Page 165 of Gemini Wicked

If I’m gonna get pregnant, they’ve all had a shot.

I rest my hands on the balustrade and pull in a deep breath of the Avalon night. The briny scent of ocean and the haunting sweetness of night-blooming lotus seep through my senses.

The slow rhythm of Xhevith’s snores rumbles from his lair, somewhere under my feet, because that dragon’s totally sex-drunk (since he gets off when Zephyr does) and they’re both finally sleeping.

I scan the empty skies for any sign of my missing guys, which is an exercise in complete futility. I’d know if they were anywhere close. Finally, not ready to give up, I close my eyes and extend my other senses.

A turbulent rush of emotion, distant but potent as fuck, floods through our mating bond.

No doubt about it, Vasili’s given Max a real chase. Like, for hours. Because that’s how long they’ve both been gone.

But Max is a dragon on a mission. He’s been hunting Vasili, one way or another, for a really long time. Now our determined dragon’s finally tracked our wily snake to ground.

Those two mates of mine, they’re together.

And they’re… blissful.

Both of them.

Whatever that looks like when we all get back, whether those two manage to fertilize a clutch of dragon eggs together or not, whether that means Vasili has to hole up somewhere in a nest till they hatch or however it works (because this is totally uncharted terrain for me, plus Vasili is Vasili and he literally never behaves the way he’s supposed to)… however this thing goes down, we’re all gonna figure out the features of that new landscape.

Together.

Same way we always do.

What’s more, I can see exactly where those two are. Like they’re a painting dashed in lurid strokes of black and red and silver against the canvas of my closed lids.

V’s been hiding out like a bandit in the little cave with the hot spring and the cave art Neo and Max found together last spring. That hideaway’s near where my guys are fucking now in dragon form, locked together and spiraling through the open air under the looming shadow of that dormant volcano, with V’s silver coils wrapped tight around Max’s black bulk, my snake’s fanged jaws buried deep in Max’s throat to totally dominate him in a brutal mating bite (the first bite Max has ever taken)—and Max’s forked dragon dick locked deep and pulsing in V’s genital slit.

And the fact that I can physically see that shit, painted in hectic streaks of color, like a Fauvist expressionist painting you’d find hanging in the Met?

I’m manifesting a totally new arcane power we studied with Mistress Aggie in Science of Witchcraft class. It’s a form of witchcraft that’s linked to my Valyrian DNA. So I guess that’s the gene my new crown just switched on.

The gene that encodes for clairvoyance.

Now all I need to do is think about Icarus Island—and I can see that shit. In fact, my brain lights up like a pinball machine. I can see the Horn of Ceres, glowing and pulsing with magical power, which I recognize from a pic Neo drew for us. Technically, that thing’s not even underwater. The artifact is resting on a ledge in this sea cave grotto that I actually know.

In fact, I’ve dived that site more than once. I’m a certified diver, and that shimmering blue grotto’s one of my favorite boat dives.

Maybe Nikolai Romanov, as a trustee on the school board, pressured the Dean to choose an aquatic site that’s supposed to help Cleo win the Dean’s Challenge.

But the site the Dean chose tells me she hasn’t totally turned against me after all.

In fact, the Dean might actually be my secret ally.

Against the screen of my closed lids, Cleo’s psychic presence pulses like a ruby sun. Yeah, she’s hunting for the artifact. For her, the Dean’s Challenge has already started. Xiao and Nikolai—V’s dad—they’re hunting with her (even though they’re not supposed to). But she’s nowhere close.

She’s hunting in the wrong place.

I’m off my academic suspension and free to join the hunt at noon tomorrow. Now, thanks to this crown and my new Spidey senses, I know exactly where to hunt. That means I’ve got an actual fighting chance to win this fucking challenge.

My whole body tingles and sings with an electric hum of triumph.

The hair swirls around my shoulders and the shadows lighten to violet. Psi fire spills from my eyes like Fourth of July pinwheels.

Fuck. Me. Sideways.

Just wait’ll I tell my guys.

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