Page 93 of Gemini Queen
I’m eyeing a black neoprene dry suit with hood and dive boots, vacuum-sealed at wrists and neck. It’s pretty clear this is a guy’s suit, but the label says size small, and I bet I can make this work. I’ll just need to test the suit and do a practice dive before I entrust my life to it—
“Pleasedotell me,” Vasili says suddenly from the doorway, which gives me an annoying start, “you aren’t honestly contemplating the insane suicide stunt you actually appear to be contemplating. Which part of freezing water inhabited by a great white shifter who hunts close to shore due to the island wards have you failed to comprehend?”
“He can’t always be in the water,” I point out patiently, because I’ve obviously thought this through, having no desire to climb into the water with a Jaws-like antagonist myself. “He has to be in class sometimes like a regular student, doesn’t he? I’ll just suss out his schedule and go when he’s taking a test or something. And once I’m past the wards, he won’t be able to follow.”
He folds his arms and lounges against the doorframe. “Perhaps I’m a bit slow to grasp the essentials, but I trust you’ll indulge me. Precisely how are you planning to get past the wards yourself?”
“Well, that’s where you come in, oh great and powerful warlock. You and your mad levitation skills,” I drawl, rummaging through the dry suit. I’ll quickly pop in and out of the water with it tonight just to check for any immediate problems. “I was originally gonna put you in a powerboat or maybe a kayak if I thought you could handle it, but now you can just fly out there. Because I’ve got a little theory about those wards, which you’re gonna help me test. And you’ll do it without bitching in order to finally get rid of me.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. I’m not a passenger pigeon. Surely youmustbe joking—”
A tinny jingle from out front cuts him short. The distinctive sound of the bells hanging on the front door—thelockedfront door, because I did check before I came back here—designed to do their thing whenever anyone comes into the shop.
Vasili and I freeze in mid-bicker, staring at each other in the shadows.
The floor creaks under the weight of a footstep.
Instantly I switch off the flashlight. Vasili slides into the darkness of the back room at my side.
Of course it’s way too late to hide, since we were just arguing at a pretty decent volume. My heart’s hammering way up in my throat. I’m revisiting that creepy feeling of being watched in the alley, and the butchered koi on our front step, and the queen killer who still hasn’t been caught.
I don’t enjoy the feeling of being hunted.
In fact, I hate it.
Vasili presses something cool and smooth against my palm. I glance down at the pale gleam of steel and realize he’s just given me one of his knives.
And despite being trapped in the windowless back room of this dive shop and hiding from someone who’s hunting me and who probably killed the last queen, a warm glow spreads through my chest.
Let’s split up by the door,I urge silently. Vasili doesn’t answer and he’s not Valyrian, but I am, and somehow I know he can hear.
I slink one way and he slips the other, putting the door between us. I’m betting no one’s coming through without getting a good telekinetic whack from Vasili. And anyone who manages to get past him gets me and this pigsticker and my mixed martial arts to contend with. That might get a little messy.
A tall shadow fills the door. My breath stalls in my throat.
Vasili steps into view and his arm sweeps up, face absolutely lethal with intent.
A hand darts past the lintel and hits the light switch. The tall halogen lamp in the corner lights up with an electric hum.
“I’d suggest you hold your bloody fire, love, because I’m already seriously ticked off,” our new arrival says curtly. “Bad enough the two of you light out together without me, leaving me completely fucking alone in that house to contend with this fucking heat. What in blazes d’you think you’re doing in here?”
“Ronin,” I gasp, lowering my knife—I mean Vasili’s knife—with a scowl. “For cripes’ sake, why didn’t you give a shout-out? We literally could have killed you. And how did you even know where to find us?”
“Clairsentience.” Ronin sweeps back his long hair with an irritable shrug. “I have a telepathic bond with him, and you’re not exactly hard for me to sense either.”
These warlocks and their telepathy. It honestly doesn’t seem fair.
But I’m realizing more and more the advantages of training a gift like that.
“How’d you get through the front door?” I demand.
“How do you think? When I realized where Vasili was taking you, I asked Racetrack to loan me the bloody key.” For some reason, Ronin sounds irate. “And if you imagine for one tick you’re putting on that dive suit and taking a little dip in the ocean the night before a supermoon, you’re mental.”
So he’s been listening in on me telepathically as well.
Great.
Vasili strolls over to an oversized futon and sprawls gracefully into it. “You might as well save your breath, darling,do. Our little queen’s made up her precious mind to abdicate. If she wants to get herself drowned or dined upon by our resident great white in the process, at least we’ll have her letter of abdication to bring down the monarchy.”
