Page 112 of Gemini Kings
Her willingness to believe him is a pill too bitter for me to stomach.
“And you actually believe the AIB tells the truth toher—your monstrous mother? Their glorified wet boy?” I sneer.
Now his uncanny eyes shift to me. “It is your father who told her. For it is he who leads them.”
For perhaps the only occasion in my life, I’m actually stunned silent. My immediate impulse is to scoff at this preposterous allegation.
Except that I can’t.
All my life, I’ve certainly suspected that my father does… oh, something or other… for the arcane government. Something very lucrative (obviously) that he never speaks of, and that no one ever asks about.
From time to time, it has crossed my diabolical mind to wonder whether it might be something he provides to the AIB that supplies the abundant family fortunes.
Of course, I haven’t wasted a single brain cell thinking about that bloodless machine of a man who sired me in quite some time. Now it seems entirely plausible, knowing the man as I do, that Nikolai Romanovwouldinevitably lead whatever shadowy organization is currently lining his pockets.
While these thoughts are streaking along my cerebral superhighway, Ronin scoots closer on the bench and slips a discreet arm around my waist. One never cares to betray weakness, but I drop a stealthy hand to his denim-clad thigh under the table and allow myself to lean into the familiar comfort of his touch.
You doing okay there, bad boy?Zara whispers through our bond.
In deference to my prickly sensibilities, she hasn’t rushed to my side, because she knows I’d despise appearing vulnerable in front of that dragon.
But her clever face is concerned. I’m the complete focus of her attention. If I want her bent over in our bedroom with her panties wrapped around her ankles, she’s mine.
All mine.
Inallthe ways.
And I always do want her.
I’m barely even surprised,I tell her.However, I fully intend to exorcise any residual family demons by fucking them out of my system later. Consider yourself forewarned.
Not scared of you, Goblin King.Her pretty lips tilt in a smug smile.I think you might actually be losing your villain superpowers. Because that promise sounds more like an incentive than an actual threat.
Let’s just wait and see how we manage, shall we?Feeling more like myself, I smirk at her, then shift my gaze to Lucius.
My big bad wolf sips his Hungarian red and looks thoughtful.
At last, he admits, “Of course, I too am familiar with these rumors of a bastard queen. It’s an old legend, and one that has long lain dormant. I stumbled over the anomaly years ago in Messalina’s academic file. According to her transcript, our sitting queen spent her junior year abroad in the Academy exchange program. Unfortunately, the exchange school she supposedly attended burned down years ago, and all its records with it.”
“Hmmmm, the plot thickens,” I murmur.
“Holy cow, Lucius.” Neo pushes a worried hand through his soft curls. “Are you saying she might have used that whole ruse to conceal a pregnancy? Because my dad’s privy to all the political dirty laundry in the witching world, and I’ve never heard even a whisper of anything like this.”
“As the sitting queen, she certainly has the power and the influence to protect her secrets.” Lucius perspires and broods into his wine. “It’s conceivable she herself arranged the destruction of the exchange institution, once she became queen, to protect her alibi and cover her tracks.”
“I don’t get it. Why would she bother doing all that?” Zara straddles the bench next to Neo and steals a swig of wine from Lucius’ glass, which he permits with a tolerant smile. We alphas enjoy pampering our mates, and he’d feed her by hand if she’d ever allow it. “I mean, she needs an heir, right?”
“Cybellewasthe legal heir until the murder,” Lucius reminds us. “Cybelle was unfortunately a weak heir and a weaker witch, which was surely among the reasons Messalina bore no other offspring to her sizable harem. She worried obsessively about challenges to Cybelle’s rule.”
“However, as I seem to recall mentioning tosomeone, illegitimate offspring can’t ascend, according to centuries of witching world legal precedent.” I skewer Maxim with a pointed look and wish it were one of my hidden blades. This is the very point I took such pains to explain to that flying dinosaur during my inspired lecture in the library. Immediately before my so-called student kissed me like he wanted to ruin me and transformed the entire lesson into such a calamitous debacle. He could have told me what he knew then about this classified information in the AIB’s vault, yet he chose to remain silent.
For that deception, I intend to make him sorry.
The truth is, I dislike secrets intensely, unless I’m the one holding them.
“But if that’s the case, if this rumored bastard can’t ascend, and if the rumor itself is years old, then why the fuck did it just make front page news?” Zara demands. “That makes zero sense.”
Obviously she’s never been particularly enthusiastic about being chained to the throne (which is one of the things Anti-Monarchist Vasili 1.0 appreciated about her in the early days, even when otherwise I hated her guts). She essentially had to be coaxed by Lucius and Neo and her own tender conscience into agreeing to give up her freedom to save the four races,et cetera. She may have accepted that royal mission, but it hasn’t certainly hasn’t stopped her from harboring a not-so-secret resentment against her royal chains.
