“We didn’t know that would be one of your powers,” Dusk turned to her, explaining. “It’s calledcurrent-reading, the ability to read people’s emotions and thoughts through the air.It’s one of King Arini’s abilities, actually.”
“The powers of a Royal Dragon Bind are as unique as the person, Layla.” Adrian was careful as he spoke. “It’s impossible to predict what your magic will look like as it matures. Your powers are the ultimate wild card.”
“Speaking of shit getting wild.” Setting down her croissant, Layla eyeballed Adrian, heat rushing through her and making a scorched scent blossom in the air. She saw Adrian flinch as her wrathful heat roiled over him, unrestrained. She didn’t rake it back. There was no place to stuff it away now that the hamsa-cuff was gone – and it felt good to be as angry with him as she wanted to be at last.
Though they were all being civil this morning after her near-death, Adrian still had his actions the night of the Samhain Masquerade to answer for.
“Are you going to be a jealous asshole over my Bind with Dusk, Adrian?” Layla growled low, letting her vicious heat simmer over him. “Or are you just going to try to rip our Bind apart again? ‘Cause that was a ton of fun as I recall.”
“I’m not going to try and rip our Bind apart again, Layla.” Adrian’s aqua gaze was penetrating, deep with apology. “And Dusk and I have talked, finally. He told me about Rachida’s theory, that perhaps the Hamsa Bind cuff only enhanced your own desires.”
“And?” Layla spoke, pinning Adrian with her eyes.
“And I can’t change that.” Adrian glanced to Dusk. “But if Dusk hadn’t been bound to you six nights ago when we came storming into the Vault… you wouldn’t be here, Layla. My magic wasn’t enough to save you, not on my own.”
Layla sat quietly, digesting that as her heat sighed away. Pushing her plate away, she took up her coffee, sitting back in her chair and cradling the mug as she watched both men. It was as close to an apology as she’d ever gotten from Adrian. She saw the truth in his eyes, even though she also saw it still hurt him that he wasn’t her only bound lover. Though the two men shared a prickly moment as they sat at her table, Layla could feel an accord between them now, as if something important had happened while she was unconscious.
But Dusk suddenly frowned, turning to look at her. “Layla, do you ever remember having the same Bind experience with Adam as you had with Adrian and I?”
“No.” Layla frowned, thinking about it. “Adam –Hunteras he called himself – was trying to convince me to join him in some god-awful crusade, but I don’t remember having that explosive moment with him. Even though he took the cuff off me with his bare hands, we didn’t Bind the way you and Adrian and I have. My Dragon rose and faced off with him. She was furious that he would think I could join him in murder. And so was I.”
“Thank god.” Adrian let out an exhalation, relief plain upon his handsome face. Leaning forward, he laced his hands on the tabletop with concern in his eyes. “Layla, did Hunter tell you how long he’s been masquerading as Adam?”
Layla took a breath, knowing she had to tell him the truth. “Adam never survived the slaughter of his parents in Italy. The person you grew up with was Hunter all along.”
“Fuck.” Adrian sat back, the fingers of one hand lifting to his lips. He went positively ashen, sitting back in his chair with a deep and stunned stillness. Tears shone in Adrian’s eyes as he opened his lips, then shut his mouth and shook his head. Adrian’s tears didn’t fall, but his gaze moved to Dusk. “Rachida.”
Dusk was as sober as Adrian, and he only nodded as if he didn’t trust himself to speak just yet. Rubbing his fingers over the tablecloth in a nervous tic Layla had never seen from him, Dusk’s gaze flicked to her. “Layla, did Hunter say why he’d masqueraded as Adam for so long?”
“No, he only said it was convenient for his purposes.” Layla spoke. “But he admitted to being both a Royal Dragon and a Royal Dragon Bind, and claims to be the oldest surviving member of my Lineage. His agenda has something to do with my Lineage being hunted through the ages because of our power. He kept making comparisons betweenthe Hunter and the Hunted– asking which I was to be, which side I would take.”
“So there are more Binds out there,” Adrian’s gaze was penetrating.
“So Hunter asserted, yes. In hiding.” Layla nodded. “He also offered to teach me how to use my power. That was why he took my hamsa-cuff and destroyed it. Because he wants my powers unleashed for the world to reckon with.”
“They are unleashed,” Adrian spoke, his gaze intense. “The desert-funnel you raised in the Vault after Hunter took your talisman was unholy, Layla. It was partly your Bind to Dusk and I that fueled it, but partly not. When you went off alone after the party—” he glanced at Dusk and they shared a tense look, “we didn’t know where you’d gone. I couldn’t smell you anymore or see you in my mind. Your vibration went off the map Dusk feels inside his body. I knew the only place in the Hotel that could so thoroughly cut you off from us was the Vault, but when we got there—”
“When we got there, the sapphire door was broken – cracked.” Dusk interrupted, holding Layla’s gaze with a level intensity. “In all the Paris Hotel’s history, the Vault has never been breached. It’s a magical prison, Layla. Hunter had sealed it from the inside, as is possible when the Hotel is under attack. We shouldn’t have been able to get in. But when Hunter removed your hamsa-cuff and you started cracking crystal pillars with your rage… you cracked a door that has incarcerated some of the strongest Dragons in Hotel history. You broke an unbreakable door. And you did it in human form, not Dragon.”
Layla sat back. Heat rippled through her, as if sparked by the magnitude of what she’d done in her fury at Hunter. But it all seemed so impossible that she could have done as they asserted, and Layla blew out a breath. “How do you know it was me who broke the door?”
“Intense acts of magic leave a scent residue, and a vibrational one,” Dusk spoke quietly. “The spiderwebbed cracks through the door smelled like you, and felt like you. When we ran down there and Adrian and I smelled that… we knew you were down there. And we knew that whatever was happening was bad.”
“Hence why you stormed down with all guns blazing.” Layla remembered their twin killing-strikes; how neither of them had been able to stop their unleashed power – even though at the last moment, they’d realized they’d thrown their lances at Layla. She had thought they might apologize, but neither of them did. What Layla got was a level intensity from both men.
“What we felt down in that hall was battle, Layla,” Adrian spoke. “Dusk and I approached it in the manner warranted.”
“The good news is that you survived,” Dusk spoke darkly, though his face held a curious interest. “Two killing strikes from two Royal Dragons at once. Adrian and I believe it was three things that helped you survive: your own formidable power and your Bind to each of us. Once we started to revive you, your body leapt to our magics. It still took a long time to stabilize you, and longer still to heal the damage, but us both being there gave you what you needed.”
“Leaving me different afterward,” Layla spoke softly. “What about my talisman?”
“It’s unrecoverable.” Adrian spoke, his gaze dire. “Among its other properties, that cuff could protect Royal Dragon Binds from harmful events that would twist their powers dark. I’m sure Hunter knew that, and he made a point of getting rid of it.”
“What do you mean?” Layla asked, frowning at Adrian now. “I thought you said the cuff’s only abilities were amplifying my desires and Binding a Bind.”
“Not just those things.” Adrian spoke with a level intensity. “Your cuff was spoken of in ancient tales as being able to prevent a Royal Dragon Bind from turning evil. The stories of Binds… so many of them are awful tales, Layla. Tragedies of wrath and destruction, just like Hunter. There’s a reason your Lineage has been hunted nearly to extinction – because Royal Dragon Binds often twist evil. It wasn’t a fate I wanted for you. Neither Dusk nor I.”
“So you both knew about the cuff’s powers,” Layla watched them, before her gaze pinned Dusk. “Youbothknew, and you didn’t tell me.”
