Page 149 of Gemini Kings
I’d like to check on him again, just to see if he needs my help.
But I’m actually afraid to leave Zara so close to moonrise.
The rest of us are all right here in the great room with her. Lucius is quietly grading papers at the dining room table. Ronin is sprawled, shirtless and sweating, all over the sofa with his Common Magics spell book spread open across his lap, trying to practice his glamor magic (when his heat lets him focus). He’s just turned Racetrack’s hair pink, but I’m pretty sure she doesn’t know it (yet). RT’s wearing her vintage earphones and listening to music while she paints Dez’s toenails on the carpet by the fire. Dez is flipping rapidly through the neatly lettered formulas on her Alchemy flash cards and muttering to herself.
Vasili’s the one who worries me.
He’s up to something.
I mean, he’s pretty much always up to something.
Tonight he’s standing right in front of the open door, even though it’s cold and drafty as heck over there. He isn’t even wearing a coat, just one of Ronin’s silky button-downs that’s open all the way down and a pair of jeans riding low on his hips, with a sparkly couture name spread across his perky bottom.
He definitely isn’t saying much, and he’s been atypically quiet all day, which is at least giving poor Max a break from that wickedly poisonous tongue and all that unrelenting Goblin King malice. V actually looks kinda warm, even though he’s the only guy in this house who isn’t either in rut or in heat.
Except me.
Because, yeah, I don’t feel any different—physically, I mean—since Zara bit me.
My treasured one has been super attentive and super sweet with my bite, fussing over it and giving it plenty of licks with her shifter saliva to keep it clean, and she keeps asking me how I’m feeling. I actually love that she’s so focused on me, with her own superheat about to kick in. But, like I keep telling her, it totally isn’t necessary. Because I don’t think anything’s happening—you know, biologically—with me.
I’m really disappointed, even though I know Lucius is incredibly relieved.
But I’ll deal with my disappointment later.
The winter night’s falling fast over the courtyard, making the steamy turquoise gleam of the swimming pool stand out in the gloom. A pale glow silhouettes thedomusroof on the opposite wing. That’s where the moon’s rising.
I definitely notice that Zara’s very carefullynotlooking over there.
“My dear, you’ll exhaust yourself pacing,” Lucius says gently. “Why not try sitting down for just a moment to finish yourpalinka?”
“Can’t,” my beloved says curtly. “If I stop moving and siphoning off all this energy, I’m gonna burn up.”
She takes a hefty swig of her drinkand… just keeps swigging. She tips her glass back, her pretty throat rippling as she swallows and swallows. She doesn’t lower that glass till it’s empty.
When she finally does, she licks her lips and looks fretful. “So thirsty. Do we have any more?”
Lucius is watching her closely. “Perhaps a glass of water—”
“No!”she snarls. My cherished one, who’s never snarled at Lucius since the day he bit her. Her husky voice is all distorted by the deep brassy rumble of her dragon.
“Bloody hell.” Ronin sits up and tosses aside his spell book. (Racetrack’s short hair is half pink, half lavender. She’s not a girly-girl, like,at all, and I really hope he changes it back before she sees it.) “It happening then, love?”
Zara’s glass slips from her fingers to the floor and shatters with a smash. Racetrack glances up sharply, plucks off her earphones, then scrambles up with a curse.
My cherished one wraps both arms around her middle and huddles around herself with a moan.
“Babe?” I push to my feet with a jolt of alarm.
Then I feel it.
Holy.
Crap.
Waves of arousal—like, really strong ones—rippling and pulsing all through her like lava.
“Stay away,” she moans, hair falling forward to curtain her face. “All of you. If you touch me, you’ll trigger the shift.”
