“Thank you.” Layla whispered as her eyes filled with tears. But they weren’t shed as the Crystal Dragon Queen set a kind palm to Layla’s face and poured a soothing resonance through her. The Queen smiled with a nod, then stepped away with one last glance to Dusk. Turning, she waved her hands at two Crystal Dragon Binds, a man and woman who had recovered and were hovering nearby. As she spoke to them in her own language, they nodded quickly. And then she was leading them to the ring of confused and tortured Binds, getting them aid.
Taking a deep breath, Layla gazed around her men as they all watched her back, scowling and pensive. She knew they had to get going to follow Hunter, and that trying to find him now was like heading right into a viper’s den, but Layla knew it had to be done. As she heaved a sigh, setting her hands on her naked hips, she racked her mind.
“I sent Nimir’s sarcophagus to a place Hunter doesn’t know.” Layla spoke, thinking everything through out loud. “While I had him talking, he basically admitted he couldn’t trace it when I set it free inside Luke’snullax-cloud in the ether. Hunter never used his own magic to preserve Nimir, otherwise he would have been able to trace it. And Hunter’s Bind to Nimir died when he did, so Hunter can’t trace that either.”
“Yeah, where did you send Nimir’s sarcophagus while we were all blazing through the ether?” Dusk spoke, finally realizing she’d thrust his burden away rather than him fucking up.
“Somewhere I thought was a powerful spot for us to rally, if it came to it,” Layla answered.
“And you’re blocking us from knowing that spot because you don’t want Hunter getting the location out of us.” Adrian spoke with a wry smile as Layla felt him push up against that massive wall of imaginednullax-mist in her mind, and fail.
“Smart,” Rhennic spoke solidly before Layla could apologize for it. “But now we need to find Hunter and finish him. So how do we locate him if we can’t use etheric magic?”
“We open the Bind now.” Layla spoke with a deep inhalation, steadying herself. “Hunter’s most likely gone somewhere he thinks he’s strong, to fight us one last time. So we open the Bind and search – and Dusk, we’ll use your senses to see if we can find this Vittrian crystal-city your Queen showed us also. Maybe if Hunter’s not there, he’s left something behind that we can use.”
“Or maybe he’s left an army to finish us off.” Rhennic growled darkly. “But I see no other choice, Layla – like you, I think we have to find Hunter, wherever he’s fled. The only part of the plan I’m not clear on is what you intend to do with Nimir?”
“Just like I’ve already done – use him as bait.” Layla stated as she glanced to Rhennic. “Hunter still cares for Nimir; his face and body became unstable the more we discussed Nimir being in my Bind rather than his. I don’t know, but… I think Hunter still believes Nimir might somehow absolve him of his terrible life and bring their original Bind back together. Hunter’s basically admitted Nadia’s still alive somewhere, in his keeping. I think deep down, he longs for the love he lost when their trio was broken. He’s still trying to bring them back together. And that’s our ace now to take Hunter down… or at least I hope it is.”
“Then we need to open the Bind,” Adrian spoke quietly, his gold-blue gaze penetrating in the night. “And find Hunter, then bait him with Nimir until he destabilizes enough to give us an opportunity to finish him. Go ahead, Layla – open the Bind. And let’s end this once and for all.”
Turning, Layla blew out a deep breath, readying herself for their next battle. Sharing a deep look with Adrian, Dusk, and the rest of her Bound men, she rolled her shoulders, trying to dispel a vicious tension at what she was about to do. Ever since discovering her Bind with Hunter, she’d shut it up tight, not letting him into her mind – and then buried it harder beneath her imagined wall ofnullaxto stop him from tracing her and her Bind’s whereabouts. But now, it was their only means of finding him; and as her men surrounded her, nodding for her to proceed, Layla opened up that long golden thread between her and her enemy.
Searching for Orrin through their Bind – and turning herself into the hunter at last.
CHAPTER 22 – WEB
Standing in meditation as her senses eased out into the ether, Layla traced Hunter’s Bind through time and space. As her men stood quietly around her in the ruined Vittrian fortress, adding their concentration to hers, she felt her consciousness spiral far out into the cosmos. Sensing the golden thread of Hunter’s Bind inside her, Layla traced him through the ether, seeing how many places he had been in his long lifetime. Suddenly, the entire cosmos was just a jumble of golden threads as Layla saw down through the ages.
Tracing every place Hunter had ever been.
Surfacing with a gasp, Layla opened her eyes, shaking off the sensation of having been caught in a spider’s web through the cosmos as she saw all the places Hunter had ever traveled. Though he’d not intentionally tried to trap her, the vast web to everywhere he’d ever been had simply been created over time; by him portaling through space as he liked. A sensation of ages overwhelmed Layla and she felt faint, reaching out to Adrian to steady her. As she looked at him, she shook her head, and saw his Mediterranean-blue eyes darken as his brows knit.
“Layla? Could you find Hunter?” Adrian asked.
“No.” She answered, still feeling the strange sensation of Hunter’s web all through her body. “It’s like he’s been everywhere, Adrian. I don’t know if the rest of you could see it or feel it, but it was like I was looking at a tremendous web of places he’s visited, through so many realms all throughout his lifetime. It wasn’t ordered; it didn’t have a beginning or an end. I think Hunter was able to trace me through the ether because I’ve been so few places. But he’s been… everywhere.”
“The ether has no time.” Fury nodded then, his silver-midnight eyes alert as he watched her. “You’re seeing the entirety of where Hunter’s been, Layla, all-at-once because etheric space doesn’t operate in terms of linear time. It’s all happening now. And so you’re seeing it all happen – now.”
“So how do we find him?” Rhennic scowled, glancing around at them all. “If Layla can’t trace her Bind to him, how do we find out where he’s gone?”
“We fix on the most likely location.” Reginald spoke then, glancing at Dusk. “And the person who is most likely to feel it. The Crystal Dragon Queen showed us a space with a forest of crystal pillars where Hunter kept his Bind-army. We know that place is somewhere in the broken realm of Vittria. If we all amplify Dusk’s ability to search for a strong crystal signature, and Layla, you and Adrian guide Dusk through the ether, we might be able to find this second hidden location of Hunter’s. A likely place he could be.”
“Reasonable enough.” Dusk spoke back as he set his hands on his naked hips, then glanced to Rhennic. “But even if we make it there, he could still have an ambush waiting.”
“A risk we’ll have to take.” Rhennic spoke darkly. “I hate it as much as the rest of you, but to not pursue Hunter now would be folly. Despite what else he may have up his sleeve, the fact is that we were able to vastly weaken him by taking away his army, and making him emotionally unstable with Layla’s gambit concerning Nimir. It’s the best chance at defeating him we’ve ever had. And we need to take it, even if we have no idea what we’re walking into next.”
“Or portaling into.” Dusk snorted as he scuffed one bare foot over the hall’s moss-covered floor. “I can do my best to fix on the strongest crystal signatures in the universe, and attune my earth-reading harmonics to dismiss anything in the human world or the Twilight Realm, but it’s still a crapshoot. We have no idea how many worlds are out there, or how many we might be able to get into. The thirteenVirare just the nearest harmonic realms to ours – but if you listen to Archangels talk… the possibilities are infinite.”
“Focus on where we are now, Dusk.” Layla spoke as she took his hand. “Even though Vittria got broken up when it was destroyed, we’re standing in a piece of it right now. It should have a signature close to the Twilight Realm. Can you feel any difference?”
“I’ll try.” Dusk spoke with a wry shake of his head. Heaving a sigh, he gazed around the ruined hall, watching his ancient Queen and her Crystal Dragon Binds working with groups of Dragons now, getting them organized and helping the injured. A few that had not moved from the mossy floor had diamond-preserved white flowers scattered over their faces now; and Layla’s heart clenched, knowing that the flowers were Queen Ishet’s way of marking those who had passed on. As Dusk watched his Queen, she turned and gave him a soft smile. Heaving another sigh, Dusk motioned towards a vaulted exit, one that went to a walkway of broken columns beneath the starlight.
“Let’s head outside.” He spoke practically as he turned towards the exit. “There are too many Dragon-harmonics in here for me to get a clean read on Vittria’s signature.”
As Adrian and the rest nodded, Dusk led the way, walking through the ruined hall with its overgrowth of stately trees, out through the vaulted arch and into the night. This exit was different than Layla had taken once with Hunter, and put them out upon a shattered walkway of columns with a series of smashed steps that led down to a moonlit lake. Following the steps down, Dusk seemed distant as he led them to a pitted plaza that extended into the lake; as if he was already letting his attention drift out to the ether to feel Vittria’s harmonics. As he settled on the plaza naked in a crosslegged seat, everyone else settled in a ring with him.
To lend him their support as he identified the broken Vittrian realm.
