Page 81 of Gemini Hunted
“You don’t say?” To my surprise, I find my lips curling in a grin. At times like this, I couldalmostbring myself to like the man—if he weren’t my mortal enemy. Hastily I rearrange my expression into some semblance of my customary sneer. “When was that, exactly?”
Zephyr waves a hand in regal indifference. “Just now. In the wood. Ronin and I captured two of the wretches. We… repurposed the villa mantraps.”
Recalling the vicious steel teeth of those rusty traps, I give way to a vicious smile. Then a more urgent thought shoots to the surface of my addled mind. “Where is Ronin?”
Our gazes meet in a look that acknowledges this awkward truth.
We both love him.
Ronin.
We love the same man. And the same woman.
Once again, an unfathomable idea surfaces. I don’t always have to hate Zephyr.
Perhaps, just for the duration of the Dean’s Challenge, we can be…
Not friends.
Never friends.
But allies?
Rather like a marriage of convenience. Separate bedrooms, and all that.
“Ronin is safe, never fear,” Zephyr says softly, as though he too is loathe to puncture this fragile accord—delicate as a soap bubble—that swells between us. “I saw him aloft, like the dragonrider he was born to be, on your dragon shifter Maxim. A truly magnificent beast, that shifter of yours.”
I’m well aware of precisely how magnificent a beast Maxim’s dragon is. After all, my own dragon wouldn’t let just any flying lizard rail her through her heat. After the superheat we’ve just endured, Maxim Rasputin owns her genital slit.
Even if I’ll never admit it.
The worst of the agony in my skull is definitely receding. Carefully I gather my strength to sit. This time, Hisla-dee-dahRadiance actually deigns to assist.
Once upright, in these close quarters, I’m essentially sitting in his lap.
Just for the moment, I don’t bother to remedy the situation.
Just for the moment, he doesn’t push me away.
I drape an arm around his sleek dragonscale shoulders. Solely to make myself more comfortable, you understand. Definitelynotbecause I want to hold him, or be held in turn by his muscled arm wrapping possessively around my waist. Not because I like his fingers hooking in the belt loop of my uniform trousers. Especially not his thumb sneaking under my shirt to graze the skin of my bare back.
The silence beyond this cavity presses down on me. It’s been some time since we’ve heard a peep from the outside world. I choose to believe that’s a good thing. My wits are far too addled by concussion for telepathy. Still, if Lucius were… dead, I’d know it. If Lucius were dead, Zara would raze this island to the ground.
If Lucius were dead, I’d burn the world down to avenge him.
Still, the silence raises many alarming questions.
Striving for my signature imperious tone, I demand like the diva I am, “Where is everyone?”
“We slaughtered as many enemies as we could catch in the wood.” Zephyr’s gaze slides away, as though he’s ashamed to have left any alive. “Once I realized some of the creatures had slipped past us, into thedomuswhere none can fly, I ordered the others in my contingent—your dragon shifter, Ronin, Ash, Xhevith—to the wing. They’ll keep Cleopatra and her allies distracted and busy—since presumably she can’t be certain which of us carries the Horn of Ceres. We’ll reunite with our allies at the Academy Vault and attack there at full strength.”
“All well and good, Your Transcendence,” I say pointedly, unwilling even now to acknowledge this Dark Fae tyrant did the best he could against overwhelming numbers. “Except for our latest little problem. Even if we were to assume Zara has managed to save Lucius…”
“I think we’d know if she hadn’t.” Zephyr’s sober gaze drifts over the contours of the stone prison that holds us, as though that keen eye of his can see through solid rock. “I think the entire witching world would know.”
I’ll never admit it, but it’s a relief to know his cool head agrees with my rather desperate logic.
To conceal my crushing fear for all my mates—the crippling fear that makes me so vulnerable—I salt my words liberally withsarcasm. “Out of curiosity, how do you imagine we’ll get out of this tomb and into the tunnel?”
