Page 26 of Gemini Wicked

That’s my girl.

I mean to wreak hari-kari on Messalina, Cleo, Xiao and the whole lot over this load of rubbish.

“Okay, look.” I pull in a breath, lock onto my girl’s wide eyes, and make my voice firm. “Time to regroup. Retrench. Circle the wagons. Whatever. First thing we’ve got to do is get our crew together and get off this blasted boat.”

Her teal brows draw together in a frown. “Yeah. Working on that. But Cleo’s gone… somewhere… and Messalina’s vamoosed down below. I think Vasili’s gone after her. Maybe he’s gone after both of them.” Her alarmed gaze veers to the sea. “Is—is Lucius in the water?”

“Think so, yeah. With your ex.” We both lean way out over the rail to look, but I still can’t see shit.

I can’t find Lucius.

What’s worse, I can’t feel him. Which has to mean that nullifying object’s still in play.

Somewhere.

“Lucius?” I’m still wobbly from getting juiced, but I’ve got enough left in the tank to cock an arm and lob a weak fireball over the water for illumination. Not that there’s much to illuminate. “Lucius!”

I can’t feel him, but I can feel Zara, and she’s spiraling.

She’s not afraid for herself. She’s afraid for him. Afraid for me. Afraid for all our lot.

I barely manage to get hold of her arm before she lifts off the deck to fly down there and investigate for herself.

“Look, Zara. You’d best get Racetrack into the dive boat.” Sensing the protest rising to her lips, I rush ahead. “She’s hurt. She needs you.”

“God. I know.” Zara’s teeth sink into her lower lip. Her forehead scrunches with conflict, and the look she darts at RT is poignant with guilt it fucks with my heart to see. “But what about Lucius? I won’t leave him, Ronin.”

“No one’s bloody leaving him.” Thinking fast, I’m already powering for the gangway, urging a still reluctant Zara along with me. “I’ll get Vasili to have a look round. He’s a wicked flier. He can telekinetic our wolf out of the drink, just in case… in case Lucius is hurt. Which you can’t, love.”

Her mouth pops open in instant protest. She’s set on getting her two pence in, she doesn’t like admitting there’s anything she can’t do. But, all of a sudden, I can’t hear shit.

Just an earth-shattering roar that splits the night like a tyrannosaur’s bellow.

That roar sets my ears ringing. It’s the roar of an angry dragon. (Because we’ve got a few of those round again in the witching world.)

This dragon’s massive black form blots out the night sky under the span of his outstretched wings. He soars toward us over the waves. Right over the complete fucking pandemonium of the Aquarius Queen.

That’s the type of pandemonium that ensues when you’re overflown by a dragon roughly the size of a flying Godzilla, bellowing with deafening fury.

It’s pandemonium even before his fanged jaws open over the deck below.

When the dragon starts flaming, that scene of pandemonium turns to literal Hell.

Chapter Five

Zara

As a column of crimson flame engulfs the swimming pool and ignites the empty stage, my mating bond blazes to life.

Finally.

And that psychic wallop definitely packs a punch.

After the muddy sense of psychic deprivation I’ve been slogging through on this boat, the bracing crackle of Ronin’s telepath-potent aggression hits me in the face like a dash of cold water. Vasili’s down below, wreaking some kinda havoc in the living quarters. Now my bond with him crackles to life too, ebbing and swelling like staticky radio on a mountain road, lurky with malice and homicidal intent.

Lucius? He’s a gaping hole in the tapestry of our group bond. The familiar comfort of his steady alpha strength is, like, nowhere to be found.

Which is freaking me the fuck out.

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