Page 104 of Gemini Queen
It might sound petty, this fixation on my grades, but it really isn’t about me. I’ve grown up knowing the four races are dying and it’s my duty to save them, first by making a suitable marriage, then by running for my father’s elected seat on the Arcane Senate. Doing well at the Academy, making First Boy on the Dean’s List, and building the resume and the alliances I need to be effective are all part of that plan.
Still, I have to be honest. I have to admit the fact that I’ve just become the first student in six years to ace that honors alchemy experiment feels pretty amazing.
I wonder if Zara will be proud of me. I can’t wait to tell her.
Given the hour, I’m definitely expecting my housemates to be asleep, so I’m super careful not to make any noise creeping into the house, because we’ve all been under a lot of pressure since Zara got here and we all need our sleep.
Especially my fated mate.
So it’s surprising to find Lucius’ bedroom window still open, which means his wolf is still out, and the light in Vasili’s room still burning. This makes me extra careful, peeling out of my coat and boots in the atrium before I tiptoe through the darkened living room and up the stairs. Another of my famous rows with Vasili would just upset everyone and wake the whole house.
I’m pretty zonked, but I have every intention of crashing in Zara’s bed tonight, even if all we do there is sleep. I literally sneak down the darkened corridor past Vasili’s closed door like I’m creeping past a monster’s lair.
But what I see piled outside Zara’s door makes me stop and smile.
Someone’s dropped off two hard-shell suitcases covered with punk rock decals and travel stickers. The color of those cases is hard to tell in the gray moonlight leaking through the window down the hall, but it looks like hot pink.
Which issoZara.
I’m the one who arranged this delivery, which must have come in on the supply plane.
She’s going to be so happy when she sees what I got her.
I’m just putting my hand on the door and hoping she left it unlocked for me when the floor creaks right behind me. My heart gives a hard thump and jams up in my throat.
I’m instantly on guard for Vasili.
“Boo,” someone whispers in my ear. Two warm hands settle on my waist. “Up a bit late tonight, aren’t we, mate?”
My heart settles back behind my sternum where it belongs and the tension eases from my shoulders. Now my late-night fright shifts to a very different kind of tension. Ronin’s hated me since Gwen died, and it’s only today… yesterday?… in the gazebo that I finally did what Zara wanted me to do and what I’ve wanted to do myself the whole time I’ve known him.
That’s when I finally manned up and kissed him.
It’s really too soon to say if he’s going to revert to form and just keep hating me.
I’m not a telepath or anything fancy. I’m just a plain old Kryll, even if I am the Capricorn scion. I’m an ordinary warlock with earth magic and a work ethic and solid study skills. So I totally have no idea what he’s thinking.
“I had an alchemy experiment,” I remind him, speaking softly so we don’t wake Zara. His hands are still on my waist, which could either be a good sign or the start of some violent martial arts technique that’s going to end with me on the floor.
“How’d we do then?” He’s still whispering in my ear, his breath playing with my hair. Despite my fatigue and my caution, he’s making me shiver all over.
“Lead into copper.” I try not to sound too self-congratulatory, because I take a lot of heat for my grades from the other students.
But he’s a telepath even if I’m not, and some of my pleasure probably leaks through.
“Not bad, Red.” He murmurs this against the side of my neck, and my pulse starts pounding. Which I know he can feel, since my jugular’s right under his lips. He brushes a little kiss… oh my God, an actual kiss from Ronin Pendragon, a kiss he’s initiating… against my jackrabbit pulse. “Am I making you nervous, love?”
“No, um, not nervous.” I lie through my teeth and clear my throat. “Is there a reason you’re lurking out here in the hall?”
He can’t have been waiting up for me, and I won’t even let myself think it. Still, Iamthinking it, and he chuckles under his breath because he can probably hear me thinking it. I don’t have a single Valyrian chromosome in my entire DNA, so even at basic telepathic defense I’m pretty hopeless.
“Just on my way to bed from the shower.” He nuzzles the side of my neck and releases me. I’m simultaneously thankful and bitterly disappointed. “I’m bunking down with our girl tonight, yeah?”
“Oh.” I try not to sound too crestfallen that he’s beaten me to her bed. “Well, let me at least carry these suitcases in for her.”And maybe kiss her goodnight before I go.
He steps between me and the cases. “Why would you have to go?”
My startled gaze swings up to his. With the window behind him, I can’t see a thing, which is definitely for the best, because looking at him also makes me nervous. And maybe in the dark he can’t see the blush heating my face. (It’s extremely inconvenient being a redhead who blushes.)
