Page 99 of Gemini Wicked

A flicker of motion from the side tells me Cleo’s circling around behind me while I’m distracted. Clearly she’s got her eye on the prize.

The crown in my backpack.

With a mental apology for the ancient artifact, I swing my pack off my shoulders and sling it down the shadowy staircase into the crypt.

Lucius, I send through our mating bond, because keeping that crown safe from Cleo’s grabby hands is way more important than my pride. Delivery for you on the stairs.

I wait for the familiar solid warmth of my alpha’s bond to lock into place.

But, alarmingly, there’s nothing. Takes me a sec to remember those magical wards around his office—

Something slams into the back of my head like a kettlebell. The impact sends me staggering and almost knocks me down. I fling out a hand wildly to grab the rail and barely manage to avoid tumbling down the long stone stair (which would leave me with way more damage than a few bruises).

Fuck. Another flying book. I didn’t even see that one coming.

Pain pours through my battered scalp. A trickle of heat spills down the back of my neck. My vision is fuzzy and it feels like I’m bleeding.

Dizzy, I spin around to put my back to the stairs, because protecting that crown’s the hill I’ll die on.

The steaming pot from the coffee nook whizzes toward me, with ribbons of scalding coffee streaming in its wake. Still woozy, I swear and lurch out of the way, tucking my aching body into a clumsy somersault that makes my bruised shoulder scream in protest.

Droplets of boiling coffee splatter painfully across one hand and my bare leg as the object sails over me.

But I manage to avoid the worst. Like third degree burns.

I come up snarling and slam both fists into the floor. A purple crackle of electricity spreads outward in all directions from my crouching form. My little lightning takes the poor Hadrians down like ninepins (ugh) but also knocks Skyler’s besties off their feet. (Bullseye.)

But not Skyler, who scrambles onto a nearby table in a flurry of plaid skirts and swirling hair to avoid getting juiced by the voltage. Without her hand on the helm (so to speak), the flying coffeepot plummets to the floor and shatters.

I also miss Cleo. That’s because my ex-BFF springs like an Avenger, a good eight feet in the air, to land with inhuman grace on top of a study carrel.

“What the fuck?” I yelp, peering up at her.

She’s always been graceful (because supermodel), but that was some Zephyr-like agility. She scrambles nimbly toward me across the row of little peaked roofs like Scarlett Johannsen in that Black Widow flick. I’m starting to believe my ex really is half-Fae, so maybe Messalina wasn’t lying about that piece of her history.

And speaking of Zephyr…

Hey, guys? I decide to adjust my solo strategy and broadcast to my warlocks on all psychic channels. I, uh, think I fucked up. I could maybe use a little backup in the commons.

Again with the nothing.

Shit.

Either Cleo or Xiao must still be carrying that nullifying object. Which means I really am on my own. We really gotta get that item off the gameboard.

I dash to the head of the crypt stairs to cut off my ex-bestie and stay between her and my crown, lying somewhere in the darkness below. Then I scowl up at her, balanced effortlessly on the peaked roof of a study carrel like the supervillain she apparently is.

“You’re not getting past me, Sunshine.” Even though I’m bruised and bleeding, I crank up the bravado. “I’m not even breaking a sweat down here. But you keep this shit up and someone’s gonna get hurt.”

Skyler’s venomous voice snakes toward me from the side. “We’re not trying to get past you, cunt. We’re going to slice right through you.”

A shower of glass shards from the shattered coffee pot lifts from the floor and knifes through the air—straight toward me. That Scorpio precision Skyler’s rocking with her telekinesis is deadly. Which means I gotta stop holding back. If I’m not picky about the collateral damage, I could summon a bolt of lightning right through the oculus window.

But if I do that, I’ll kill her.

Besides, Skyler’s smart enough to attack me from right in the middle of that huddle of spell-stunned Hadrian kids, all still in varying degrees of incapacitation and struggling to get back on their feet.

Nope.

---