Page 60 of Gemini Hunted
Under the vicious lash of his will, V’s power coils and snaps like a bullwhip. Every electrically charged hair on my body is already standing on end. Now my skin tingles under the lethal brush of all that magic, filling the air like a swarm of bees.
But I’m not Vasili’s target.
Draco’s broad-shouldered body soars high and flies backward, shitkicker boots churning the air. He slams into a pillar with crushing force.
The Icelander hits so hard I expect to see him crushed to a bloody smear on the marble.
But my Goblin King has wicked control.
The walls ring with the gutturaloof!of impact. That’s Draco getting his wind knocked out. The back of his white-blond head thuds into the pillar. But, miraculously, his skull doesn’t shatter like a dropped egg. Pinned to the pillar and suspended ten feet in the air, Draco shakes his stunned head and looks groggy.
I can practically see cartoon sparrows circling the guy’s cranium.
The rest of the room is riveted.
Mallory frozen and white-faced, clutching her equally shocked brother for comfort, matching pairs of gray eyes wide with fear for their respective mates.
Ronin crouched and battle-ready, ashen with shock.
Neo with his glasses sliding down his startled nose.
Max growling and hovering protectively over me, like I was ever the one in danger.
Vasili stands, alone and rigid, with his casting hand outflung. He glares at Draco’s suspended frame in venomousmenace. The dark vetiver scent of V’s aggression floods the dank air.
If he closes that fist and means it, he’ll crush Draco’s vital organs to a pulp and pulverize Draco’s bones to powder.
“Sweet Jesus,” I gasp. Sparks crackle in my hair and dance along my fingers. “What thefuck—?”
I’m still swearing when Zephyr recovers his balance, coils to his full height (which isn’t much, since he’s no taller than I am), and seizes the lapels of Vasili’s Academy blazer in both fists. V’s startled head swivels around and his face snaps toward him. Then Zephyr’s mouth slams into his.
It’s a kiss.
A hard claiming kiss.
A kiss that’s more like a bite than an actual kiss.
Still—cheese on toast!—my Dark Fae King iskissingmy snake.
Vasili is so startled that he drops Draco. The Icelander slides down the pillar, tries and fails to get his legs under him, and lands heavily at its base in a crumpled heap.
“Fokk,”Draco groans, raspy with shock.
Jae snarls in concern and rushes over to help him.
V’s gilded head angles down to Zephyr’s to let the kiss deepen. His casting hand floats up to rest on Zephyr’s shoulder. While Zephyr feeds ravenously from that kiss like he’s determined to devour Vasili from the inside out, V’s black-nailed fingers tighten and dig into Zephyr’s dragonscale.
I keep a sharp eye on that deadly hand of his, but the Goblin King appears to be behaving.
For once.
After a long breathless moment when no one moves or speaks, those two surface gently from their kiss. In unison, they release the long-drawn breath they’ve both been holding.
My own held breath rushes out in parallel.
“Thank you,” Zephyr says softly.
Behind the green slash of his eyepatch, the Unseelie King’s face is open, unguarded, soft with a fragile moment of wonder.
