It was so imposing and turbulent that it was as though the sea had been heated to its boiling point and was turning into a suffocating mist around them. The woman moving toward them was small in stature, but her energy was anything but diminutive. Nina had time to see that the woman was wearing silver flats and a dark gray trench coat before taking in her ruler-straight sheet of silky, white-blonde hair. Her hair was fluttering around her shoulders from the speed of her stride, and Nina was finally able to make out her face: slim, pointed, dramatically sculpted features made even colder by a pair of glittering black eyes. The bulk of her beauty was in her power—and it was a terrible beauty, a deadly one.
Eli gasped and pulled his hand away from Nina’s like he’d been electrocuted.
“Lylah,” he said under his breath.
Lylah. Nina’s sense of foreboding was overwhelming now.
The Councilwoman didn’t smile as she came to a stop in front of them. Nina had to force herself to stay in her place, because Lylah’s raging energy was so wild it was almost tangible; her own essence felt weaker for being near it. She fixed her gaze first on Eli, then on Nina.
“What are you doing here?”
Her tone had none of the forced cheer she’d been filled with at their first meeting, nor was it even pretending to be polite. Lylah’s words were as hostile as her expression. Nina’s mind was racing. What is she doing here? Why does she seem so pissed with us?
“We need to see Eka,” Eli said before dropping his gaze, clearly as uncomfortable as Nina.
“For what purpose?” She held up her delicate hands immediately. “Don’t answer that. I already know.” She turned her eyes on Nina, smiling cruelly. “You think you’re going to drag Eka into your little scam of a crusade.”
Eli frowned and looked at Nina, then back to Lylah. “We need his help, but I don’t know what you mean by crusade. Or scam.” He swallowed harshly.
“Don’t try to suppress your nerves,” Lylah murmured to Eli, pressing a hand to his bicep as she looked up at him. “You can’t hide things from me, Eli. I’m too powerful... and I’ve known you.” She smiled more widely, and Nina was forcefully reminded of a hungry shark. “That creates a bond with lots of little benefits, remember?”
Nina watched Eli’s cheek turn crimson. She looked between him and Lylah, remembering how bitter he seemed when he was telling her how selfish she was. A wave of revulsion slammed into her, and she took a few steps back from both of them.
Lylah laughed at Nina and curled her arm around Eli’s. “Your little pet seems upset. You didn’t tell her about our past, Eli?” She feigned embarrassment. “Oh, maybe I should I call you Mr. Nelson? You always preferred that when I was with you. Of course, you’ll need to call me Madam.”
Eli wrenched away from her and turned to Nina, trying to hold her by the shoulders. She pushed him away in panic, and his voice grew desperate. “Nina, it’s nothing. It was a mistake. I didn’t know what she was like back then. I thought I was in love with her, but it was just a stupid mistake!”
“You’re hurting my feelings,” Lylah said lightly, her eyes dancing with joy as she watched Nina back away from Eli in disgust. “You certainly enjoyed our year together. I certainly enjoyed how vigorous that slim body can be,” she said seductively. “So what if I got some of my own agenda finished in the process? It’s not my fault you got attached. I did warn you.”
“You encouraged my attachment,” Eli said savagely. “You’re a jealous bitch, aren’t you? You’re just here to throw a wrench into my new relationship?”
Nina felt a stir of conflicting emotions at Eli’s use of the word, and she couldn’t figure out why. She looked at the fury in Eli’s expression, searching for some clue to her extreme discomfort. It seemed unnatural. Her black bangs were sticking to her forehead; Lylah’s storm cloud of energy was heating the air around her.
“I’m done with you,” he continued. “You had your chance with me, Lylah. I’m not going back to you.”
“You already came back to me twice already,” she said pleasantly. “I don’t see why I shouldn’t expect it. Especially with what I’m seeing in your energy. The part you try hard to cloak from everyone.” She licked her lips slowly. “Mm, I love having such private looks into your essence, Eli. I can read you like a book... and you still love it.”
Eli opened his mouth to speak, but his voice seemed caught in his throat. A thunderbolt of understanding struck Nina. Everything made sense.
He had been so bitter about Lylah because he still had feelings for her, at least on some level. Why else had he hidden it for so long? In his fear, all of his energy was hanging bare to Nina’s eyes, and she could see exactly what Lylah was talking about: a curl of warmth was present in his wave of anger and trepidation, something she’d had more than a few glimpses of herself when they were alone together. Only the flavor of this curl of energy was different: this was rooted in him solidly so that it seemed like a part of him, while what he felt for Nina seemed so wild and new and unpredictable. Nina felt even more nauseated then.
“Anyway,” the blonde dragon continued, “I’m not here for that. I’m here to stop you before you try to fuck everything up again. I can’t believe you’re still trying this cobbled-together scheme of yours. An arrow didn’t stop you, a bomb didn’t stop you, a second bomb didn’t stop you…” she let out a snarl of frustration. “You’re like cockroaches.”
Nina felt as though a small explosion had gone off inside her head. She steadied herself on the back of Eli’s Porsche with one hand, looking from Lylah’s cruel smile to Eli’s devastated look of betrayal in horror.
“You?” she asked weakly. “You’re the one trying to kill me?”
Lylah tossed her hair over one shoulder and examined her nails. “I didn’t say that. I won’t say I didn’t, either. You two know too much as it is,” she spat, raising her gaze again. “I have no idea where you’ll slip off to after this, and I sure as hell can’t kill you on Council property. At this point, the only thing I want is to never want to see either of your faces again. That can be accomplished a number of ways, but maybe you can be creative and find a way to avoid death. Do whatever you like. Just stay away from here. And all of us dragons, in fact. Except the Outcasts.” Lylah’s nostrils flared. “Keep them away from us, too. Especially that big one with the scars.”
Nina’s veins were flooded with icy terror. How did she know so much? None of this made sense. “What about the stone? How are you going to get it cleansed?”
Lylah narrowed her eyes, looking vaguely amused. “That isn’t any business of yours.”
Eli found his voice again. “We’re dragons. It is our business. And Nina’s prophecy says...”
“That’s another thing,” Lylah cut in, the amusement draining from her eyes so quickly it was like it drained a switch. “Not only are you not to come back here, you need to stop looking for the lost chunk of stone. We do have other ways to cleanse it, and you’re only asking for more pain and trouble fooling with the Outcasts, anyway.” Lylah nodded to Nina. “I do enjoy knowing that the Outcast you’re with makes Eli jealous, though. He’s cute when he’s jealous, isn’t he?”
“We don’t have time for your games!” Nina shouted, feeling the veneer of panic start to break apart, making way for a thunder of destructive emotions. “Say what you want to say and let us go. We still have no idea what you’re accusing us of. You seem to be dancing around the point. Is it because you don’t even know?” she prompted, letting her tone taunt Lylah. “Is it because you’re nothing but an errand girl, doling out Eka’s messages?”
Lylah looked surprised for the first time. “Eka doesn’t know I’m here,” she said slowly. “And he won’t find out, if you know what’s good for you.”
Eli was looking at her in disbelief. “You’ve gone rogue? You’re attacking someone the Council needs, completely on your own, out of—what? Jealousy?” He seemed to be eagerly taking over the task of goading Lylah. “Or perhaps upset that I and e
veryone else see something in Nina that we all know you always tried to be and never could reach— a dragon with immense natural power capable of getting Eka’s attention all by herself, without putting on any acts?”
It seemed that Eli had stabbed at a known sore spot. He watched with satisfaction as Lylah’s face went blank. Nina shivered; she was even scarier without expression. Her cold black eyes turned to Nina, then crawled back to Eli.
“You flatter yourself,” she said flatly. “But I can see you’re really trying to draw it out of me. Fine, I know about your little plan, and I know the Outcast and a witch are involved. Let me give you a tip; you think you’re trying to save the realm with the path you're on, but you’re only going to plunge us into sure destruction. Those kind of people are not fit to wipe your shoes, let alone give you direction.”
She gazed at Nina then, her expression still blank save for the ice-cold hostility in her eyes. “Eka is a nostalgic old fool if he thinks returning to royalty and all the bullshit that went on then is going to help us. I know it won’t.” Her nostrils flared again, and the temperature around them spiked dramatically. “The only thing that will save the dragons is cleansing the stone and making sure the Council stays on as the supreme rule. Royalty ruined us and it will ruin us again. We need a Council, and one without all the kumbaya bullshit your Outcast friends seem to want. Anything else is tarnishing us as a race.”
The cruel smile returned to Lylah’s face. “I know I’ll never convince you, though, so you either leave or die, and very soon. It’s your choice. I’d choose the former if you also want to save your freak show of a family and friend group.”
Nina was shaking, and more than a little of her trembling was due to an awesome sense of terror at the chilling way Lylah spoke, but she felt herself moving toward Lylah as her own fury mounted. Distantly, she was aware of Eli trying to hold her back, but she lashed out at him with a pulse of power, sending him crashing into the trunk of his car from the force of her energy strike. He groaned and rubbed his back from his place on the cold pavement.
Nina stopped a few inches away from Lylah and tapped into all of her outrage and panic, all of the doubt and loneliness that had plagued her the past few days. She let it fill her energy, stuffing her aura with a white-hot promise of violence that she knew just then she was capable of.
“You will not stand in our way,” she growled. “You may not like what’s happening, but it’s not your place to like it. You’re a Council member. You exist to serve dragons and look after the health of the realm—and you failed.”
Nina felt her power swell and start to swallow Lylah’s; she didn’t know how it was happening, but when she saw the blonde dragon take a fearful step back, she didn’t care.
Lylah’s eyes widened; the air between them was chilly now, and when she exhaled, a cloud of vapor spilled from her lips. “What did they do to you?” she asked disgustedly. “What the hell is this power?”
“It’s my power,” Nina snarled, taking a deep breath. Amazingly, her own power swelled and folded over Lylah’s again, making the air even crisper and cooler while stealing some of her energy at the same time. “It’s mine, Lylah, just like this realm is mine. I am the head and the heart. I am the door and the key. And you,” she spat, “are just shit on the bottom of my shoe. You can’t hold us back for long. You’re a temporary setback. We will find that Heart, and I will be taking the throne. And when I do...”
She took a final step forward, backing Lylah up against a wall until they were close enough to kiss. “...I’m going to scrape you right off. I see that you’re just shit now, Lylah. You can’t hide behind your Council moniker for long.”
Lylah was trembling, but she managed to keep her voice steady as she moved sideways away from Nina. “You’re fucking crazy,” she hissed through gritted teeth. “This isn’t worth it! You’re betraying your own kind!”
Nina looked at her in disbelief. “Am I? I’m pretty sure I’m saving it from cretins like you.”
When she was far enough away, Lylah replaced the unease in her expression with a more familiar look of acidity. “You can’t win this, Nina. You can’t dodge everything thrown at you. And when you get hit, I’m going to dance on your grave. With Eli. And maybe that tasty little Outcast... before I kill them both.”
Then Lylah spun on her heel and walked quickly toward the bank of elevators behind her. As they watched her disappear, Nina and Eli turned to each other, their gazes loaded with layers of meaning.
Can I deal with this? she wondered. Eli was not only a former lover of the enemy but still a little in love with her himself? Can I trust him? Do I even want to?
Eli rushed forward, the tears in his eyes telling Nina he’d read everything in her energy. “Nina, I don’t care for her like I care for you.” He slid his arms around her waist and held her desperately close. “She’s trying to drive us apart so she can destroy us. Please, don’t let her get between us and into your head. We’ll lose.”
Nina looked up at him, her mind still reeling from everything Lylah had said. Despite her show of bravado a moment before, she felt very defeated, even deflated. It seemed like her power had been doing the talking, not her.
“Eli,” she said sadly, “one of the most powerful members of the Council has been trying to kill us. We have no way to get to Eka without Lylah knowing. There’s nothing to stop anyone from trying to kill me again while we look for the Heart... how the fuck do you expect us to win?”
CHAPTER NINE
“One more time.”
Eli was standing across the wide, hematite-lined room, holding a tennis ball in his right hand. Nina watched his hand as he threw the fuzzy green ball, trying to focus on the moment the sphere left his hand.
Stop, she thought.
It kept going.
Stop! Stop! Stop!
The ball froze in midair four feet from her face.
“Good,” Eli said, pleased. “Now try releasing it.”
Nina focused on the white lines crossing the green ball and thought drop. Drop drop drop drop—
The ball dropped to the cobblestone floor, bouncing lightly toward her until its motion stuttered and it started to roll.
“Excellent!” Eli clapped his hands together. “Okay, I think that’s enough. It’s only been three days since we found out you had this power, so this is great progress. Let’s resume tomorrow. Lunch?”
Nina looked at the corner where Pryce slept. “No, I need to talk to Pryce about something.”
Eli tried to hide his disappointment. “Ah, okay. I’ll make you a sandwich for later, then.”
Nina started to say something else to him, but Eli turned away and hurried up the stone stairs to get more ingredients. He’d been doing that to her all week—after acting like everything was back to normal, he’d scurry away if she committed one of two sins: asking him about what his feelings for Lylah meant, and mentioning Pryce’s name. She could understand his hesitation regarding the former topic, but he’d been so relaxed around Pryce lately that his aversion didn’t quite make sense at first. She finally realized that he must be trying to avoid getting any closer to her by opening up. But why?
Nina hadn’t been able to talk to Eli about the weird tension between them. He shot her odd, indecipherable looks whenever he saw her with Pryce, but he hadn’t brought anything up, nor would he expand when she asked him what he meant when he’d called their situation a “relationship” in front of Lylah. He tried to play it off as worry, saying he was afraid Lylah would somehow find them any minute, but Nina didn’t buy it. They’d figured out that Lylah must have been tracking them through the weak version of the hive mind bonded dragons experienced; it was how she’d known when to send an arrow at them, when to plant the bomb, and when to signal Joey to lift the enchantment on his room. It was scary, but as long as they stayed below ground in the enchanted lair or wore protective charms when they went out, they would be safe from that particular brand of espionage. This didn’t seem to console El
i, however; in fact, when they told him why he couldn’t leave alone, he looked devastated.
“He feels guilty,” Rachel said wisely one day. “He’s the only bonded dragon here, so he’s the only one whose eyes they can look through. I’m sure they can sense you and Pryce to some degree, but Eli gave us away all those times. He’s having trouble living with himself.”
“He can protect himself, though,” Nina said thoughtfully. “And we have a new plan of action now. Why isn’t he happy about that? Why can’t he relax?”
“Maybe because it was Pryce’s plan,” Rachel offered. “Eli wanted to be the one to save you.”
Nina resisted the urge to believe this simple explanation, mainly because she couldn't bring herself to believe Eli would be so petty. He’d matured a little, hadn’t he? They’d even had two more threesomes, though Eli didn’t stick around in the afterglow anymore. Nina was more puzzled than ever.
She knew that his feelings for her had deepened tremendously since they first met; she could read that much in his energy. It made her uneasy to see how quickly they’d grown close. The problem, though, wasn’t that she didn’t feel the same way—the problem was that she felt the same way about him and someone else. Nina had gone so long hopping from one casual relationship to the next that she wasn’t sure what to do with the desire to actually get involved with someone romantically, let alone two someones.
“Who do you like more?” Rachel had asked. “Who fucks better?”
“Both,” Nina said unhelpfully. “I don’t know, Rache. I’ve only known them less than a week, anyway. How am I supposed to know if I really like them at all?”
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