Page 48 of Gemini Hunted
“Told you straight up, baby queen. Wanna hop on board the harem train and ride.” The demon eyes my bristling frame, looming threateningly in his path, and winks. “You too, blondie.”
“Whatabout me?” I growl. I distrust that wink of his.
“You’re that dragon of theirs, true? You look good enough to lick like a popsicle.” The maddening demon actually licks his lips. The toothsome scent of rum spice and saltwater taffy fills the air. “Any chance that scaly critter of yours is maybe amphibious? Cuz if you are? Your dragon? My kraken? Dude. We can make that work.”
“I am not a frog,” I say stiffly. I am deeply affronted.
Even if the thought of stuffing this creature’s impudent mouth with my forked dragon dick does hold a certain (secret) appeal.
At least, in that case, the imp would finally be silent.
“As you may recall I mentioned, Mordred,” Lucius says mildly, coming up in his supportive way beside me, “ours is a committed polycule. Kindly refrain from sexually propositioning our dragon. I’d advise that we focus instead on hearing what Maxim learned on his patrol. Next, we should establish the strategy we intend to deploy, once this storm finally breaks, to complete the Dean’s Challenge and secure Zara’s reign.”
“All I’m saying is, it’d be fun to try, wolf daddy.” The demon’s purple eyes dance with mischief. “Anyway, even if I’m not officially in the harem…yet…I’m a friendly. You got my word.”
Never one to hide in the rear of any conflict, Zara pushes forward to stand between Lucius and me. “This demon’s half Unseelie, right, Zephyr? Can he lie?”
“He cannot,” Zephyr says shortly. “At least, not without causing himself immense discomfort. But he rarely reveals everything he knows—only the truths that serve him. Never make the mistake of trusting him.”
“Thanks for the warning, love.” Ronin has been hovering near Zephyr and keeping his back to Vasili. But he also keeps a wary distance between himself and Ash. This is another unsolved problem in our harem. But it is only a problem if Vasili cannot finally rid us of these two Fae, as he surely intends. (Zephyr is right to be suspicious of my snake and his motives.)
At least Mordred is keeping his distance—for the moment—from Zara. I give him a narrow look, then turn eagerly toward her.
“Here is what I have been trying to tell you. The entirety of House Tiberius is now massed around the church,” I report to my queen, speaking of the gothic cathedral where all our classes are held. The Academy Vault lies, warded and deadly, in the crypt beneath. “I spied their formation from the air. This is howI knew you must have claimed the artifact, my sovereign. Now Cleo and her allies will kill to keep you—and the Horn of Ceres—from entering the Vault to return it.”
“Shit,” Zara says grimly. “Guess Cleo must’ve sussed out that we have the Horn. Just our luck that House Tiberius is the biggest residential college at Icarus. That means she’s got a lotta allies.”
“Then it is fortunate we have allies of our own,” I announce proudly. This is the other news I was rushing back to tell her when I smelled a strange male and became distracted. “Allies who know another way—a secret way—to sneak beneath the wards into the Academy Vault… from underneath.”
Curiosity sparks in Zara’s gaze.
But she too is distracted by the kraken.
Mordred has been strolling casually along the edge of my defensive perimeter. Now he has reached our bed. He launches himself onto the mattress in a powerful belly flop that makes the bed frame groan, crosses his ankles, and swings his bare feet (which are very webbed) in the air. “Sounds like a gnarly ally to have. Assuming you can trust him.”
“Her,” I say shortly, disliking his presence in our bed intensely. “And, for your information, we can.”
“Her?Oh, hell to the yeah.” Zara spins toward me and gives an excited little hop. Her big eyes glow ultraviolet. The teal curls lift from her shoulders in a crackle of static charge.
Seeing my sovereign so excited and so hopeful makes me proud to have served her so well. I lean into Lucius, whom I have not yet greeted properly, and rub my chin into his tumbled chestnut mane to scent him as well.
“Hello, Maxim.” Lucius wraps his steady arm around my hips, below my scarred back where I do not like to be touched, and gives me a reassuring squeeze that draws me close against his rangy strength. “You’ve done so very well tonight, dear boy.”
My dragon rumbles happily at him.
I do not know why my dragon (who is an extremely strong alpha) submits to Lucius’ wolf. But I am deeply thankful for it, because that dynamic allows me to submit to Lucius myself, and he is such a worthy male.
“Your ally’s a chick?” Mordred tents his hands under his chin and bats his eyes at Zara playfully. “Will I like her?”
“I assume you mean woman, not small bird.” Wryly Zara eyes the incubus sexing up our bed with his demonic presence. Then she shakes her head and moves decisively toward the dressing table to finish her bedtime ritual, which her recent sexual encounter with Vasili apparently interrupted.
“Yeah, you’ll like her all right,” she says over her shoulder to Mordred. “Almost everyone does. She’s a Hufflepuff.”
“For real?” Mordred scrambles up to sit in a twist of blankets, cross legged and wide-eyed with excitement, like a boy on Christmas morning. “You mean she goes to Hogwarts? I always figured that was a made-up place.”
Vasili gives Ronin’s pointedly averted back a narrow look, then unbends enough to stroll toward the vanity himself, because he and Zara like to primp together. “Oh, don’t be so literal. It’s called a metaphor.”
“You don’t say,” the demon says with a wink, clearly having his fun at V’s expense.
