Page 45 of Gemini Kings
I run all the way from the church to thedomus.
Honestly, this isn’t so easy when it’s straight uphill, zigging and zagging through the narrow cobblestone streets, up and up and up all these endless flights of stairs. That’s not even counting the fact that I’m wearing my winter boots and my big woolen coat (because even in the Med, the wards that conceal this island from the mortal world really mess with the weather).
Thanks to those wards, I’m wading through a foot of fallen snow that slips and slides under my feet.
The snow muffles the way my steps echo and crunch against the faded stucco walls. I’m surrounded by abandoned and crumbling Renaissance buildings. This island’s pretty much uninhabited these days, we could house way more students than we actually have, because enrollment’s way down, so I don’t run into anyone on the way.
But all that treadmill time I put in every day to stay buff for Zara works out to my advantage.
It’s a blessing the exercise helps distract me from the ache of all that jumbled-up hurt and disappointment I’ve been carrying around in my chest ever since that awful morning I woke up to realize Zara left me behind. Plus the cold wind cools the burn of embarrassment that’s heating my face (because I’m fair-skinned and constantly blushing) due to this latest rejection from Lucius, who bit Ronin and bit Zara and even accepted a bite from Vasili (of all people!) That snake doesn’t even shift, so I have no idea what’s gotten into him or why he’s going around now biting people.
Well, he’s Vasili. He’s always been impossible.
But Lucius is pure shifter. And Lucius refuses to bite me.
And only me.
If I stop to think about it, the hurt and humiliation of that flat-out rejection from my trusted favorite teacher—who’s also the unattainable guy I’m crushing on—would cut up my heart like a lungful of shattered glass.
So I don’t. Not right now.
I don’t let myself think about it.
Still, this incline’s pretty brutal. By the time I top the last ziggy flight of stairs with my book-filled backpack bouncing on my shoulders (because midterms are coming and I’m already cramming) and finally reach Villa Augustus, the residential college where our student cohort dens up and bunks down—most of us together these days, except for Dez and Racetrack who only bunk down with each other—I’m all flushed and breathless.
But it’s more from excitement than exertion.
I know I should take a sec to catch my breath and mop the steam off my glasses and remember all the things Lucius and I agreed we will or won’t say to our mates who left without telling us and put Zara at really horrible risk and jeopardized the secrecy and thus the survival of the entire witching world.
But she’s my fated mate. I can’t stay away. She hurt me so bad by leaving me behind, they all did, and I’m not just going to let that slide.
I’m really not. I can’t. They hurt me.
Still, right now, I’m just so glad she’s back.
Lucius can lecture them all later, just like he’s doing with Vasili back at the church right now, about how irresponsible they’ve all been, how the whole witching world’s in an uproar, how even the Dean’s taking heat (because Lucius took that call from her on the landline in the kitchen and I have big ears) and how it’s going to cost all three of them bigtime, both academically and in other ways. I actually have some things to say later to Vasili myself, because he’s faculty now, even if it’s only provisional until he graduates…ifhe graduates. And, honestly, he should’ve known better.
But Zara? She’s my beloved. She’s reckless and brash and badass. That’s what makes her Zara.
It’s gonna be hard staying mad at her for long.
I push my glasses up my nose, shake the snow out of my hair, and fish out my big antique key to unlock the front door of ourdomus. We never used to lock it, but now we have the next queen living under our roof, and two bad guys already got in once and tried to take her.
We killed them.
I swung the poker that finished off that creep Master Zerxes myself. I don’t even regret it. Sure, the AIB is suspicious and definitely investigating. There’s no way to avoid it. The Academy’s last Mogadon Magics professor just died by violence (even if it was pure self-defense on our part) and there’s no covering that up.
But this is one of those times having my dad be the Ted Kennedy of the witching world works out in my favor.
The investigation’s been slow-rolled, with no charges filed. Dad’s army of lawyers is working pretty hard to make sure it stays that way.
Anyway, now we always keep our door locked.
It’s centuries old and it sticks sometimes (like now) but I put my back into it and shoulder it open. In the shadowy vestibule, Zara’s black Academy peacoat and beret are tossed over their wall pegs next to Ronin’s leather biker jacket.
Just seeing their stuff hanging back where it belongs gives me a giddy rush of butterflies in my tummy.
I’ve actually had major butterflies going crazy in there ever since Lucius kissed me in the classroom. Somehow, I’ve developed this embarrassing schoolboy crush on him, it’s gotten way more intense since it’s just been the two of us, and he’s normally so reserved and so focused on his teaching that it’s really hard to get his attention, so that kiss was just so wonderful!
