suddenly.
Smooth, gentle, Dusk’s lips were an exploration of dark sweetness in the half-light. Layla felt herself falling into it as her Dragon stirred inside her, sensual and pleased in a way that even Adrian couldn’t match. She could taste river-water in Dusk’s kiss, clear and refreshing like it had been purified in a waterfall. Layla found herself lost in it as he kissed her, that deep pull like a golden cord rekindled between their bodies as had happened before the Dragon party.
She kissed him back.
It felt good. So good and so right. And Layla understood that whatever was happening between them wasn’t just because Adrian had been absent from her life for weeks. Something was happening between Dusk and her, separate from her lust for Adrian. When at last Dusk pulled back, Layla found herself paused, not even able to breathe as she stared up at his lovely sapphire eyes in the half-light.
He gazed down, something determined on his face. Reaching up, he stroked Layla’s cheek and she took a deep breath, realizing she’d not been breathing. The moment stretched between them as she stood there, lost in his beautiful energy. Like the sapphire door behind them, Dusk pulled her with a deep, ineffable nature – like she’d been grounded in the earth itself. And as she felt his power, the depth and enormity of it, she suddenly understood what he hid with his brisk do-it-all daytime presence and his witty, debonair nighttime self.
Emotion. True emotion. All of it, the good, the bad, and the ugly – and the power that came with it. As he gazed down at her now, Dusk let her see his emotion just as Adrian had let Layla see his fear. But Dusk wasn’t afraid. As Layla gazed up into those beautiful sapphire eyes, she saw his power. A depth of emotion in his heart that she had never seen in anyone before, deep like the very caverns of the earth.
And the strength it gave him.
“I will not let anything happen to you, Layla Price, I swear it.” Dusk breathed, lifting his lips to kiss her forehead gently in the half-light. “Come on. It’s time to let your Dragon stretch her coils at last.”
CHAPTER 21 – FIGHT
Layla moved down the stone stairwell as if in a dream, still feeling Dusk’s kiss as they descended deep underground, into the Vault. Moving down the corkscrewing stairs, crystal firefly-globes in niches brightened at their approach. At the bottom, the stairwell opened into a cavernous space. As Layla stepped out onto a smooth flow of pure rose quartz, she realized the cold, black space was actually a cavern – an ancient place beneath the Hotel that breathed with cool energy and flooding darkness.
She could see nothing beyond the light of the stairwell, though she could hear water in an underground stream, echoing through what felt like an enormous cavern. Layla had never been permitted down in the Vault, not even on her tour, and was about to ask Dusk how someone turned on the lights – when she felt more than heard a massive rumble issue from him.
Dusk’s vibration rushed through Layla, invigorating, thrusting out in a massive wave through the black. Slamming through the cavern, it hammered crystal stalactites and quartz columns all around, making them ring like a symphony of bells. Columns sang with resonance as Dusk’s vibration cast back again and again. In a flooding wave, the entire space was suddenly glowing bright as day, crystals all around shedding light from their core.
For a moment, the cavern was pure sound, a symphony of vibration and life. Until at last, Layla felt the energy stabilize, looping around the cavern and keeping the crystals bright. It wasn’t a solid light, but a washing surge that twisted in an unearthly way as it flowed from pillar to pillar. And beneath it all, Layla could still hear a faint resonance, as if the earth itself sang.
Layla’s breath was stolen as she stood, mesmerized.
“Shall we?” Dusk gestured to a space on the rose quartz flow, where stalagmites and stalactites gave way to a flat, glassy surface. Firefly lights on crystal pedestals lit as Layla and Dusk moved forward, but the enormity of whatever Dusk had done to brighten the crystal columns trumped them, making their meager light obsolete. Reaching the center of the expanse, the size of a small amphitheater with the cavern’s ceiling arching overhead, Layla turned to Dusk.
“So, I’m guessing that’s not the normal way to turn on the lights.”
“Crystal Dragon,” he spoke with a mischievous glint in his sapphire eyes. “I don’t do anything the normal way.”
“I guess so.” Layla grinned and got an answering one from Dusk. It was clear he was pleased with his feat of magic, and Layla remembered all the things people had been saying about him. Turning to face him, she decided it was time to play twenty questions at last.
“So, everyone’s been telling me things about you – Adam, Adrian, Rikyava.” Layla spoke as she faced him. “That you’re a powerful Royal but you’re hiding it, and that’s why my Bind-magic has been resonating so strongly with you. Why? What are you hiding from? And why won’t you tell anyone how powerful you are?”
Dusk eyed her with one eyebrow lifted, but didn’t refute anything she’d said as he sat on the smooth flow of pink crystal and started taking off his shoes. He nodded at Layla and she sat and began doing the same. Still watching her, he set his black Oxfords near a collection of upthrust stalagmites. The stalagmites were a mixture of rose quartz and amethyst, but also with green spikes like emerald or amazonite. If some of those actually were emerald, Layla couldn’t even imagine the value down here. Far off, she could see clear blue columns of sapphire. Clearly though, this space had more value for its magical properties than its retail cost.
“Do you really want to know why I hide my ability?” Dusk spoke at last.
“Of course.” Layla countered, setting her flats aside.
“It’s because my life is in danger, if I show how powerful I am.” Dusk’s eyes held no lie as he slung his arms around his knees, watching her.
“What do you mean?”
“My King will kill me if he thinks I’m a challenger.”
“King Markus Ambrose?” Layla blinked, an angle of Dragon-politics hitting her that she’d never considered before. “He kills off anyone he thinks is a threat to his power?”
“Yes.” Dusk held her gaze with a level intensity. “Anyone who seems like their power will rise to the same level as his gets an invitation to his palace in the Czech Republic. From which they don’t return. My mother went to his palace when I was only three. She cried as she left. I remember how passionate my parents were with each other before she went. She knew she wasn’t coming home – and she didn’t.”
“My god.” Layla didn’t know what to say. “How awful.”
“All Crystal Dragons of sufficient ability know to hide their power from Markus as long as they can. Until they think they have a chance of standing up to him.”
“Have any succeeded?”
