Page 103 of Gemini Kings
Now my reluctant tutor warms to his subject. He prowls and paces and gestures while he talks, which leaves me free to watch him at my leisure.
He was always a pretty boy. But now he is truly striking.
He is taller than I am, taller than anyone here, he is slim as a saber and supple as an eel. The soft light pouring through the stained glass makes his skin glow like alabaster. That pure light caresses his high cheekbones and narrow nose like a lover’s touch. I admire the wicked fangs that peek between his lips.
But I am wary of his witchcraft.
Since the day my dragon manifested, no one has ever held me at his mercy, the way this warlock did so effortlessly in a gas station parking lot.
“…When that tiresome hag Messalina finally kicks the bucket,” Vasili is saying, “she’ll be the last of the failed Aquarius line. And all the Aquarius witches, at least in recent generations, are weak. After the Aquarius clan, the Gemini are the closest to a purebred witching line in existence. Mick Gemini leads that clan, he married his own cousin to keep the bloodline pure, and Zara is their only surviving child, which makes her the Gemini scion and…” Abruptly, Vasili’s gaze narrows. “Are you listening to a word I’m saying, Maximka?”
“Yes.” And it is true. I doubt anyone ever ignores him when he speaks.
“Well?” One hand scrolls through the air in an irritable gesture. “Do you have any questions?”
I do, but they are questions I must never ask.
“Hmmm.” Vasili looks displeased by my silence. “If not, let’s move along to the laws that govern Zara’s legal relationship, as queen-in-waiting, to the Arcane Senate. In principle, the sitting queen leads the Senate, but it’s largely a ceremonial function. The queen’s greatest significance to the survival of the four races is genetic, symbolic, and magical—”
“I do have a question.” I did not mean to ask, but still the words burst out. “Did you ever see him again?”
He slices me a sidelong look like a thrown razor. “Seewhom?”
My mouth is dry, but I will not veer away. “The sailor. The one from the yacht.”
A heartbeat ago, he was halfway across the room. Suddenly he is rearing directly over me, malignant as a scorpion. I jolt back in my chair, body tingling with instant alarm.
I never dreamed he could move so fast.
Clearly he has become a well-trained fighter, in addition to all these other lethal gifts he has honed.
Swift as a rattlesnake, he coils and strikes. “Are you truly the witless beast they’re all calling you after last night’s melodramatics? Or are you actuallytryingto provoke me, Maximka? Because that would be unwise.”
My dragon spreads his wings and hisses with menace, but I keep a firm hold, although adrenaline is spurting through my body, and the aggressive musk of Vasili’s Mogadon scent is making my head spin.
I push my heavy chair back to put distance between us. But my nemesis is having none of it. He darts in to trap me, cold hands pinning my wrists to the furniture like manacles. He fences me in with his rapier-slim body.
If I were one of my poisonous brothers, I would spray his face with blinding venom.
But I am no wretched worm of a wyvern. Besides, I would never do that to him. I wanted to hurt him all those years ago, the way he hurt me, even if he never knew it.
And I did.
I hurt him in ways I did not even intend.
“I am Maxim now,” I tell him, low and careful. “And it is no provocation. Did you see him again? I want to know.”
His venomous gaze searches mine for trickery or deception. I keep my eyes steady on his. I might deceive, but I never lie. Being this close to him… have I ever been this close to him?… it is triggering every hunting instinct my dragon possesses.
But it is not hunting my dragon desires.
Vasili’s delicate mouth hardens with suspicion. “Why do you want to know? Wasn’t it enough to know you stole my father’s love—such as it was?”
“After he sent you away, your father sent us all home. I never saw him again.” That memory burns and aches in my chest, because it is true. I longed to claim Nikolai Romanov for a father. I hoped he would offer to foster me at theirdacha. The Romanov marriage is famously not a happy one, so I hoped Nikolai would desire my mother, who is as beautiful as she is deadly.
That summer, I hoped for everything.
But Nikolai Romanov was never a fool—except where his son is concerned. He saw me (in my then-dragonless state) for the deadweight I was, saw her for the monster she was, and sent us all packing.
