CHAPTER 1 – BREATHE
Floating in the natural pool at the bottom of the Utah desert canyon, Layla Price drifted on the currents of the universe. Breathing slowly and deep in trance, part of her was aware midnight stars shone far above the canyon near Moab – but the other part of her was gone. Red sandstone walls towered all around her but she barely saw them, her vision unfocused. As she drifted, Rake André’s breath touched her lips. Lost to the world, Layla could feel the void of the cosmos all around her; a gentle emptiness encouraged by Rake’s sweet breath. In the shallow pool, Rake had come to his knees beside her, giving her a kind caress.
Calling her back from the vast unknown.
“Layla.” She heard Rake breathe beside her with his ephemeral magics. “You’re deep enough in the meditation now. Come back a little, and look into yourself. You’re ready.”
But Layla didn’t want to come back; she didn’t want to look into herself. Part of her just wanted to stay away in the vast universe, because staying away was safer than seeing what was inside herself now. It was soothing to stare into the endless cosmos and feel its beauty. It was confusing inside her body, missing something that had made her special.
Something which had been furiously ripped away two weeks ago at Deep Harbor in her battle against her enemy Hunter.
Part of Layla knew she should come back; she needed to see what was wrong with her Dragon and why it wouldn’t surface inside her. Layla had felt its presence since battling Hunter, but she couldn’t access it. Her magic wasn’t gone, just blocked in a way she didn’t understand and couldn’t control. When she’d heaved herfinal strikeat Hunter during their battle, it had done something to her Dragon; confined her somehow and made her power useless.
But even as she debated, Rake’s gentle breath stole in her lips again, urging her to look. Inhaling Rake’s meditative magic, Layla slowly turned from the endless universe to look back towards her body. As if her Dragon called her now to come see what was wrong, Layla changed perspective from drifting to looking back towards herself – and everything shifted. Suddenly, she saw the universe inside her own body. Bright and dark all at once, Layla’s body was a contrast of opposites in the physical realm. Everything was balance; a balance that had to exist to create life. Inside to out, bigness to small. Beauty to horror, love to wrath, and everything in-between. But as Layla turned her sight to her deepest self, she thought she would see her Dragon’s passion, or perhaps emptiness in her current state.
But what she saw waschurning.
Churning in and in, Layla’s innermost Dragon-magic was stuck in some kind of vortical state. A vision hit Layla about that vortex, so strong she suddenly jolted out of Rake’s meditation. Like a rubber band, her trance snapped; as it did, Rake’s hands were there, slipping quickly beneath her. As she shuddered, sinking into the sulphuric pool, Rake gathered her close to his iron-fit body. Cradling her in his lap as he sat crosslegged in the water, he set his lips to Layla’s, allowing his breath to gently bring her back. Returning from the vast universe, she found herself staring up into Rake’s intensely jade-green eyes – smooth and calm as he lifted one hand, caressing her wet curls back from her face. But his touch was comforting rather than sexual as he cradled her close across his lap.
Allowing Layla to return to the present.
“You saw something.” Rake spoke quietly as he gazed down at her. “What did you see, Layla, when you looked inside yourself and found your Dragon?”
“I saw churning.” Layla breathed, gazing up at Rake and feeling calmed by his serene presence. Far above, the stars shone like a scatter of diamonds in the deep midnight sky. At the edges of the canyon, the rim of the sky was tinged white-blue, a nimbus of light that didn’t exist in the human world. Everything was deeply beautiful as Layla came back to the Twilight Realm from where she’d been during Rake’s meditation. But before she could get distracted, Rake set a hand to her face, easing his breath in through her lips and asking her to look at him again.
“Tell me more. Go back, Layla.” Rake spoke patiently, his presence calm even though both he and she were entirely naked in the pool. “See what you saw again. See what it was that snapped you out of your meditation so suddenly – and gather that information into your conscious mind.”
Closing her eyes and resting upon the slow tides of Rake’s breath, Layla let his gentle flows take her back into the meditation as he cradled her close to his lean body. Spiraling back to that place though not as deeply as before, Layla saw the vision again. She paused it this time, like Rake had been teaching her through their meditations at the Dreaming Canyon these past five days, reviewing every part of her battle with Hunter to resolve her situation with her magic. But though those meditations had been illuminating, Layla dove deeper now to retrieve this information.
Deep inside a part of her that lay buried even beneath her subconscious mind.
“I saw my Dragon.” She spoke at last, watching her vision again. “She’s not dead like I thought. She’s trapped inside me… but not trapped by anything Hunter did.”
“How do you know?” Rake asked patiently, urging her to delve deeper with his breath.
“It doesn’t feel like him.” Layla’s brows furrowed as she kept her eyes closed, reliving it. “She’s just… churning of her own accord. Coiling in on herself over and over, like she’s in pain.”
“Pain from what?” Rake spoke, his breath caressing Layla’s lips again. “Dig deeper, Layla. Tonight is the culmination of every meditation we’ve done these past five days, to get you here right now. Dive into this vision; take the time to explore it now that it’s come to you. It’s okay, you’re safe. Go deep – see more.”
Rake’s breath was like music inside Layla’s body as it touched and kissed her; like light and sweetness wreathed in opium. Layla shuddered as it took her, her body suddenly weak as Rake pushed her to retrieve the meditation as much as possible in her conscious state. She collapsed in his arms as he held her close to his firm, lean chest. Layla could feel every stark muscle of his perfectly-sculpted frame. And yet, he wasn’t aroused in the slightest as he held her pressed to him.
Rake was at work right now – and he took his work very seriously.
“I see people.” Layla breathed at last, as her senses spiraled back to where she had gone during the meditation. The edges of her vision were clearing now, and there was information there – more to see as she looked at her coiling drakaina. “I see friends.”
“Tell me about your friends.” Rake spoke quietly, his utterance barely a breath of air as the night came to stillness all around them. “Who are they? Where are they? What are they doing?”
“I see you, Rikyava, Adrian, and Dusk.” Layla breathed, able to see more of her vision now as Rake encouraged it. “I see Reginald, Rhennic, Fury, Luke, and Arron Jacobs. And Adam.”
“Adam? Adam Rhakvir?” Layla could almost hear Rake’s eyebrows rise as that startled him. And yet, Layla saw the vision clearly now – all of those people surrounding her as her inner drakaina roiled. They were her friends. They were people she relied on and trusted, and though Layla was surprised to find the never-really-existent Adam Rhakvir among them, she realized her subconscious logic. Adam had been a friend for the brief time she’d known him.
Though he’d actually been Hunter in disguise.
“Yes, Adam’s there.” Layla breathed, feeling her way through what she was seeing. “Others are present but more faint: the Phoenix King, the Storm Queen, Rachida Rhakvir. Leni Morregain. Amalia DuFane. My mother Mimi.”
“All people who have had a significant influence on your Bind and your drakaina’s magic.” Rake spoke thoughtfully as he held her. “Royal Dragon Bind power matures by the experiences a Bind has in life. All these people helped your Bind-power form in the way it has, haven’t they?”
“Yes.” Layla spoke, knowing it was true as all those people around her brightened in her vision. “They all helped me see some part of myself I wasn’t able to see yet. They helped me know myself.”
