Page 68 of Gemini Hunted
This degree of direct attention from the Academy’s most notorious bully is exactly the kind of notice I’ve spent my whole life striving like heck to avoid.
Get a grip, McSnicker,I remind myself.Zara’s counting on you.
“Okay.” Breaking through the protective paralysis that grips me—my ingrained instinct tohideso the bullies don’t find me—I steady the open grimoire, held open to the correct passage in Neo’s helpful hands. The faded ink of the spell writhes over the yellowed page and makes my eyes blur. Nausea twists in the pit of my belly, but I swallow it down and square my shoulders. “Master Aries, can you please hold the flashlight so I can read the incantation?”
“Ican’t even read the incantation,” Neo murmurs, blinking at me behind his glasses. “What is that, ancient Latin?”
“Yes. It’s the Book of Flame and Breath. From the rare books collection in the library. I signed it out,” I explain earnestly, just so no one thinks I stole it. “It’s not even overdue.”
“Oh,that’sa relief.” Vasili jibes, in a tone that cuts like the hidden cache of knives the whole school knows he carries. “At least, after those hyenas have torn us limb from limb, snappedour bones, and sucked out the marrow, we won’t have to contend with late fees.”
“Don’t be a jerk, V,” Neo says to him with a level of fearlessness I find astounding, then gives me a sympathetic look. “Just ignore him, Mallory. He’s in the doghouse right now in this harem, and it makes him pissy. I mean, more than usual.”
“Heis?” I sneak an astonished peek at the terrifying Vasili, who purses his lips in a discontented pout.
Of course, that bully doesn’t answer.
“The important thing is,” Neo says patiently, “can you actually read that spell? I mean, are you sure you know what it says?”
My shoulders hitch in a modest shrug. “Yeah, sure. I studied ancient Latin in prep school.”
Neo blinks at me and looks impressed.
“I do seem to recall that commendable detail from your academic transcript, Ms. McSnicker.” Master Aries gives me a respectful nod. “Unfortunately, this particular grimoire is normally locked away in the rare books collection for an excellent reason. I fear there’s more than ancient Latin in play in some of the less savory spells.”
Clearly, if he thinks that would deter me from signing the book out, my History of Witchcraft prof has underestimated the lengths I’ll go to in order to earn an A.
“Yeah, I know. This particular spell is hexed. I mean, the text is all jumbled under a major confusion curse. That’s what drew my attention in the first place, when I was writing my research paper for your class.” I frown over the open page while my prof looms helpfully over me with the flashlight.
“Indeed.” He trains his light directly on the page. “It appears you’re correct, Ms. McSnicker.”
“Five points for class participation,” Vasili purrs. “Well done you.”
Zara nudges him with an elbow, paired with a look that hovers somewhere between reproach and laughter.
But I don’t have time to be bullied right now.
The hexed words of the opening spell dance across the ancient parchment like imps around the fires of hell. I bite my lip and steady the book with a gingerly hand.
“Pardon me for stating the obvious,do,” Vasili drawls. “But shouldn’t we beinsidethat protective pentacle you’ve just drawn?”
I smack my forehead with my palm. “Um, yes. Obviously. Everyone inside the circle.”
“You’re making her nervous, Goblin King,” Zara murmurs to Vasili as we all grab our gear and crowd into the chalk circle, which is barely big enough to hold us. “Be nice.”
“Oh, certainly, that’s what I’m known for,” Vasili says with poisonous sweetness. “Beingnice.”
Carefully I position Neo with the book before me, my prof at one side with the flashlight, and Jae holding my bespelling candle aloft at the other. Everyone else crowds around me, subtly nudging Zara into the safe spot between her headmaster and her dominant alpha. Beyond the dim circle of their worried faces, the blank wall of the hidden passage looms.
Are the shadows getting thicker? Or is the daylight leaking through the slit in our ceiling getting dimmer? The dragon’s increasingly frustrated bellows, bouncing off the walls at erratic intervals, make my ears ring. But I can’t hear the hoot and chuckle of those hyenas at all anymore.
Which probably means they’re… hunting.
With a bone-deep shiver, I dig out my lighter. But before I light it, I hesitate.
“Um, shouldn’t that… Dark Fae aquatic of yours… come inside the circle too?” I ask Zara carefully. Even though the idea of letting any Unseelie into my safe space flies squarely in the face of every survival instinct that’s kept me alive. “If the spell backfires, it might get really gnarly in this chamber.”
“Gnarly?” Neo blinks at me through his glasses. “Can you be any more specific?”
