Page 71 of Gemini Hunted
I’m no pyro. I don’t set shit on fire when I summon.
That’s Ronin’s gig.
Flamethrower.
And, like I said, Ronin’s not here.
Warned barely in time by my bellow, Jae snarls, flings himself over a startled Mallory to drive her to the ground, and covers her protectively with his own body. Still clutching my duffel while the kitten yowls in protest, Neo scrambles clear of the flaming hyena.
Right out of the circle.
I fling myself the other way.
Also out of the circle.
My inner dragon bellows in the lightning voice. Summoned by my witchcraft, the narrow slit of sky splits with a crackle of purple lightning.
My control’s better than it used to be. So I’m not waiting around for some weird green fire of unknown origin to finish the job and barbecuethat hyena. I hurl my reliable bolt straight at the attacking animal, like a vengeful Zeus on Mt. Olympus.
By the time the hyena hits the space where we were all just standing, that shifter is a flaming husk.
I’m still staring, watching our four-legged attacker dissolve in a swirl of ash and cinders, when the darkness ignites withanother flash of green fire. I spin toward a second hyena—this one bigger than the last—bounding across the cavern toward our scattered, transfixed, and largely undefended bodies.
That line of pus-green fire streaking down its spine? That fire just helps us see the rabid beast coming.
A wild-eyed Jae drags Mallory to her feet. “Chere, what is happening!”
“Oh, no.” Mallory looks desperately from my electrified form to the flaming hyena galloping toward us. “The booby trap on the secret door. My spell must’ve tripped it!”
“Not the trap,” Neo yells back (which could be the first time I’ve ever heard my bookworm yell anything). “Look at the book!”
In unison, our frantic eyes converge on the Book of Flame and Breath. The abandoned grimoire lies open, face down on the flagstones. The crumpled pages glow and pulse with pus-green fire.
“Oh. Fuck.Me.” I groan from the heart.
The psi fire that’s incinerating random hyenas is the exact same shade as that fucking cursed book.
Thebookis attacking.
Not attacking the witch (Mallory) who just channeled its freaky power. Because Mal and Jae are still crouched inside the circle of protection that’s chalked on the floor.
Deprived of the casting witch as a target, that spiteful spellbook is going apeshit. Roasting random others. Maybe every sentient being that book can find. Or just the ones it doesn’t like.
Possibly including my warlocks.
And me.
“Cheese on toast!” I grab Neo’s arm—the only one of my guys I can even see—and drag him back into the pentacle. Whoknows if it’s even still intact? If all our rushing around has broken the chalk circle, Mal’s protective pentacle is now useless.
Just to have a Plan B, I summon my own levitation witchcraft and shoot ten feet straight up in the air, my entire body glowing with purple fire like Storm the sexy mutant inX-Men.
I hover directly over sweet Neo, who’s clutching our kitten and staring transfixed at the hyena closing in. (That hyena isn’t burning fast enough, for real.)
My dragon bugles and bates in the cage of my skin. She’s desperate to shift. But there’s no fucking room.
Zaraaaaa!she trumpets in a deafening interior roar that makes my eardrums hum.Save our mates. We rise!
“Take it easy in there, showgirl,” I mutter. “Don’t bring the roof down. I got this.”
