Glancing to the flooded lobby and swirling one hand as he calmed Rhennic, Reginald commanded the water out one door to a quadrangle of gardens, watering the summer grounds. With another smooth flick, he capped the fountain’s pipes as Adrian, Dusk, and Fury continued to use a combination of the Bind’s energies to help the exhausted Lightning-Strikers. Rikyava had marshaled her Guards to control the chaos in the lobby, and now spoke to their Head Concierge Jenna Ostlheim, who whisked off to summon the Hotel’s best healers from the Infirmary.
But Rhennic still hadn’t looked up from his hands, and breathing hard from fear and adrenaline, Layla exchanged a glance with Reginald. As Reginald returned her gaze, sober and deep, Layla could feel how he used his Siren-powers to block Rhennic’s emotions from the Bind, to not affect them while Rhennic was in torment from his people’s terrible loss.
And it had been a loss, as Layla reviewed flashes of what she’d seen. She didn’t know if those after-flashes of battle were coming from Rhennic, but she saw how horribly the fields surrounding Chambord had been razed, though she hadn’t seen much damage to the fortress itself. But the terrorization of the Château’s grounds had been complete; as if the Château’s fields and orchards had been the intended target rather than its buildings. Thankfully, the last of Chambord’s non-combatants had been evacuated just this morning to Deep Harbor. But Rhennic had lost dozens of his top fighters in that terrible engagement.
And the battle had only lasted minutes.
“Rhennic?” Layla asked tentatively as Reginald kept calming their Royal Storm Dragon.
“Just give us a few moments, Layla.” Reginald answered, his sea-grey gaze intense but gentle. “Rhennic just needs to breathe right now.”
“Sure.” Layla spoke, feeling slightly rebuffed but knowing Reginald often understood his lover Rhennic’s needs better than she did. As Layla watched, Adrian stepped to her side, leading her over by the lobby’s tall windows to give Rhennic and Reginald some room. Glancing up at Adrian and trying to manage her horror at everything that had just happened – and how quickly it had – Layla shivered as Adrian held her.
At last, the chaos was being organized; but with a growl that Layla felt through their entire Bind, Rhennic suddenly raised a hand, warding Reginald off from calming him. Like a thundercloud, Rhennic strode to his nearest Lightning-Striker – holding his head painfully as Fury attended him – and Rhennic waved Fury off next.
“These are my people, Fury. I’ll see to them.”
With a confused blink but an acceding nod, Fury stepped away, to someone near Dusk who needed help. The two shared a look, and then that look was shared with Layla and Adrian as Rhennic began moving around his fighters and healing them with his Storm Dragon magic – though all of the Bind could feel how exhausted Rhennic was. With a silent accord, they began pouring strength into Rhennic, and Layla saw his massive shoulders square as he held his hands to one fighter, his chest expanding like a bellows as he heaved a sigh.
Rhennic drew on all their flows then, pulling the Bind’s energy deep inside himself as he poured the rest of it out through his hands to help his people. As Lightning-Strikers became hale enough to be helped away by Guards and Infirmary crew, Dusk and Fury finally came to join Layla and Adrian. As they watched Rhennic still making the rounds, all of them pouring their support into him through the Bind, Reginald came over.
“Things are under control now.” Reginald spoke softly as he gave them all a meaningful glance. “You should probably go have dinner. Just keep feeding Rhennic your energies through the Bind, and he and I will finish up here.”
“Rhennic needs rest, too. He’s about ready to fall over.” Dusk frowned, watching Rhennic intently as if he could read something in the man’s vibrations that the rest of them couldn’t.
“Rhennic won’t leave until every last fighter is stable.” Reginald chuckled wryly as he followed Dusk’s gaze. “I’ve been his lover long enough to know that he would give his life for his warriors. Thankfully, it didn’t come to that today.”
As they all stood there, sharing a dark silence, Rhennic moved on to his next warrior. With a sigh, Reginald flicked his fingers for a Guard to help up the previously healed man, before looking to everyone else again. “Please, the four of you should go take a breather. I’ll have some of the Catering staff that are left bring up an early dinner to Layla’s rooms. And I’ll bring Rhennic up when he’s ready.”
“Sure.” Adrian spoke, though he watched Rhennic with an intensity nearly the same as Dusk now – one commander evaluating another and seeing something that deeply bothered him about how Rhennic was acting. But as Reginald gave Layla one last tired smile, Adrian gestured them away. As they moved out of the damaged lobby and the Storm Dragon chaos that had consumed it, Layla felt a cry in her heart; her drakaina didn’t want to abandon her Storm drake in his time of need. But Reginald was right – they had things under control and the Storm Dragons were healing quickly now.
Moving off through the Hotel’s halls, Layla and the rest shared a dark silence as they left Reginald and Rhennic. Mounting a gilded marble staircase flanked by cream and crimson Hotel banners and set with a crimson carpet, they headed up to the third floor, gaining the landing and moving in the direction of Layla’s rooms before Dusk broke their silence.
“Fuck.”
“Hunter’s first strike.” Fury agreed in a sober tone as they moved down the hall.
“Not his first strike,” Adrian spoke darkly as Layla felt his desert winds caress her. “That was at Petra. This is just his opening salvo for solstice.”
“When he comes for our heart.” Layla echoed, recalling Hunter’s words from a week ago when he had called her at Wahdi Atlamenta. He’d just sacked Petra and Bound all the surviving Royal Dragon Binds there to his terrible will, in addition to injuring their ally Nadia so badly she’d gone into stasis inside a crystal cocoon. And Hunter had killed Layla’s father, the Ice Dragon King Ruslan Aristov right there on the phone with her as she’d listened. With bile rising to her throat and a furious wail of her drakaina that flooded heat all through the Bind, Layla recalled Hunter’s deeds.
And how she could never forgive him, with the things he had done.
Feeling Layla’s wrath as they arrived at her Dragon-themed suite, Adrian slung a comforting arm around her. As they all stepped inside, Layla saw a late-afternoon spread from Catering already waiting on her gilded breakfast table by the windows; but even as she saw it, she felt her stomach curdle. As Fury shut the doors, Dusk came to Layla also, winding her in his arms with Adrian as he pressed her with a kiss. Pouring soothing rumbles into her and into them all now through the Bind, Dusk held Layla, giving them all a moment of quiet after Hunter’s attack. Squeezing Layla’s waist, Adrian headed for her side-bar by the windows, pouring them all a stiff three fingers of bourbon from her special stash before returning and handing the drinks around. As Layla, Dusk, and Fury received their drinks, Adrian made sober eye contact, and they clinked glasses. They drank back heavily then.
Until Dusk spoke, shaking his head in incredulous horror.
“Well. Here we are. What the fuck are we heading into, kiddos?”
“One big fuck-fest of a fight, that’s for sure.” Adrian sighed as they all shared a thought about Chambord. As Dusk pulled out a chair at Layla’s ornately gilded French Baroque table for her, the rest took seats. Staring at the food, no one had any appetite.
“So what now?” Layla asked as she swirled her drink.
“Now we wait for Rhennic to get stable enough so he can tell us about the battle. And show us anything we missed about Hunter’s tactics and his Binds.” Adrian spoke darkly as he rubbed one finger on the rim of his whiskey glass. Leaning back in his chair, he crossed one ankle over his knee, his Mediterranean-blue eyes deeply green right now as Layla felt a nasty desire for retribution snarl all through him.
“Hunter’s attack on Chambord was personal just now.” Dusk spoke up thoughtfully as he cradled his whiskey glass in both hands, staring at the food. “He went after the Storm Dragon’s orchards and fields rather than the keep. Thehearthof Chambord, rather than the home.”
“A strike to wound us and make us feel pain rather than kill.” Fury agreed as his silver-dark Siren-drake rose in his eyes. “Though he did plenty of killing, also.”
