Movement beyond the dome suddenly caught Hunter’s attention and he looked over. In the hall, Fury had unbound the silver pearl from his wrist and was now pressing it into Reginald’s hand as Reginald tried to give it back. With a cutting motion, Fury sliced the air between them so hard with power that Reginald stumbled back with wide eyes, the pearl still in his hand. And with pure determination in his silver-blue eyes, Fury spoke.
Layla lives, Reginald! Though the rest of you can’t feel her, I can – just inside that nexus-space. She has Bound me, and it’s enough. Take my silver pearl; hold it fast as it gathers my energy when I die. I do not wish to die now that I’ve just been made whole, brother, but you are the better man to become Siren King and we both know it. Take this now; smite me down so I may channel my Dragon into it. You and Layla and the Bind will still have me – and she will be alive when Hunter returns her after our decision is done.
No!Layla heard Reginald snarl, as she watched with her hands on the shimmering dome, horror filling her at what Fury intended.I will not kill you, Fury!
You do not have a choice.
Suddenly, Layla felt more than saw all of Fury’s enormous power rise up through their Bind. Through the dome, Layla saw Fury’s immense focus as he stared his golden twin down. Layla could feel what Fury was doing – bending his twin to his vast mesmeric might. And Reginald was suddenly caught by it. He couldn’t look down from Fury’s thundering gaze; he couldn’t look away. Though Reginald shuddered like a blown horse, it was Fury’s vast concentration that had won.
Layla saw centuries of horror in Fury’s gaze, and love. She saw the enormous control Fury had gained over the decades, managing his diabolical Siren year in and year out. Everyone else saw it too, as they suddenly sprang in to break the twins’ connection. Leni and Rhennic ran to Reginald; Atlantos, Typhos, and Vindaris surged toward Fury. But before anyone could stop what was happening, Layla saw a whip of mind-power slam out from Fury towards Reginald. It was a bite, a terrible bite from Fury’s Siren-Dragon, drawing up everything inside Reginald, everything he was, the fullest might of his Dragon.
And making Reginald heave all that tremendous power in a trident of pure golden water – straight through Fury’s heart.
It was thefinal strike.Layla knew it to her bones as Fury went down and she was suddenly screaming. She beat her hands against the shimmering boundary of the dome as Fury gasped, clutching the trident that had skewered him as he collapsed to his knees. But there was nothing anyone could do, only stare in horror as the light left Fury’s eyes and Reginald’s trident washed out in Fury’s hands, splashing over the floor as it made a golden pool around him.
Fury’s Siren-Dragon now pouring into the silver pearl Reginald held.
“NO!!”
Layla felt more than heard Hunter’s furious roar as it shook the watery dome. As the bright-dark energy in Hunter’s barrier whirled like a maelstrom as he slammed a fist against it, Layla felt all of Fury’s Siren-drake pour into the silver pearl – and through it, into Reginald.
With a roar, Reginald collapsed; writhing and screaming with impossible overtones as Fury’s silver darkness hurtled through him. As that enormous power crashed through Reginald, not meant for his body to hold, Layla felt what was happening. Reginald and Fury’s twin powers were fighting now inside Reginald – tearing at each other and roaring, heaving and ripping his body to pieces as they battled for supremacy in his flesh.
Even as Layla watched, vicious talon-marks ripped through Reginald’s torso, then again as he screamed with inhuman tones, spasming in a full seizure now. Rhennic and Leni were holding him, pouring waves of light through him to try and calm those fighting drakes. Through the Bind, Layla could feel Adrian and Dusk pouring every bit of their own stability and healing calm into the Bind also, desperately trying to stabilize Reginald in the wake of what Fury had done. But they were all damaged from losing Fury. A vast darkness opened wide to swallow all of the Bind as Reginald fell to his own horror at his brother’s death by his hand.
And to the terrible might of both drakes now fighting inside his flesh.
“What has Fury done?!” Layla heard Hunter speak beside her in a horrified whisper as he stared at the carnage. “The Pattern!”
Though Layla’s connection to her men was severely dampened by the nexus-barrier, she knew Reginald was going to die without her presence to stabilize the Bind. The barrier between them was too good at cutting off their connection. But the shock and pain in Hunter as he watched made Layla come roaring back to the situation at hand.
“Drop the barrier!” Layla commanded with every inch of Reginald’s scathing dominance as she turned to face Hunter. “Drop the barrier or Reginald will die and you will loseeverythingyou planned right here, right now! Neither of your sons will sit the Siren throne, and my Binds will shatter when I go mad into that long darkness – as Adrian, Dusk, and Rhennic fall to it also – and you will loseeverythingyou’ve built towards your precious Pattern. Drop the barrier – or watch as everything you’ve worked for comes crashing down around you!”
Staring at the horrible scene, which Layla was certain he’d never planned, Hunter’s face flared with light as if it might change. But it didn’t. Flicking his dawn-light eyes to Layla, he held her gaze for one terrible moment.
And then raised his hands – crashing the barrier and returning them to the Twilight Realm.
Layla didn’t hesitate. Rushing to Reginald, still spasming on the floor despite Rhennic and Leni’s healing, she fell to her knees. Reginald’s beautiful body was torn by dozens of massive rents now, and he screamed with all the overtones of his Dragon as five more went ripping across his abdomen. Rhennic’s eyes flew wide to see Layla returned, but as he startled to see Hunter – an entirely different man from earlier – Layla wasted no time. Heedless of blood pouring from Reginald’s talon-marks, Layla bent over, locking her lips to his. Opening her mouth, she exhaled.
Pouring golden light from their Bind deep into his convulsing body.
Her magic rang Reginald’s body like a bell, with an impossible tone Layla had never heard before. But with the clarity of that call came attention from the two fighting Siren-drakes as they left off tearing at each other for dominance over Reginald’s flesh. But like it had been called home by the dinner-bell, Fury’s massive drake was suddenly on the move. Gasping an inhalation like he devoured the world, Reginald surged up beneath Layla. Locking her in his arms like a drowning man, his unclenched hand pressed the silver pearl to her bare arm as he devoured her with his kiss.
Passing Fury’s Siren-drake into Layla.
Layla felt it as Fury’s massive drake came pouring out of Reginald into her – making her scream into Reginald’s kiss as the entire ocean flooded her. But Rhennic held her tight now, Adrian and Dusk switching on a dime to pour all their steadying power through her now also. As Reginald poured Fury’s Dragon into Layla, an explosion crashed from Layla’s skin, soaking everything around them in a tremendous wave of silver water. As it did, Fury’s spirit came into all of the Bind at once. But the pain of carrying such an enormous beast was too much even for their Bound five. Fury’s Siren was a wild thing, and it raged in all their bodies so hard now that Layla cried out in pain as Reginald clutched her, gasping at her lips. As Rhennic scream-growled behind her, a furious nimbus of storm-power blasted from him, making Reginald’s siblings jolt back fast.
As a terrible flood of crystal-fire burst from Adrian and Dusk far away in Egypt, their voices screaming through the Bind also.
Through it all, Hunter watched. He did not interrupt, only swirled up a protective barrier of bright-dark ether around himself. But everyone was too stunned to fight as Fury’s terrible energy tried to balance between Reginald, Rhennic, Adrian, Dusk, and Layla. Gasping in pain, shudders of golden fire rushed off Layla’s skin as Rhennic shed balls of lightning and Reginald surged with whitecaps. Through the Bind, Layla felt Adrian and Dusk pour as much power as they could muster into the Bind to stabilize it, but it was still not enough. Rivers of fire-diamonds heaved from them both as they gripped hands, on their knees in the citrine temple in Egypt, fighting hard to not break.
But without Fury’s body to go home to, without his vast control over what Layla now realized was a truly wild animal of magic, the Bind was swamped. No one could wrestle control over this thing. With twinned roars, Reginald and Rhennic suddenly surged up fast into their Dragons, Layla shuddering on her knees between their coils, still trying to hang on. Far away, Adrian and Dusk rushed up into their Dragons also, roaring and insane inside the citrine temple. Like mad things, Reginald and Rhennic roared with twin thunder as they side-wound fast to Hunter’s protective dome.
Assaulting it with the full power of the Bind.
Rhennic and Reginald were mad beasts, flooded by the blackness of the void now as they pummeled that barrier with their powers. Rhennic’s crackling lightning-plasma flowed with water; Reginald’s watery lances blitzed with storms. Still trying to hang on to her sanity as the entire Bind tipped into the darkness, Layla felt Adrian and Dusk’s Dragons channel straight into Rhennic and Reginald as they fell to the void also. Gripping talons into Hunter’s barrier with blazing eyes, Rhennic and Reginald struck with the blackest power of the Bind in their fangs as they locked their jaws upon it. Falling to the darkness, both drakes heaved a tremendous might through their lungs.
Devouring Hunter’s barrier in electrified plasma water and smelted fire-diamond lava.
