Page 107 of Gemini Wicked

While Xhevith circles helplessly and croons in dismay, the airborne curl of water showers down into the sea. An awful stillness settles over the harbor.

“Goblin King?” I whisper through a bone-dry throat. Through our bond, I reach for him, groping for his lurky, snaky vibe.

What if—?

Vasili’s silver snake explodes from the depths with his mane drenched and water streaming from his jaws. Half-drowned, he coughs to expel a torrent of water from his lungs. My snake’s new to shifting, just like me, and he’s flying pretty erratically (though he’ll never admit it).

Under the awful hack of V’s retching, the sea’s blue expanse settles into stillness.

Cheese on toast. Cleo’s gone deep.

And I already know Nikolai’s gone too.

That bastard has my crown.

I’m linked up with Lucius, who’s still in wolf form. Now that he’s gotten his students to safety, my headmaster’s using his shifty senses to hunt the cloister for Le Chiffre. Judging by his vibe, my wolf’s pretty frustrated.

Nothing gets past his nose. Plus we already know from last night that Messalina’s gang includes some Mogadon witch or warlock who teleports.

That has to be how Nikolai’s slipping through the wards.

The slender spear of the harbor lighthouse, sooty and black with burn marks, looms dead ahead. I use that landmark for target practice when I’m hurling lightning, so I know it’s abandoned.

I shoot a worried look at Vasili’s uncertain flight, while my snake hacks and heaves.

Time to make an executive decision.

“Meet up at the lighthouse,” I tell everyone I can reach through our mating bond, while Zephyr gets the downlow out loud. “Lucius, we better find Neo and Ronin. Make sure they’re okay. Bring ’em out here with you in the dive boat. Goblin King, you get that pretty ass of yours outta the sky, like, now.”

Normally I wouldn’t be able to get away with bullying my alpha like that. But he just almost drowned. V twists his long neck to give me a horrible hiss, but he spirals shakily down to the rocky breakwater that holds the lighthouse and settles clumsily on the stone pier.

He’s barely down before he shifts, with a weak flicker of light that’s barely visible, into his hunched human form. While Xhevith wheels overhead, I eye my alpha’s huddled body, naked and miserable and still weakly coughing.

Then I add for Lucius, Better bring Vasili some clothes, okay, Teach? And maybe some bottled water. He’s looking kinda rough.

Lucius can’t project human speech while he’s wolfing out, he’s pretty primal like that, but his instant surge of concern for our alpha floods through our bond.

I know he’ll be here ASAP. That knowledge settles me down too.

“Okay, Your Radiance,” I announce out loud for Zephyr without looking at him (because even the sight of him pisses me off). “You too. Get your ass down there. And you better not even look crosswise at my warlocks. You’re on the last of your nine lives in this harem.”

His gauntlet fists around the reins. In response, Xhevith tilts into a lazy descent toward the breakwater.

“You’re angry with me,” my Unseelie observes, after a long beat of silence.

I shrug off the lean warmth of his body pressed against mine. “You think?”

He leans in till his breath teases my ear and his scent of burnt amber tickles my nose. “Concerning the wolf—”

“Lucius,” I remind him tightly. “He has a name. He’s one of my mates.”

“Zara.” Zephyr sighs into the wind. “At the church. I was bluffing.”

I twist around to glare into his single eye. “Yeah, right. You can’t bluff.”

One corner of his mouth tilts into a wry grin.

“I assure you I can. Wordcraft is an infamous Dark Fae gift. ’Tis merely that I cannot lie.” He leans his forehead against mine. “I was buying you time to act, Zara. I never actually said I’d slay him.”

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