Page 19 of Gemini Wicked

Now I stand alone.

All around me, stunned spectators are struggling to their feet. I’ve overturned the champagne fountain, destroyed the stage, skinned elbows, bloodied knees. Sure, these people might be mostly assholes, but they’re also my subjects.

I didn’t mean to hurt them.

Yeah, I’ve killed the feed and protected what little is left of poor Neo’s privacy. I’ve done what little I can to protect all my guys.

But at what fucking price?

“As for the Senator.” Messalina extends a queenly arm to point at Neo, who’s looking confused and hurt as he tries to process why I pushed him away. Damn it. “Theo Mercury is understandably concerned for the moral welfare of his only son, who has fallen under the influence of this wicked creature. The Senator understands the importance of placing duty before sentiment. So, yes, I fully expect that he will call the vote.”

Poor Neo looks totally crestfallen.

When Ronin prowls over to take Neo’s hand and tug him gently into the strength of his body, I’m silently so grateful it makes my chest ache.

God, I love these guys. They’re a huge part of the reason I’m even trying to do this whole queen thing.

I square my shoulders and make myself step forward to grip the rail. I want to whisper, but I pitch my voice to carry.

“I never wanted to be queen. That’s no secret. It’s why the guys had to kidnap my ass in the first place and drag me off to Icarus.” I clench the rail and lean forward. “But the witching world needs a queen. A real one, with actual power and shit. We’re dying here. We’re an endangered species. Some of the old bloodlines, like the were shifters, they’re already extinct. That’s the whole reason I took the gig.”

Now those cameras are pointed at me, and I can see at least some of the looky-loos are listening. Messalina lifts the mic to her mouth, but I rush ahead before she can get a word in edgewise.

Because that bitch has already said plenty.

“I’m talking here. You can go when I’m done. And, hey, newsflash.” I scowl down at her. “It happens to be good and healthy for the four witching world races when the queen fucks. When she takes lots of mates and she fucks and she likes it. That’s why we’re poly, all of us royals. The queen has, like, magical and symbolic value for the whole witching world. Like we all saw in Avalon when I mated the Dark Fae King, the way your actual daughter was supposed to. When I cleaned up your mess.”

I don’t really wanna say the rest. But I gotta.

This is part of the issue, because her legit heir Cybelle got killed, and this queen’s too long in the tooth to make another one. Besides, Messalina has to be making this shit up about Cleo, who doesn’t exactly have pointy Fae ears and a dragon she rides, like the Unseelie royals in Avalon.

So I brace myself and say the F word. “I’m still figuring out this whole business. But that’s how the next queen’s gonna save the witching world. That’s how you queen it. It’s a power thing. And, uh, a fertility thing.”

“Fertility?” Messalina pounces on that word I had such a hard time saying like a cat on a ball of string. “How can you possibly claim to embody fertility when you’re deliberately preventing your own conception?”

I suck in a startled breath. My mouth pops open before I can hide it.

Yeah, sure, I’m taking BC shots right now, for reasons. For one thing, I’d prefer to avoid getting knocked up while I finish my stressful and eventful and kinda overwhelming freshman year at the witch academy, so excuse the fuck outta me for that.

Even though my aversion to getting preggo is causing real strain with my shifter guys, who have this really powerful genetic need to breed.

But that shit’s private.

It’s fucking private.

“There you have it!” Seeing me knocked off balance, the queen rushes ahead. The cameras swing toward her like spectator heads at a tennis match. “Even believing what she claims to believe, this so-called Gemini queen is under medical care to prevent conception! Fortunately, a loyal subject leaked her medical records to the Witching Inquisitor. This shameless slut’s infamous exploits with her so-called mates are far from noble. It’s debauchery and whoredom. Plain and simple. It’s shocking. And sinful!”

In this dump truck of fuckery that’s backing into me and upending this load of garbage on my head, one stinking gobbet hits me square between the eyes.

Somehow my medical records from the Academy clinic are getting pubbed in the Witching Inquisitor.

Great.

Man, whoever’s acting as Messalina’s inside man in the Academy?

That POS has wicked access.

I bite my lip and scan my surroundings. With the sun sunk below the horizon and a breeze kicking up, it’s getting chilly out here on the ocean. Beyond the dark tower of the abandoned lighthouse in the harbor, the jagged bulk of Icarus Island looms against the starlit sky, with only a few scattered lights twinkling in the Roman ruins of the village and the Gothic church where we hold our classes.

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