Page 10 of Gemini Hunted (Dark Witch Academy #5)

“Yeah. Fraternal. But that don’t mean shit in the demon world. Me?” Mordred grimaces in the first display of (possibly) genuine emotion I’ve seen from him. “I went after Cousin Z’s throne because I was bound to it. Under a summoning spell.”

Keenly interested, Lucius leans forward. “Bound to it by whom?”

“By the Unseelie chick who summoned me outta the demon realm to Avalon. That dame was old school aristocrat, real cozy with old Queen Maeve. Zephyr was his mom’s rival for the throne, true? So my summoner, Maeve’s ally, she wanted Z gone. Condition of my release, you feel me?”

“What, never fancied that throne for yourself?” Ronin wraps a protective arm around Neo, who nestles trustingly against him, and chuffs out a skeptical breath. “Who’s this bloke trying to fool? Three pence short of a shilling, he is.”

Suddenly I find myself wondering if Mordred can lie.

The pureblooded Dark Fae, like Zephyr, can’t.

But this guy’s half demon.

“Sure, hot stuff.” The incubus in our salon swings his sealskin pouch and smiles.

“Ain’t saying I didn’t enjoy it. Got under Cousin Z’s skin, for real, so it was kinda trippy.

But when babydoll here summoned me through the portal—” He gives Vasili an easy nod “—your dude broke my previous summoning bond. That’s how it works.

Now I’m bound to him. He’s my new summoner.

I gotta do what he asked when he summoned me into his circle. ”

I give him my most suspicious and skeptical look. “So you didn’t have a choice?”

The demon shrugs one burly shoulder. “I mean, I coulda said no, but then your dude would have banished me, and I woulda gone straight back to the demonical realm. Which is one place I don’t wanna go.

Once I agreed to do his task, kinda like a genie in a bottle, your guy broke my summoning circle and let me run loose. ”

Eyes dancing like this whole thing’s one big joke, Mordred swings back around to grin at me. “And his thing was, I needed to find the Horn of Ceres and give it to you .”

Then he extends his tattooed arm, encased in an inky sleeve of scales, and offers the pouch—and the Horn—to me.

Startled by the sudden plot twist, I fall back a step. Then I stare at that pouch like it’s a sack full of rattlesnakes.

There’s probably some arcane rule about not accepting gifts from demons. There’s definitely one about not accepting gifts from the Dark Fae. And this dude’s half Fae.

But, sweet Jesus, I need that Horn.

If I don’t take it, Cleo or one of the other teams in the contest definitely will.

Pushing past my weird hesitation, suppressing the clamor of warning bells in my head, I lift my chin and reach for it—

“Actually, I’d advise you not to take it just yet.” Whiplash-sharp, Vasili’s warning freezes me in my tracks. My gaze flies to his—intent and glittering like ice behind a veil of cobalt lashes.

I scrunch up my brow and tap my toes on the carpet. “Um, isn’t the whole point of you summoning him for me to take the Horn?”

“My power over this creature,” he says precisely, “only remains intact until you do. Once his task is complete, his summoning bond shatters, and the demon is free.”

“Well, dayum,” I say softly into the sudden silence.

Naturally, we all look at Mordred.

Who’s suddenly inscrutable, the way only a Dark Fae royal can be. His indigo eyes lock on mine without blinking. He’s still holding the pouch extended. Even hidden from sight, the Horn hums and murmurs in a way I suspect only I can hear.

In that one way, this artifact is like the Dark Fae crown I have locked in the yacht’s safe. A crown I can still hear crooning my name through the hull.

Zaaaarrraa. That’s the crown right now, whispering in my fucked-up head. Claim my power.

Now here’s the Horn of Ceres.

Sounding, like, similar.

Maybe I’m fated to have it. I mean, if it’s gonna help me save the witching world. Until now, I’ve wondered, but I couldn’t be sure.

Now, feeling the powerful tug of the thing’s magnetic pull, I know.

That Horn is meant to be mine.

Without looking away from the demon, I ask V, “If I don’t take it now, what are we supposed to do we do with it?”

“To complete the Dean’s Challenge,” Vasili says calmly, “the artifact must be returned to the Vault. Until then, we keep this creature—and his prize—securely at our side.”

My gaze swerves back to my alpha. My mouth falls open in protest.

“So, what, now we’re adding demon trafficking-slash-kidnapping… I mean, since the demon doesn’t really have a choice about coming with… to our list of legally questionable actions?” I fold my arms across my chest. “This is no way to run a queendom, V.”

Vasili’s own mouth, slick with the pale pink gloss he favors, turns down in a moue of distaste. “Well, darling, I’d like to get rid of him too, believe me. For now, I’ll simply command the demon to guard the Horn in that unfashionable man purse—”

“Hey now, don’t be mean,” Mordred teases, but his cocky grin has slipped. “It’s a messenger bag.”

“—and he’ll remain bound to my will,” Vasili wraps up with a sigh.

“Zara, do stop glaring at me and hating me for biting him. Simply imagine what this means! An actual demon at our beck and call. A kraken to give your sea dragon ex the fate she deserves in the briny deep. That’s the only reason I bit him. Obviously .”

“Easy as pie, right, beautiful?” Ash says to V grimly. The Seelie Prince hasn’t budged from my side since he planted himself there when that sex demon sauntered in. “This hootenanny ends when the thingy’s returned to the Academy Vault. Is that right, Lucius?”

“Indeed.” Lucius sounds like I feel, which is kinda dazed.

“So that’s where we all need to get.” Ash heaves a sigh of resignation and turns to me.

“Once we’re through the shit and in the Vault, this demonical joe hands over the Horn to you, princess.

You toss it inside, win the contest, pass your finals, and flip Cleo the bird in one bold stroke. Easy-peasey.”

This glib portrayal makes my headmaster frown. “Except that the Horn must be placed precisely where it belongs in the Vault, not merely tossed inside like a banana peel in the rubbish. That’s the final task of the Challenge.”

“Groovy.” I sigh. “Let’s hope that’ll be obvi once we get inside.”

We all fall silent to ponder both the obvious advantages and the obvious risks of this crazy scheme, swaying in unison as the yacht rocks and groans in the heavy seas. Rain scours the windows and wind howls around the hull.

Grimly, I wonder how I’m supposed to convince the absent Max, and especially the absent Zephyr (both due back anytime), to accept this temporary addition to our merry band.

Particularly since Mordred has now helpfully informed the entire ship (the same way he told me privately in Avalon) that he wants to join my harem.

Which would make him… not so temporary.

Not for the first time, I wonder why he wants to join. Maybe that’s another of my newly manifested Dark Fae powers—the power of attraction, which is super inconvenient, I’m like a Siren right now to all genders, apparently—busy at work.

If so, there has to be some way to turn that shit off.

It’s finally Neo who breaks the pensive silence.

My bookworm clears his throat and pushes his glasses up his earnest nose. “So, wow, that’s a lot. But aren’t we all forgetting something major? Mordred isn’t a student, so he isn’t allowed to help. With any of this. Or, gosh, we’ll all fail our finals and probably the whole semester—”

“Take a chill pill, Einstein. Got that covered,” Mordred says casually, his composure regained. “Enrolled this morning, just like babydoll here told me.”

Mordred jerks his chin at Vasili and grins, white teeth flashing in his blue goatee. “I’m the first Avalon exchange student to be admitted to the Icarus Academy. Lucky me.”

Okay, I gotta admit, that snake of an alpha I’ve mated really has put that ruthless, diabolical, snaky, scheming brain of his to impressive use.

Obviously I don’t like that he sneakily did this whole thing on his own—especially biting Mordred, even if it’s supposed to be platonic for disciplinary and communications purposes and not a mating bite—without saying one fucking work to anyone.

But, you know, that’s Vasili.

“The storm’s moving pretty fast,” Neo offers hesitantly, because he senses my mood and he knows how not crazy I am about this entire half-baked plan.

“The weather’ll get better. So we should be able to weigh anchor in a few hours.

I mean, once it’s light out. Max and Zephyr should be back by then too. ”

Ronin releases Neo with a final squeeze and folds his arms across his tattooed chest with a dark scowl. “Then we haul arse for Icarus Island—all fucking nine of us—like we’ve got a brace of hunting hounds breathing down our bloody necks.”

“And return the Horn to the Academy Vault in the crypt.” Lucius gives a thoughtful nod, but he looks and feels troubled in our mating bond. “Which is where it belongs, of course.”

Lucius isn’t the only one who feels troubled.

I chuff out a grim breath. “Yeah, but there’s another big ass problem. I mean, aside from Cleo and Nikolai and this demon and one of us fucking biting him without talking to the rest of us about it first.”

I give the Goblin King a narrow look that tells him we’re not finished with that little convo, like, at all . Our come-to-Jesus moment is only postponed.

“Precisely,” V murmurs, following all my thoughts without any problem whatsoever.

But he deftly sidesteps the consequences of his fuckery by spotlighting the most immediate problem we have.

“Reaching the Vault alive— with the artifact—will not be easily achieved. Every witch and warlock on that island will be hunting us.”