Just as he had once done at the Red Letter Hotel Paris.
It caught Layla’s breath as a vast silence rippled through the watery dome, though the musicians played on now. Slowly, Reginald rose. Pinning Layla with his grey-gold eyes, he extended his hand. Her heart hammered in her chest at the glittering danger and vicious pride in his gaze. But as a subtle smile curled his lips, Layla took his hand, standing tall as she came to him formally before his family.
Reginald pinning his brothers next with his merciless stare.
“Atlantos, Typhos.” He spoke coldly. “You will not touch my things. I thought we all learned that lesson when I was a youngling?”
Layla watched both the elegant Atlantos and the darkly sexy Typhos as their gazes shied from Reginald’s, Typhos actually blushing. Shoving his hands in his pockets, Typhos fidgeted, while Atlantos claimed a new martini from a circulating tray.
“Forgive us, Aldo.” Atlantos spoke with his calm politician’s grace, gesturing with his martini to Layla. “Father said we at least had to make a point in trying.”
“Trying towhat?” Layla asked, feeling peeved as she realized the brothers’ sexy advances tonight had been more of Léviathan’s games.
“To steal you away from him.” Typhos spoke, back to his usual haughty glower, his sexy heat banished now under his very real rage. “To make you Bind one of us and unbind Reginald.”
“Your dear old dadreallydoesn’t know how the Bind works.” Layla shook her head, incredulous as she also claimed a circulating martini.
“Do you know how it works?” Typhos lifted an eyebrow at her. “You’ve only had your power, what, nine months?”
“I understand my power a lot better than your father does.” Layla retorted hotly. She could feel Reginald smile with dark amusement beside her now as she found her tongue – laying into Typhos as she gestured at him with her martini. “So, what? Your father told you to use your Siren’s wiles on me and see if you could get all Bound up in my drakaina’s heat? That it would kick Reginald out and he’d be free while you get sucker-punched? Seems to me you don’t think that’s a very good idea, do you, Typhos? Seems to me you don’t like me, and you hate your father even more for sacrificing you to my Bind to try and get your favored little brother free. Am I right?”
Typhos blushed so dark he went positively puce. With a cold snarl, his blue eyes turned ice-clear with rage as he drew up tall, using the full intimidation of his well-built body as he stared Layla down. “Who do you think you are, waltzing in here and playing Queen, little drakaina?”
“I’m doing no such thing,littledrake.” Layla spoke firmly, not caring that they were gathering a crowd as conversation all around halted and people moved in to see the show. Draining her martini also, she slammed it to a nearby server’s tray so hard he nearly tipped it and had to reach out fast to keep glassware from falling.
“It’s not my fault your mother’s dead and you hate your father.” Layla growled back at Typhos, matching him rage for rage now as everything inside her simmered with scorch – a thick wash of it flowing from her skin as she stepped forward, getting right up in his face. “Be pissed at me all you like, but someday you’ll have to look within and ask yourself if you even like who you are, playing your father’s games. Well, news flash, buddy – I wouldn’t Bind you if you paid me. You’re sexy, Typhos, but you’re hateful; I can feel it blistering all through you. You hate your father, you hate Reginald for being more powerful than you, but most of all, you hate yourself – because you know your mother would hate who you’ve become since she died.”
“Ouch.” Vindaris spoke with a low whistle beside her. But staring deep into Typhos’ ice-blue eyes, Layla knew she wasn’t wrong. She knew she’d read him with her Bind-power when it had dug into him earlier and discovered secrets he didn’t even want to admit to himself. He blanched, going from puce to white in half a second. Reaching out, he took Atlantos’ martini, downing it, then turned to Reginald with a snarling growl.
“Your new woman’s a bitch, Aldo. Have fun with that.” And with a decisive stride, Typhos pushed his way out through the throng, exiting the party.
In their group, Atlantos had claimed a new martini and sipped it with a wry smile, shaking his head as he watched Layla with his keen slate-grey eyes. But rather than simmer with ardor now, they were filled with respect as he watched her with quite a lot more shrewdness than he had before. “You really are something, aren’t you, Dragon Bind? I just might think twice about getting Bound to you, no matter what father wants.”
“You’d better.” Layla growled, her drakaina spiking a furious heat all through her veins now as Reginald stood by calmly and let her argue with his family. “Try any more shit with me, Atlantos, and I’ll dig my talons into you next time and find out all your dirty little secrets.”
“I have no doubt.” He gave a smile as he saluted her with his martini. “Your magic is formidable. People can hide very little from you when your power flares, can they?”
“Layla’s power runs deeper than any mesmeric ability you and I could ever fathom, Atlantos,” Reginald cut in smoothly, claiming a martini for himself now from those circulating. “She doesn’t need me to protect her in this gathering, she simply needs to let her power range free and let her fiery tongue do the rest. Layla is a formidable opponent. Should I relay to you again how she managed to Bind the souls of thousands of dead Royal Crystal Dragons inside her, long enough to make short work of King Markus Ambrose?”
“No need, dear brother.” Atlantos spoke quietly now, his grey eyes deeply thoughtful behind his square-rimmed glasses. “Having felt her power dig into me… I believe the stories I’m hearing about your beloved. I believe them very much.”
Atlantos was about to say more, when the guards at the entrance to the dome bashed their tridents into the floor, announcing someone new. Turning with the rest of the party, Layla saw King Léviathan Durant enter, not walking but standing upon a plume of water, which he washed forward into the hall with a wave of his gnarled old hand. Wearing medieval robes of quilted white silk studded with grey saltwater pearls, he had an ornate platinum and pearl belt on, the robe’s high collar brushing his stark jaw and accentuating his leanness. His short silver hair was elegantly managed, pearl and platinum rings on every arthritic finger. His arctic eyes pierced Reginald, then Layla as he entered the hall, swirling forward upon his wave of water. Arriving before them, he let his wave flow back into the floor as he regarded them both – a chilly calculation in his demeanor.
“Reginald.” King Léviathan spoke in a deceptively calm tone. “Why is your Dragon Bind wearing bridal cocktail silks tonight?”
Layla’s heart hammered in her chest as she thought to herself,I fucking knew it.
“Because I asked Vindaris to make them.” Reginald spoke calmly, staring his father down as he took Layla’s hand and wrapped it around his arm. “And I insisted she wear them.”
“Do you make such a show to spite me,sirion?” The King asked quietly, his gaze penetrating. “Parading a non-Siren woman before me in bridal reception-wear when no union has been approved for you?”
“It depends.” Reginald spoke back, just as deceptively calm though his grey-gold eyes flashed cold wrath now. “Did you set my brothers to attack Layla tonight with their mesmeric magics so they would trigger her Bind-power?”
“I asked them to try and wrangle her away from you because she is deadly.” The King responded, his gaze going to Layla with a dark intensity. “I cannot have my strongest heir Bound to a creature that causes so many Royals to fall in her wake. The Phoenix King. The Storm Queen. The Crystal King. Many are whispering of a great curse upon this Dragon Bind – a greater curse than rested upon others of her Lineage in times past. I fear for you, Reginald, should you someday take my throne.”
As King Léviathan’s gaze returned to Reginald, Layla gave a deep blink, having not expected this. What King Durant was saying unsettled her deeply, as he watched her and Reginald now with a dark knowing in his arctic blue gaze. Beside her, Reginald went very still, others falling motionless all through the hall as everyone watched with bated breath.
“Are you saying I’m a King killer?” Layla breathed, horrified.
