And Layla turned in that direction – feeling her way home.
She could feel them all now, calling her. As if all her men called her name upon the desert winds, Layla felt their direction by her new ability to read their love in the ether. Though her Binds still weren’t open yet, she had a deeper sense now, and the bonds of love they all shared called her. Like a sweet song in her heart, their love drifted around her, pulling her in one direction like a lodestone.
Showing her the way back to them.
Lifting her shield of opaque glass upon swirling winds that her magic instinctually knew how to create now, Layla cast slippers of glass for her feet from the desert sand. But they were inflexible, and after two steps she discarded them, needing some other way to keep her feet out of the scorching white grains. Suddenly, an image of how Djinn walked came to her, and making a complex gathering movement with her hands like Qi Gong, Layla swirled herself up on a cushion of wind – lifting her feet out of the sand six inches. Amazed at her understanding of the winds now, part of Layla was afraid to cease her swirling gesture, worried she might just get dumped back into the dune. But as she took a breath, letting her body relax and her motion stop, she found the winds kept on of their own accord, holding her aloft. With a subtle press of her hands, she made those winds push her forward.
Moving her steps along as she walked upon the air.
It was the oddest sensation, walking upon air. As Layla adjusted to it, she realized it was more like treading water or swimming, understanding that air had its own viscosity she could push against, like birds did. Keeping her men’s eyes in her mind and their song in her heart, Layla moved north, the sun over her left shoulder as it began to descend. Swirling her steps up dunes to their peaks and walking their ridges, she saw only more dunes when she reached their heights.
The sun was soon dwindling to the west, casting long blue shadows upon the white dunes. As Layla watched it touch the rim of the desert, she suddenly realized she’d been walking for hours, entranced by the feel of the wind and ether just as much as she’d been entranced walking in the Dragon bone-yard. As darkness swallowed the desert, creating a blue-white nimbus all around the sky, stars popped out high above with a thin sickle moon. Something about the beauty of the desert night gave Layla comfort. It felt infinite, and so calm as she watched those billions of stars, feeling her connection to it all now. Wind swirled around her, but rather than feel chilled, it made Layla feel strangely exhilarated.
As if she were free walking beneath the wide desert night.
As Layla walked, keeping her men’s love firmly in her mind like a compass, the rest of her drifted upon those calm desert winds. Layla found herself walking through the ether as she returned to a deep meditative state. She felt the vast love of the cosmos swallow her as she moved across the land, and it was a sensation of freedom unlike anything she had ever experienced.
Suddenly, she realized her heart was not troubled. Despite everything she had been through with Hunter, despite everything she feared returning to her men after having gone off without them, she was at peace with herself and her decisions. Deep inside, Layla’s drakaina gave a quiet roll of pleasure, understanding what Layla was feeling and sharing that peace. With a soft smile, Layla realized she and her drakaina were finally of one mind again. A flash caught Layla’s gaze, and looking down, she saw she walked upon stars. With a start, she realized she was walking across a broad, still lake.
Lifted up by the swirl of her winds and the vast peace in her heart.
It was blissful as Layla traversed the lake. Far below, she saw luminous fish swimming its depths, of the same Dragon-variety in Adrian’s waterways at Riad Rhakvir. As she came to the far end, she found the lake was formed by the last walls of a mountain range, emptying into the dunes. As Layla ascended the mountains, she saw them grow all around her, the land heaving up now in rocky canyons and arroyos as she followed the winding river-bed, almost dry but for a trickle in the deep summer night. But there was vegetation now, and Layla paused for a moment to drink from a small pool at the lower end of a thin waterfall. The water was sweet and fresh, and she drank her fill before rising once more and following the mountains up.
Layla had no concept of how long she climbed. There was only the trickle of water in her ears and the swirl of her winds to bear her upward, and the pumping of her muscles as she climbed her own winds. The mountains were formed of every color of sandstone now; subtle dark rainbows beneath the bright stars and high sickle moon. At last, she saw a pass loom before her. Winding her way up as the stream disappeared in the rocks, she ascended the pass. Enormous ridges spread to either side as she gazed down the deep cut of a canyon before her. On the other side of the canyon were more dunes, but red instead of white. On the far side of that, a plateau of red cliffs thrust up like a ship from the broad desert.
And atop those cliffs, Layla’s heart swelled to see the twinkling lights and red sandstone walls of a lush garden oasis, with white domes and minarets.
Riad Rhakvir.
Layla felt a blaze of love inside her as she felt her men call her through the ether, guiding her home. Her heart swelled with joy to feel them so near, and Layla was suddenly swirling up into her Dragon, bursting with golden energy. She didn’t even realize she’d shifted, when her jubilant winds suddenly swept up her long body and she was riding them – surging along with her coils just as she’d done with her feet earlier.
Layla was flying upon her winds now; flying without wings towards her men as she sped towards the Riad. Surging down from the mountains, she hurtled over the canyon, blazing like a shooting star over the red dunes to the cliffs of her home. She shot over the Riad’s high walls and coiled through its minarets and over its lush gardens, seeking her lovers in the vast desert citadel. At last she spied them, sitting on a sprawling veranda surrounded by flowering jasmine and fountains, sipping cocktails as they watched a fire blaze in a wide pit of stone. A roar of love filled Layla’s heart to see them again.
So hard that she roared her jubilance to the vast desert night.
Crashing down on the plaza, Layla was still roaring with joy as she found her Bound mates. Crushing a wide swath of jasmine and breaking a fountain with her coils as she came hurtling down, she didn’t know how to control her descent, but she didn’t care. Thundering down like a shooting star, she crash-landed in the gardens, startling all her men up from their seats as drinks were dashed to the flagstones. As Layla roared her delight to the night sky in a massive gout of ether and flame to be with her men again, a furious wave of pure golden light surged through her every scale and spine.
Dazzling the night and outshining the stars.
But her men suddenly roared up into their own Dragons, all of them bristling with a disastrously high alert now as they surged into a ring of vicious talons and fangs around her – and Layla was shocked back from her joy. As they roiled around her, spreading out in a nasty semi-circle so Layla’s back was pinned against the palace’s outer wall, she felt only menace. As they reared back, each readying terrible strikes from their magic with their furious eyes pinned to her, she suddenly realized the problem. She didn’t look like she had before her visit with Hunter.
And her Binds still weren’t re-opened yet – so her men didn’t know her.
Stop! It’s me, Layla!Hurling the thought desperately to her drakes, she hoped at least one of them had the presence of mind to receive telepathy in their wrath. She had thought Reginald would be open to her, or Adrian – but as she saw them both coil up even tighter, Layla understood with a shock that she had cut her Binds off so completely when she’d forced her drakaina to become dormant that they couldn’t hear her now. As Layla quailed in fear, curling up into a defensive ball from their impending strikes, she felt herself panic. Her beast-mind took over; and suddenly she was a snarling viper facing off against five enormous drakes.
Ready to defend herself.
“Adrian, Dusk! Reginald, Rhennic, Fury! STOP! It’s Layla!”
A command was suddenly hurled through the ether so hard it nearly blasted Layla apart. An incredible utterance, those words held so much power they shook the drakes to their bones, and Layla with them. Her mind and body were suddenly blasted to a place of stillness in the universe – and before her, she saw that powerful utterance cast all her drakes into the same kind of trance. As if a spear of love had been hurled through the ether, pinning them all, Layla saw her five drakes pause the unholy maelstrom they’d been about to unleash upon her as she paused also.
And Rake André dashed out from a vaulted arch of the palace.
Dressed in a black shirt, black vest, and slacks, Rake ran full-tilt toward them. Just behind him, Layla heard a tenor snarl slice through the night like a spear, roaring at her men tofucking stop!as her Storm Dragon friend Luke Murphy came barreling out right behind Rake, dressed in jeans and a white collared shirt. On Luke’s heels was Layla’s Blood Dragon friend Rikyava Andersen, wearing her crimson guard uniform from the Red Letter Hotel Paris, waving her hands and roaring for everyone to stand down as her magic pummeled the night like a thousand cries on the battlefield.
As Rake, Luke, and Rikyava skidded to a halt, all three held their hands out to keep the drakes and drakaina apart, flooding a strong barrier of magic between them. Layla and her drakes breathed hard, dazed from Rake’s power and staring at each other above the heads of their friends. But neither Layla nor her drakaina wanted to hurt anyone, and as she began to ease down, she saw one of the drakes cock his head.
It was Dusk. Luminous in the night, her massive Crystal Dragon with his cruelly serrated diamond and sapphire plating felt her emotions change through the stones of the plaza. As his beautiful eyes cleared from rage to astonishment, he was suddenly flowing down into human with a liquid, effortless shift. Striding forward with his viciously fit frame and lines of diamond-sapphire scale and gold, Dusk’s face was pure shock as he moved past Rake and the others, staring at Layla. As he came to her, Rake and the others’ magic barrier came down. Slowly, Layla lowered her massive head as Dusk reached up.
