Page 119 of Gemini Hunted
Besides, Zephyr needs to be fully linked up with Xhevith to trigger the next piece of our plan.
I expect Zephyr to kiss me before he goes, one of his fierce feral Dark Fae King kisses—smelling like burnt amber and dragonhide—a farewell kiss to make my toes curl. Especially with me standing there, practically naked, in my lime-green lingerie.
Instead, the Dark Fae King rakes me with a single piercing look that drinks in every detail of my entire being, from my determined expression to the stiffened nipples that press against my lace (because it’s chilly down here in the catacombs without my clothes).
Then his gaze swerves to Mordred.
Behind the eyepatch, Zephyr’s face hardens. His jade eye darkens to stormy green. His upper lip curls to reveal a tiny flash of fang.
The sex demon grins back, teeth flashing in his dusky face, and lets his dimples show. “Yo, cuz. How ’bout a kiss for luck?”
My breath catches in my throat. Because I’m honestly not sure whether Mordred is asking for a Dark Fae kiss for me or for himself.
Zephyr’s burning stare sears through me. “My queen is mighty. She crafts her own luck.”
His hand rises to touch his armored chest and his green head inclines in a bow—to me. Zephyr’s never done that before. The quaint gesture is like a cross between an old-fashioned love token and a royal salute.
We still haven’t talked since I fucked his cousin (second cousin, once removed) and basically asked to add Mordred to the harem.
I still don’t know if we’re okay, Zephyr and me.
But I take heart from that gesture, that oddly formal but somehow warming gesture, that breathes affection and soul-deep respect. You know, in an Unseelie kinda way.
So I grin and blow Zephyr a cheeky kiss. “Right back atcha, king of my heart.”
Neo gets a real kiss, all sweet and solid and bookwormy with many whispers of love, before he hurries after the others up the stairs.
I root through the pack to find my diving goggles and underwater flashlight, but we had to leave my fins behind on the yacht for space reasons. By the time I buckle the dive knife to my thigh, open the little tank’s breathing valve, and run through my safety check, my jitters are gone—channeled into action—and my head’s in the game.
Which is totally a good thing, because my sharp shifty hearing is picking up scattered snarls and yowls from the catacombs that tell me Lucius and Jae have found the first of our hunters.
“Okay, so, we gotta vamoose.” I fling myself into V’s arms for a short but intense and yummy goblin kiss that tastes like butterscotch. All V’s kisses are yummy, he’s like the world champion kisser in our polycule, and we all fight to get them. “You going after Neo or Lucius?”
“Lucius. I won’t leave him behind. Zephyr will take care of Neo.” V isn’t the demonstrative type (to put it really mildly) but his ice-blue eyes glitter down at me with the broody protective fire I love in our dominant alpha. “I’ll go as soon as you’re submerged in that hideous shaft.”
My whole chest swells like a helium balloon with an emotion I don’t have any trouble naming. I gaze up at my snake, my Goblin King, the most complicated and horrible and terrifying and yet simultaneously damaged and fragile and precious of all my warlocks.
“I love you,” I tell him, from the heart.
“Hmmmm.” His pretty mouth curls in his sly smile. A hot light kindles in his glacial gaze. “I know. How dreadful for you. I’ll try to make it worth your while.”
Even now, he manages to make me laugh.
Shaking my head at him, I bite my lip, force myself to relinquish his eternally alluring body, and turn toward the burly blue-haired demon lounging against the wall, that sealskin pouch swinging against his hip.
Now the moment for levity has definitely passed.
Because, fuck or no fuck, this is the moment we’ll finally know if we were right to trust the demon.
I lock onto that sex demon’s smoldery purple stare, extend a royal hand like the badass queen of the witching world I fucking am, and tell him, “Moment of truth, Aquaman. Hand over that artifact and you’ll break V’s summoning spell. Then you’ll be free to stay or go. It’ll be your choice. Either way you choose… I’m grateful.”
Vasili’s breath hisses softly in my ear.
Even though we’ve both fucked the guy, Mordred’s a demon, we can’t read his mind, and we really can’t know for sure what he’ll do once he’s loose.
And I’m not sure I reallyamready for him to hand over the Horn and poof outta here like a genie.
I mean, he can apparate. It’s a demon thing. So he can literally vanish from this plane and our lives as abruptly as he originally appeared.
