Page 75 of Gemini Wicked

Unlike the Fae, these men can lie.

Over his miniscule cup, Vasili Romanov utters a scornful snort. “Speak for yourself, Lucius. If that little pissant tries to whisk Zara away on his odious dragon like he did last time, I’ll crush him like a cockroach.”

“Vasili, my dear.” The wolf gives him a reproachful look. “You’re not helping.”

I’m already bristling with offense. “I am not here to abduct my own queen. I told you I’ve come to crown her. I assure you, she’ll come with me willingly.”

“For fuck’s sake, mate.” Ronin drops the skillet to the stovetop with a noisy clatter and twists around to shoot me a thunderous scowl. “Are you blooming mental? She’s got her own bloody royal crisis to manage here, hasn’t she?”

Still looming threateningly in the doorway, the dragon growls a foreign word in his mother tongue. His shoulders flex under that ghoulish shock-rock shirt. His fists clench into white-knuckled knots that promise violence.

“Zara will go nowhere,” the dragon bites out, “while she is breeding—”

“Ronin, Maxim, kindly let me handle this.” The wolf levels me with a warning look. “As for you, Your Radiance…”

I begin to sense I’m treading on thin ice, even with this one who is more patient and shows me greater courtesy than the others.

Besides, I know well that if I spur them all to violence, Zara will not be pleased.

Already, I’ve angered my volatile queen with my long absence.

For her sake, I can see, even I must bend a little.

I pull in a long breath and reach for my forbearance. “You may address me by my common name. I am Zephyr.”

This is a great concession on my part. In Avalon, it would be considered a rare honor. Yet I suspect these troublesome mates of hers will not view it in this light.

Besides, even to my own ears, I sound truculent.

“Very well, ah, Zephyr,” Lucius says firmly. “We can discuss the future of your realm and this one—with Zara—after we’ve all eaten. Come now, surely you must be hungry.”

“I am not—” I begin loftily.

My empty stomach chooses this untimely moment to voice a noisy rumble.

Vasili, the one Zara calls her snake, hisses rudely. “Sweet fuck. Just let him starve, Lucius.”

The snake abandons his espresso and slithers to the stove. Instead of snatching a plate as I expect, then stuffing his hateful face before my hungry eyes to taunt me, he shoots an arm around Ronin’s waist and pulls him into a hard fierce kiss.

Ronin’s hand rises to cup the other man’s cheek in a tender moment of contact that seems to steady them both.

Without breaking this consuming kiss, Ronin reaches behind him to pull Neo close. Neo snuggles in and hugs both of them (even that prickly snake, which seems to me the height of recklessness) and the three of them share a moment.

I wait for Vasili to push Neo violently away, this interloper who is getting between him and his precious Ronin.

To my surprise, I even find myself tensing to spring to that innocent boy’s defense.

Instead, Romanov’s arm twines around Neo’s waist. The bookworm tucks trustingly into both of them with a happy murmur. The sight of those three, wrapped in each other’s arms, makes my chest ache with a poignant sensation I find… unsettling.

Surely, this is not the ache of yearning.

Lucius Aries watches them with a quiet fierce love that holds nothing of envy.

Very clearly, they’re together—all of them in this harem—precisely the way Zara always said. These warlocks of hers are more than bedmates or friends or even political allies. They’re a true polycule.

They’re deeply committed, not only to her, but also to each other.

They love each other.

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