Page 16 of Gemini Christmas
“Let us proclaim a truce, Goblin King,” the Dark Fae King says softly. “For one night. ‘Tis Christmas Eve, after all. And, it seems, a night for the granting of wishes.”
“If the whole idea is to keep me awake all night by fucking me,” I breathlessly tell the room in general, “let me just say right now that I’m totally on board. Wish granted.”
“Oh, hell to the yeah. Sign me up for that wish too.” Zara licks her lush lips and grins at my enthusiasm. “As long as Ash says you’re well enough to be granting those kinds of wishes, baby.”
Ash is getting ready to answer when Max powers through the kitchen door, triumphantly carrying a serving platter loaded with a huge baked ham and mountains of orange yams swimming in butter. Lucius trots behind him, juggling a creamy green bean casserole and a basket of fresh-baked golden rolls. Ronin brings up the rear with a cheerful Christmas teapot, steeping my Seelie willow tea.
“For this granting of wishes,kotyonok,you can count me in as well,” Max growls, using my special Russian nickname, which makes me so happy. “But first, we eat.”
Chapter Five
Zara
“I don’t wanna freak anyone out,” I announce to my warlocks between bites of Dutch apple pie so crumbly and sweet I moan with every mouthful. “But I think this cottage is… kinda… moving.”
Every single warlock in my harem stops eating and looks freaked out.
We’ve totally demolished the honey-baked ham, a mountain of sweet yams, and two tureens of gravy. There’s barely a spoonful of green bean casserole left in the bottom of the serving dish. That big basket of rolls, dripping with golden butter, barely lasted through the meat course. Now we’re working our way through our second Dutch apple pie.
And we’re moving.
“I didn’t wanna say anything till I was sure,” I mumble around my pie, chased by a swallow of creamy eggnog sprinkled with nutmeg. “But now I’m sure. I’m more sensitive to motion right now. Back in the first trimester, it’d probably make me queasy. But this feels more like a cradle rocking the kids to sleep.”
Zephyr’s already leapt to his feet, moving alertly to the snow-scoured window to peer into the night.
Not that there’s much to see in this blizzard. Beyond the tiny diamond panes of mullioned glass, it’s total whiteout.
Vasili stares fixedly at his crystal wineglass, whose contents are very subtly sloshing. Max stops wolfing down his third slice of pie with a muttered Russian curse. Lucius gets that inward look he has when he talks to his wolf.
“Bloody hell.” Ronin lowers his fork. “Think you’re right, love. This whole bloomin’ cottage is rocking. Feels a bit like cross-country skiing, doesn’t it?”
“Zang, baby.” Mordred jumps up to join Zephyr at the window. “You tellin’ me this whole crib isskiing?”
“Perhaps ‘tis so. Still, there’s naught to see,” Zephyr reports, good eye pressed to the glass, though he edges aside patiently to make room for Mordred’s large and excited body squeezing in beside him. “Nor do I spy the hazard lights from the vehicle, which should be visible even through the snow.”
“Yeah, we left ‘em flashing. Supposed to help Neo’s dad find us when he sends out the search party.” That’s Ash, emerging from the kitchen with a dishtowel dangling from his big hand, getting an early start on cleanup duty.
Neo alone seems unfazed by the news. “I told you the house moves. It’s not hurting us. And it’s gonna bring us back when we’re done.”
Right on cue, the gramophone stops playing “Deck the Halls”and shifts to the soothing lullaby strains of “I’ll be Home for Christmas”.
This joint certainly seems stocked with a permanent soundtrack of Christmas tunes. Even though none of us have touched the turntable all night.
I suppose I should feel more alarmed by this whole ambulatory Christmas cottage situation myself. I definitely do appreciate that Theo Mercury and his houseful of guests are gonna be alarmed themselves when we don’t show for the party.
And they’ll be more alarmed when they find our abandoned car.
But then, my warlocks and I are known to be unpredictable. Notorious for it, if I’m being honest. Hopefully our temporary disappearance will be seen as more of the same.
Just the Gemini queen and her Gemini kings off being our unpredictable selves.
My fated mate’s calm confidence in this house’s basic good intentions seeps through our mating bond. Plus my own Valyrian foresight, which typically sings like a glee club at the first hint of danger, has gone totally silent since we got here.
So it’s all good, I guess.
Especially since I can’t see there’s anything much to be done about it.
“Our queen is correct, as usual,” Lucius murmurs. He’s hitching a ride on my train of thought, because I’m pretty open to my guys these days and rarely bother shielding with them anymore. (Unless I’m thinking about my Secret Santa duties and the Christmas surprises I have planned, which I very carefullydoshield.)
