Page 158 of Gemini Queen
I freeze in place, still way too far away to help. At least Ronin’s still alive, because he’s heaving for breath and trying to get his rubbery legs under him, but he’s not moving much for obvious reasons. He actually looks like he might fall back asleep right there in Zerxes’ arms, like an enchanted Sleeping Beauty, any second.
“Let him go!” I shout, because shouting might help with keeping Ronin awake and maybe waking up some others. “I’ll go with you, okay? Just let him go.”
“Actually, I believe I’ll take both of you, at least as far as the airfield.” Zerxes grins companionably at me and drags Ronin backward toward the atrium. “Clearly Mr. Pendragon has his uses, since you’re so terribly concerned for his fate. Come along, my queen.”
The bastard knows I actually will follow him rather than let him drag Ronin out of sight and do God knows what with him. There’s also the fact that the bear has managed to extinguish himself and is staggering to his feet looking pissed as fuck, and I’m not interested in getting any closer to him either.
“Don’ do it,” Ronin says thickly, struggling to keep his eyes open. “Zara… take care of m’self…”
“I don’t think so, Adam.” I edge after Zerxes to keep that psycho calm. “Just give him an inch of breathing room with that knife, okay, Ceph? He’s barely staying on his feet.”
“In truth, I’m amazed he’s ambulatory at all,” Zerxes murmurs. “You must have formed a considerable bond with these mates of yours in this fleeting time. A bond far stronger than I anticipated, I’ll confess. But this development too can prove advantageous. Come along quietly and there will be no need for violence.”
Somehow I seriously doubt it. But a flicker of movement catches my eye.
There’s someone else lurking in the darkness of the upstairs hall. And assuming whoever’s up there is as out of it as Ronin, they’re going to need all the help they can get.
“Hold on a sec, Ceph,” I say pleadingly, holding the warlock’s stare, fiercely resisting the impulse even to look toward the stairs. “I’ll absolutely come with you. I’ll even marry you, okay? I will. I’m sorta, um, intrigued by you actually. I just need you to answer one last question for me. So I know I can really trust you.”
“Zara, no…” Ronin mumbles, still sagging into Zerxes’ punishing grip, but finally managing to get his legs under him as the warlock drags him along at a good clip.
“Come on, Ceph. It’s really important.” I make my voice as soft as I can. “You’re going to be my alpha, and I need to know I can trust you. Please?”
Zerxes doesn’t look particularly persuaded, but he does stop for a second. “This had better be an exceedingly quick question, my queen. My patience is scarcely infinite—”
He chokes in mid-sentence, and his face goes rigid. In fact, his entire frame goes absolutely rigid. It’s the rigidity of telekinesis, and suddenly I realize who’s lurking on the landing.
It’s my snake.
Vasili lurches into view, wearing his long filmy shirt and not much else, swaying on his feet and gripping the banister, his long legs groping down step by careful step. He too is barely awake, and I think his grip on Zerxes is pretty precarious. He couldn’t even cast until his target stopped moving.
Ronin seizes his moment to wiggle out of the warlock’s grip, but he falls to hands and knees right away. I rush over to drag him clear, in case Vasili loses his grip. But we’re both still standing way too close, Ronin sagging and heavy in my arms, when Vasili misses his own step and slides down the last few stairs to land on his ass at the bottom.
Which definitely shatters both his concentration and his spell.
Zerxes straightens and raises his knife with a smile. “And to think, you imagined you’d actually elude me. Now, my queen, unless you truly do want me to slit both their throats—”
He coughs suddenly and raises a hand to his own throat. A trickle of dark blood slips between his lips and rolls down his chin. His gaze locks with mine and his brow furrows. Then he drops heavily to one knee, elbow propped on one thigh, and bows his head. That’s when I see the hilt of Vasili’s throwing knife jutting from the back of his neck.
At the base of the stairs, Vasili lowers his throwing arm and sags against the banister.
Not to be forgotten in all this fun, Bjorn the polar bear charges.
For Vasili.
Who looks like he might actually fall back asleep before the bear mauls him.
“Bear!” I roar and dive for the shifter, sparks spraying from my fingers. But he’s not close enough for the uncertain lightning, the little lightning, that I’m still casting more by instinct than intent.
And the shifter’s closing in on Vasili.
Until a massive freaking timber wolf comes boiling and snarling down the stairs and leaps straight for the bear’s throat. The two shifters collide and roll across the floor, wolf growling, bear roaring, me screaming and dragging Vasili clear. I try to keep an eye on Zerxes too, but his head’s hanging low, blood dripping from his mouth, and he doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere.
Lucius gets his jaws locked in Bjorn’s throat, but the bear’s ripping at him with those massive claws and opening gory slashes down my shifter’s sides, and it’s not looking good for Lucius.
They burst through the glass doors in a splintering crash and tumble into the courtyard.
The lightning voice is rising in my chest, summoning the great wallop of power that calls down the real lightning from the sky. I’ve never had to be so accurate with an actual bolt of lightning, but there’s no way of getting close enough for anything else. I shove Vasili in the couch’s general vicinity and charge after the shifters, slippers crunching through a sea of shattered glass.
