Page 13 of Gemini Christmas
“For pity’s sake, Maxim.” Poor Lucius looks and sounds appalled. “We can’t simply walk into a stranger’s home and start eating their food—”
“Don’t scold him, Teach. We’re all hungry. And cold.” With a sigh, I unzip my parka and lumber toward the fire’s welcome warmth, where Ash is settling Neo carefully into an overstuffed leather sofa.
Lucius follows me to relieve me of V’s cosmetics case. “Zara, my dear, we’re not even invited…”
“Aren’t we?” I shoot a pointed look at the table set for nine, candles merrily burning, ruby wine decanted in a crystal carafe circled by nine waiting glasses.
“The door was wide open when we arrived.” Vasili slips out of his overcoat and sashays over to join us near the fire. “Fire lit, pots bubbling, Burl Ives singing Christmas carols on the gramophone.”
Right on cue, the needle skips to the next track. The melodic strains of “Silver and Gold”fill the air.
I guess we’re literally getting the whole soundtrack from the old Claymation version ofRudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Anyway, the tune seems to shake Neo out of his drowsy stupor.
“Oh my gosh,” our bookworm exclaims, struggling out of the sofa’s engulfing depths.
“Take it easy, kid, lemme take care of you—” Ash tries to ease him back down, but Neo’s having none of it. Behind the steamy lenses of his glasses, Neo’s leaf-green eyes are wide with wonder.
My fated mate gazes all around the great room, at the table set for nine and the halls all decked with boughs of holly and the nine Christmas stockings hanging expectantly from the hearth, just waiting for Santa to pop down the chimney and fill them with loot.
“What?” I demand, struggling out of my parka, because now I’m finally warm. My tummy flutters with the fish-swimmyfeeling of one of my babies—maybe more than one—squirming around in there. We’ve all been pretty active, tromping through the snow, and I sense the kiddos are all awake.
“Wow.” Neo cradles his poor bruised head in his hands. “It can’t be.”
I sink down next to him, easing the strain on my lower back, and squeeze his thigh for mutual comfort. “What is it, baby? You know where we are, don’t you?”
“Yeah.” Neo stops clutching his curls and blinks up at Lucius and me in consternation. “We’re inside my dad’s wards, all right. This is the gatekeeper’s cottage. And, uh, we reallyshouldn’tbe here. Not in this exact place.”
“Bloody hell.” Ronin pivots away from the antique gramophone he’s been examining with a scowl. “Why the fuck not? Invited here, weren’t we?”
“We were invited to the manor. But we weren’t invited to this cottage.” Neo gives us all an apologetic grimace. “This house has a mind of its own. My dad didn’t build it and he doesn’t own it. It doesn’t even stay in one place. It comes and goes. Sometimes it’s gone for years. Then it just… kinda… shows up on its own.”
“Dear fuck.” V looms over the couch to stare down at him. “Darling, you can’t possibly be trying to tell us this gaudy Christmas monstrosity of a domicile physicallymoves?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” Neo swallows hard, then says softly, “And there’s something else. Now that we’re here… uh… it’s gonna be hard to leave.”
Chapter Four
Neo
“Sorry about this,” I tell all of them, all my beloved mates.
But especially my cherished one, my wonderful fated mate, whose gorgeous face suddenly looks so worried. Zara’s starting to be really pregnant and she definitely shouldn’t be worrying like that.
So I need to reassure her.
“The gatekeeper’s cottage has been a thing, like a family legend, forever.” I push my glasses up my nose and struggle to explain this weird piece of Mercury family lore in a way that makes sense. “But the cottage hasn’t shown up in a long time. Not in my whole lifetime. This is the first time I’ve even seen it.”
Zephyr looms protectively behind Zara (I mean, as much as a slightly built Dark Fae King who barely reaches my chincanloom). He’s lowered his swords and tamped down the witchfire. But the blades are still not sheathed in the X-shaped scabbard strapped to his back.
That means he’s still on high alert.
“What happens to unfortunate mortals who find themselves trapped in this magical dwelling?” Zephyr demands, with that contained ferocity that always makes me all shivery. “Will this cottage of yours hurt us? Any of us?”
What he especially means is,Will the cottage hurt Zara? Or Ash? Or Ronin?
Because they’re the ones he’s bonded with, you know, the deepest. But it’s really nice that he worries about all of us, including me.
In unison, Max, Lucius, and V—all Zara’s alphas—spread out protectively to guard this sofa that holds our pregnant queen (and me).
