Page 59 of Gemini Hunted
V lowers his hand and smolders at me like he’s ready to shove me facedown over the nearest bed and ruin me.
I look away from him fast, before my foolish heart gets all mushy, and say the first non-sexual thing that pops into my noggin. “Since Ash is the Prince, and the royal Light Fae line’s matrilineal, that would make McSnicker…”
“She’s the next Seelie Queen.” Draco scowls ferociously at all of us. “After her mom. Andno onecan fucking know. Especially the Dark Fae King. Or that sick twisted fuck will kidnap her just like he did her brother. Then he’ll kill her.”
“So, yeah.” Ash shifts his big body and manages to look even more sheepish. “About that whole kidnapping yarn…”
Right on cue, the gray silk voice of my Unseelie lover twines through the dense silence like a ribbon.
“’Tis rather late in the game to conceal this dangerous secret from me.” Zephyr slips into the cavern behind Ash, jade eye burning with purpose in his feral face. His crossed swords jut over his armored shoulders like skeletal wings. “Since I am, unfortunately, the twisted fuck in question. Even so, I fear I’m the least of your current troubles.”
That’s the precise moment in this monumental cock-up of a day when all bloody hell breaks loose.
Chapter Thirteen
Zara
I’ve been standing with my back to Draco Mars while I take in Ash’s reunion with my friend who turns out to be, apparently, his long-lost sister. (Like, seriously, who knew? Shy, smart, unassuming Mallory is the future Seelie Queen? She definitely kept that shit quiet.)
Anyway.
I never even see the attack coming.
Barely a heartbeat after Zephyr shows up and proclaims his identity to the whole room like the royal Unseelie prick he can sometimes be, Draco growls and thunders past me in a murderous rush.
I catch a single horrific glimpse of the Icelander’s brutal face, full lips curling in a snarl, strong features blazing with the ruthless light of a Viking berserker in a killing rage. Then that medieval battle axe he’s clutching descends in a glittering sweep toward Zephyr’s unprotected green head.
The hum of the lightning voice buzzes into my throat. The duffel falls from my grip a beat before all that deadly voltage crackles through my body, so I don’t zap my kitten. I’m a human lightning rod.
But even I need time to summon and cast.
More time than Zephyr has.
Ash functions as Zephyr’s bodyguard as well as his consort. But Ash’s arms are full of Mallory and, for once, the vigilant protector is distracted. Time stretches like taffy as Draco closes on Zephyr’s bad side—his blind spot. Draco is taller than Vasili with greater reach. He’s twice Zephyr’s size and fueled by an incinerating fury.
My Dark Fae doesn’t even have time to draw his swords.
As the axe cleaves down, Draco bellows,“You will not touch her!”at a volume that turns every head in the room.
Too late, Zephyr’s head snaps toward the threat. His face fires with alarm. He twists and leaps straight back like a cat, arms sweeping up to summon his own elemental Fae magic.
A sloppy curl of Fae-summoned wind, thick with rain, howls through the skylight.
But Zephyr’s greatest defense has always been his dragon. Xhevith is halfway across the island (since we’re trying to be subtle) and way too big anyway to squeeze into thisdomus. By the same token, there’s not enough room in here for me to shift.
Not without knocking out a bunch of those supportive pillars and bringing the roof down.
I have a split second to roar in the lightning voice. It’s a cry of frustration and rage. My bellow lights up the drippy gray sky beyond the skylight with a jagged fork of ultraviolet lightning that’s way too dangerous to hurl.
Not in these close quarters.
Not with my mates in the way.
I can only watch, in a paralysis of terror, as Draco’s axe descends.
Then the pale sweep of V’s casting hand summons an invisible telekinetic wallop that sucks all the air out of the room. His telekinesis catches that awful axe in mid-swing. V’s witchcraft wrenches the weapon from Draco’s fist and sends it tumbling end over end. Right over Mordred’s startledblue head, where the demon’s crouched by the water with his tattooed hand dangling in the inky depths.
The axe sails into the rainwater reservoir and vanishes with a splash.
