Page 84 of Gemini Queen
To all of us.
Only Dez and Racetrack, exclusively committed to each other, seem anywhere close to normally functional. Zarina has even managed to unsettle the unshakable Vasili, although I’m convinced my rival alpha hasn’t begun to suspect the true reason for his discomfiture.
Suffice it to say there’s more than one reason the atmosphere in our house is electric.
The plain truth is that I too am far from immune to my queen’s allure. The magnetic pull I feel toward her is a dangerous distraction.
For four long years, since the day I assumed the headmaster’s post, I’ve been more a priest than a teacher. Now I’m grimly cognizant of the fact that, for better or worse, my long drought of celibacy has drawn to a close.
I’m deeply conflicted about this forbidden mating with Ronin. The mere thought of my sullen yet seductive lover tangles my heart in knots, while the sight of him steals my soul. This connection I share with him is far more complicated than sexual infatuation. My emotions are deeply implicated. Unfortunately, given my commitment to this Academy, ours is a union that can only end in one way.
Disaster.
Truly, the more Ronin turns to our queen or my rival alpha rather than myself to slake his mating heat, the easier it will be to break our bond once the fever passes.
Even if the prospect of breaking our bond makes the predator that shares my skin sit straight up and howl in anguished protest.
It’s because of this difficult business with Ronin that I’m uncharacteristically forgiving of Zarina’s tardiness. Ronin stopped by my office earlier and confided what she and Neo did for him. I’m astounded but delighted that the Academy’s notorious Sir One and Done, with his hatred of all things Gemini, actually seems to have enjoyed his encore encounter with Zarina.
For her part, she’s actually tending his bite. This unexpected hint of queenly conduct offers a rare sprig of hope that perhaps our future royal is beginning to embrace her fate.
It’s her royal duty to claim her mates, the way she’s already extremely close to doing with Neo. Now if only she’ll claim Ronin as well…
The quick staccato tap of my errant student’s shoes on the spiral stairs is too faint for the mortal ear to detect. Nonetheless, my wolf hears her coming and scrambles up to greet her with an eager bark. A whiff of our queen’s sweet yet potent scent floods my senses as she climbs into view, swathed in her black peacoat with the Academy logo, face flushed from the cold and the climb, teal hair vivid against slate-colored skies.
I direct a mild glance at the old-fashioned timepiece strapped to my wrist. “You’re at least ten minutes late for our lesson, Ms. Gemini.”
“Sorry, Teach,” she says, with an impudent upward look that makes both of us catch our breath. Ronin isn’t the only one of my students my incorrigible wolf is stubbornly insistent that we claim.
Ours ours ours,my beast rumbles under my skin.She’s ours.
“Go ahead and blame me.” Zarina lowers her backpack and throws me a rueful look. “I was naughty in Genetics. Master Zerxes kept me late after class.”
My wolf growls in my ear and my skin tightens in warning. It’s unavoidable that Zarina would cross Zerxes’ path, given Agrippina’s unexpectedly severe illness and this faculty shortage that seems to become more acute with each passing year. But it’s damnably unfortunate that Aggie fell ill during this delicate settling-in period in Zarina’s education. I’m deeply hopeful my dependable colleague will be back on her feet tomorrow.
Still, I can scarcely hope to keep Zarina safe from Zerxes forever.
“I trust all is well with your class,” I murmur blandly, careful not to betray my unease. This isn’t a particularly easy feat to manage since my student is a wickedly powerful natural telepath.
She’s studying me closely, perceptive eyes roaming over my face and my wind-whipped greatcoat. Heat flares under my skin and streaks along the path of her gaze.
“Fair to say we didn’t exactly hit it off,” she admits, sauntering up alongside me at the hip-high stone wall. Together we peer over the jumble of sloping rooftops that tumbles downhill to the steely sea. “He tried giving me late-night detention, but I managed to wiggle out of that. Then he wanted me to be his freaking date for this Janus Dance.”
“Damn the man,” I whisper under the whistling wind.
It’s an open secret that Bucephalus and Cybelle were lovers, although their union was always tempestuous. Our late queen-in-waiting alternately toyed with Ceph and pushed him away. But his pursuit of her was relentless, and the man himself entirely untroubled by the reprehensible ethics and power disparity of a teacher sexually exploiting his student. It was a source of endless frustration that my numerous hints to the Dean about the inappropriate nature of their association invariably fell on deaf ears. Cybelle was still a minor in the witching world and therefore, at least theoretically, off limits. But beyond any doubt, Ceph was a wily devil. Thus, I never managed to secure the irrefutable evidence I needed to indict him for his indiscretions.
I’m grimly aware there aren’t enough of us left on this faculty anymore for the Dean to spuriously dismiss a tenured professor. She’s steadily refused to act, particularly since I’ve never been able to produce rock-solid proof of misconduct.
I’ve known Bucephalus Zerxes for years. He was my own professor at this Academy a decade ago—whenIwas the student he pursued, albeit unsuccessfully—and the secret terror of my entire class. Even then, the man was a sexual predator, offended and infuriated by my rejection. He’s the primary reason for my own ironclad rule against teacher-student entanglements. Yet he’s been my adamantly unapproachable colleague since my return, a dynamic I vastly prefer. Because we’re both unmated faculty (until Ronin, in my case, which is temporary), there were many who assumed Ceph and I would become lovers.
That prospect still turns my stomach.
Nonetheless, the entire witching world knows Ceph Zerxes is a rabid monarchist and one of Messalina’s most loyal allies.
Far fewer know of his conviction, shared only within the privacy of the Academy’s wards, that a genetic infusion of his powerful DNA will be the salvation of the faltering royal bloodline.
For these reasons, I’ve thought myself fully prepared for Ceph to pursue Zarina.
