“About that.” Stopping suddenly, Adrian turned to face her as he reached up to brush a lock of her curls back from her cheek. “Layla. You know I’m worth a lot of money.”
“Obviously. I mean, you are a multi-billionaire.” Layla snorted, before she sobered. “So?”
“So I know that doesn’t mean much to you,” Adrian continued as he watched her deeply now, “but the things my empire allows me to do, and do for the people I love, are sustained because of the wealth I’ve built over my decades. Dusk has access to all my accounts, in case of emergency. And I want you to know… that I’ve added you to them all now as well. I drew up the changes and left them with our mutual Djinn friend Yousry Haddad in Cairo, plus a new version of my last will and testament. If I fall tonight in battle… everything I have passes to you, Dusk, and my clan, split in thirds. I have a few charitable trusts that need managing, and those I left to you specifically, since Dusk already has his hands full at the Crystal Plateau and Rachida abhors managing charities. One is a trust for rebuilding the Paris Hotel – if things go badly here tonight.”
“Adrian…” Layla breathed as she reached up to cradle his face in her hands. “You didn’t have to do that. You know I was never in this for the money.”
“I know.” He smiled at her as he turned his head, kissing her palm. “And the fact that you’ve never wanted me for my wealth makes me trust you all the more with everything I’ve built, Layla. Plus, I know you’ll take good care of my aims with the trusts if I die. Especially here, re-building the Paris Hotel if it’s damaged.”
“I mean, I absolutely will.” Layla spoke sincerely. “But you’re not going to die tonight. I’m going to make sure of it.”
“Even if it comes down to killing Hunter versus saving me?” He asked as he watched her.
Heaving a deep breath in the dappled sunlight, Layla closed her eyes for a long moment as she felt the Star Bind flare inside her, before opening them. “I swear I will defend you and all my drakes if it comes down to us versus Hunter, Adrian. If we have to, we’ll kill him with thefinal strike. But I want to find another way. Some part of me still feels like it’s wrong to simply kill him in cold blood, despite everything he’s done. That the only way to do it is to be merciful, somehow.”
“And I love that fiercely compassionate side of you, Layla,” Adrian answered now, watching her carefully in the bright day. “I just worry that some part of you is still hanging on to Hunter as a potential mate, or at least being merciful towards him because he could have been. You still see a sliver of goodness left inside him because of what he once was. You know I support you and understand the Star Bind better than the rest of your drakes, with my access to the ether. I understand we need to end him mercifully in order to preserve our ability to best him at all. But I caution you… that we still need to bring him down, Layla. Hunter can’t be allowed to live with everything he’s done.”
“I know.” Layla sighed, twisting inside at Adrian’s words, though she felt the truth in them. “I just feel deeply like there’s a better way to finish him than in wrath. I just haven’t found it yet.”
“I’ll help you find it, you know I will.” Adrian spoke as he smoothed her curls back. “But Hunter still needs to die. In the end.”
“I know. I know.” Heaving another hard sigh, Layla paused in the bright day, thinking about Adrian’s words. He was right; killing Hunter had to happen, for all the people he’d tortured over the ages, and still might if allowed to live. But some deep part of her resisted, knowing with her Dragon’s instinct that there was a better way to address Hunter’s death than killing him with thefinal strike. Deep within, her drakaina surged in her veins with a fire-bright surety, knowing Layla would find it when the time was right.
Hopefully.
Linking her arm through Adrian’s, Layla let the conversation drop for the moment; and as she tugged him along the path deeper into the woods, Adrian relented. Meandering in silence, Layla suddenly realized as they hit a clearing with an old ruin that they’d arrived at the horse barns on the edge of the Hotel’s forest where they’d once had the Dragon-hunt. There were no horses in the stables now; like the innocents at the Hotel, all animals had been evacuated days ago. But as Adrian glanced at the ruined pavilion where they’d had breakfast that day, Layla felt him reminiscing with her now about everything that had happened in the past year. As they meandered into the dense forest, following one of the hunting paths, Layla felt him become quiet at her side.
“Your billion Euros back for your thoughts?” She quipped gently, rather than peek into his mind through their connection.
“I never really knew what true love was until I met you.” Adrian spoke softly now as they walked alone through the woods, listening to the summer birds. “That day we all rode out for the hunt, I was so angry that you’d pushed me away after our explosion at the Dragon-party; but I was punishing myself also, because I felt I deserved it. You twisted me up in knots, Layla, and I couldn’t think straight around you, couldn’t wrap my head around how you could make me feel so incredible and so awful at the same time. That day, you showed me that it was only me twisting myself in knots – you weren’tmakingme do or feel anything. I began taking responsibility for my actions and my emotions around you that day… and it made all the difference in the world.”
“You were changed after that argument.” Layla nodded as they walked down into a short hollow and up the other side. “Suddenly, you were working with me and not against me, listening to me and Dusk both and trying to master your jealous rage – I saw how much you changed, almost overnight though there were still storms ahead of us. You began actually opening your heart, not just to me but to both of us… finally finding love with me and also rekindling your tenderness with Dusk.”
“And now we have a family through the Bind,” Adrian agreed, smiling softly as he glanced at her, “a whole group of people I love more than just comrades-in-arms, in addition to all the others we hold dear. For a while, I thought I was losing every time you Bound another drake. Now I know I was gaining… and I’m glad for it, even though I still get jealous of your time and your love.”
“I’m glad, too.” Layla smiled at him. But as they dipped down into a wide hollow full of ferns with a ridgeline to the north, Layla suddenly stopped. Glancing around, she felt the whisper of the summer air on her skin and smelled the damp peat in the ground – and she felt her drakaina rise high in her veins with knowing. They remembered this place. This was the spot where she and Adrian had almost made love in the thunderstorm during the Dragon-hunt, but were interrupted by Adam and Dusk.Hunterand Dusk, Layla knew now.
And now she knew why Adam had possessed a dark black rage in his eyes that day.
“He was there that day, Hunter.” Layla spoke softly as she and Adrian stopped in the hollow, gazing at the spot in the ferns where they’d been on their horses. “He was jealous of you right from the first, Adrian. I saw his eyes when we nearly made love here. Up on the ridge… his eyes were black when he looked upon us. Black with jealousy and vengeance.”
“He hated our relationship because he could already see how powerful you and I were when we set aside our differences and acted as one,” Adrian agreed as he turned to her, corralling her around the waist. “He could see how the Royal Dragon and his Bind would take down the Hunter… and had already begun.”
“Do you really think we can win against him?” Layla asked then, setting her hands to Adrian’s chest so she could feel his heart beat.
“I think we have a chance,” he spoke back softly as he nuzzled her nose, “and I’m going to fight for it fang and claw, Layla, you know I will.”
“I don’t want to live without you,” Layla spoke suddenly, her throat tightening as tears pricked her eyes. “If it all goes bad, if the Bind falls and everyone goes down… I’ll go down with you. Fighting at your side.”
“I know you will.” Adrian whispered gently now as he smoothed his lips over hers. “Just like I would go down with you, roaring our passion and rage through the world to make it hear us before we burned out in glory. It’s better to burn out than fade away, Layla.”
“Isn’t that a saying Dusk would use?” Layla laughed softly now, loving Adrian to the ends of the earth.
“Then how about this one.” Adrian spoke back as he corralled her closer in his arms. “Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love.”
“Rumi.” Layla smiled.
And then they were kissing, deep and sweet in the bright forest morning.
