Page 50 of Gemini Queen
Better step lively, love.Ronin’s murmur fills my head, and it’s laced with unholy amusement, because of course he hates me too. Maybe he even set this whole thing up just to fuck with me.Afraid I can’t hold him. He’s a holy terror when he gets like this.
I tear up the stairs like a velociraptor in what feels like a single fear-fueled leap and scramble into the ground-floor corridor. I’m briefly confused by the layout because I still haven’t seen the wholedomus. But there’s a sound like a cyclone roaring up the stairs behind me, so I take a wild guess and sprint down the hall, slipping and sliding in my stocking feet and missing my platform boots like you wouldn’t believe.
I glimpse a closed door straight ahead with windows on both sides and daylight pouring through, and I don’t have my coat or boots, but fuck it. I burst through the door into a crisp cold wash of afternoon sun.
But not into the street the way I wanted, damn it.
I’ve just stumbled on another walled garden like the one at school, a tangle of tropical plants wrapped around crumbling Roman columns and a swimming pool, not even close to overgrown enough to hide behind, and completely enclosed by the two-storydomus.The upstairs level’s all wraparound porch, while my level’s all walls and windows and, wait, a set of sliding glass doors across the way.
Unless I want to have my Vasili-Zara throwdown right here, that’s pretty much my only option. I dash out from under the overhang of the second-floor veranda.
A slim dark shape drops down from above like an avenging angel. It’s a jump no normal human could survive without a broken leg, but apparently this telekinetic freak can levitate his own body as well as everyone else’s.
I scramble to a stop barely in time to avoid colliding with six-plus feet of Vasili Romanov, half naked and all furious.
He’s zipped into his pants, but still shirtless and barefoot, and I’d really enjoy the view if I wasn’t so terrified of dying in the next 6.5 seconds. The Goblin King’s face is flushed and his venomous eyes are lethal.
“Going somewhere, are we, little queen?” he hisses with silken menace.
Adrenaline spurts through my system and my pulse thunders in my ears. Okay, then. Looks like we’re gonna throw down right here.
Unless I can talk my way out of this before he goes all telekinetic on my ass.
“Lucius expects me back in class in like five minutes. If I don’t show, he’ll come looking.” My nerves get the better of me, and I wave the lanyard hanging around my neck like an idiot. “I have a hall pass.”
His eyes narrow in annoyance. “Darling, I don’t give a fuck if you have an engraved invitation to afternoon tea with the Queen of England. I’m not a hall monitor. I mean to hear you articulate whatever it is you believe you just saw.”
I know it’s a bad idea to provoke him, but I can’t seem to help myself. My gaze drops to his crotch.
“Um, pretty much everything.” I snicker. “Thanks for the free show. I gotta say Ronin impressed me with the way he took your cock—”
That’s as far as I get. He bares his fangy teeth in rage. A wall of atmospheric pressure thumps into me and hurls me back a good three feet through the air into one of those Roman pillars. The back of my head slams into stone.
For a second, I see stars.
Shit. The entire back of my body’s going to be one massive bruise.
Assuming I live long enough.
When my head clears, my nemesis is less than a foot away, glaring into my face like he’s about to incinerate me with his eyes. I try to get my arms up and circle away for fighting room, but I’m pinned to this pillar like a bug on display. I can breathe—for now—but I definitely can’t move.
“You sawnothing.” His voice lashes into me like a scourge, sharp enough to draw blood. “Nothing of any consequence. Ronin Pendragon is a whore who’ll fuck anything that moves. Even Lucius’ wolf wants a go at him. You saw an opportunistic hate fuck between me and a filthy slut who was begging for it, and you sawnot one single thing more. Is. That. Clear.”
I loathe this horrible man like a goddamn plague rat. And I’d be offended as hell on Ronin’s behalf if I thought Vasili meant one tenth of what he’s saying.
But he doesn’t. He’s in love with Ronin. And he’s desperate to keep anyone from knowing.
My temples are throbbing and my ears are ringing, but somehow I manage to sustain his gorgon stare without turning into stone.
“You’re afraid I’ll tell. But I won’t.” I keep my voice level, though it isn’t easy. “I’ll bury what I saw and I won’t tell a soul. But I want something from you in exchange for my silence.”
He barks a short laugh that’s cutting with contempt. “In case this minor detail has escaped your notice, little queen, you’re not exactly in a position to negotiate.”
But he’s listening. He’s actually listening.
I take heart and keep talking.
“Look, Vasili. As hard as this is to believe, we actually have something in common. You’re an anti-monarchist, right? You want me gone from this Academy. You want me out of the running for the royal gig. Well, newsflash, dude.That’s what I want too.” I suck in a breath and take the plunge. “Help me get off this rock, and we both get what we want. I get my freedom, and you get an empty throne.”
