Page 32 of Gemini Hunted (Dark Witch Academy #5)

My bookworm sucks in a breath, then gives me an earnest nod, coupled with one of those trusting wide-eyed looks through his glasses that guts me.

Every. Single. Time.

Gently I stroke a comma of soft magenta curls away from his anxious eyes. From the depths of my worried heart, I summon up a smile for him.

His own sweet smile blooms in reply.

My heart does backflips in my chest when he smiles. It always has, and it always will.

“I love you,” I tell him quickly, before something else gets in the way. “I don’t say it enough, baby—to any of you—but I really do. You’re half the reason we all even work as a polycule. Now you gotta haul ass, okay?”

Happiness shines in his big green eyes. More than any of my guys, Neo loves to be praised. He soaks up every syllable like a sponge.

“I love you too, babe. A lot!” He lunges in to kiss me—one of his soft sweet kisses that tastes like mint and bookworm. Then, hoisting his backpack over one shoulder and our makeshift cat carrier over the other, Neo ducks out of the circle and trots obediently toward the tunnel.

Within a few steps, the shadows swallow him up.

Worry for him grips my chest like a heart attack.

Literally. I’m so freaking worried for him and all my guys I can barely breathe.

With my lips still warm and tingling from his kiss, I shoot back into the air like an Avenger and try to get my bearings in the unnatural dark. Yeah, I’m worried about Neo. Worried about the guys who are MIA. But my biggest fear at this exact moment is something else.

I haven’t seen Lucius or Vasili since they split.

Plus I don’t even hear Xhev’s distinctive nails-on-chalkboard scream anymore. I’m praying nothing happened to Zephyr. Way beyond this domus, Max’s distant bellows are pretty much constant.

Filled with rage.

But somewhere much closer, lost in a shadowy maze of pillars and water, a twist of shredding pain claws at my mating bond and clings like an anxious hand.

Is that a hyena whining in agony… or a wolf?

“Zarina Selene Gemini.” Vasili’s arctic voice, crackling with a Compulsion spell just to get my attention (the jerk), spins me toward the portcullis with a gasp.

I fucking hate being Compelled and that snake knows it. Even so, hearing his voice, a shot of genuine relief spurts through me.

There’s one of my alphas, at least.

Apparently unharmed and not even disheveled, except for the fresh blood spattering his narrow hands and staining the crisp cuffs of his uniform shirt.

My Goblin King is levitating over the raised portcullis, casually gripping one of his hidden cache of knives (also dripping with blood) in each hand.

Guess he’s gotten stabby with a few of those AIB killers. He likes to kill that way when it’s personal. The way it is for him now, with his asshole dad in play, maybe even lurking somewhere in this dungeon with us.

Watching.

No wonder V’s guarding the tunnel.

If any of our enemies (like his father) manages to slip into that sewer ahead of us, we’ll be trapped like rats.

Under Vasili’s floating feet, a narrow walkway emerges, slime-coated and dripping. It hugs the edge of the tunnel. Looks to me like that Open Sesame Mallory conjured has done more than raise the portcullis. It’s lowered the actual water level in the reservoir to expose that walkway.

Curse or no curse, that’s one helluva spell Mal unleashed.

Barely illuminated by the flashlight’s wavering beam, Jae and Mal have already reached the walkway.

Now they race right into the tunnel, Jae guarding his girl’s back as she runs, awkward and stilty on her long pale legs, with that grisly spellbook—the Book of Flame and Breath—still clutched fervently to her chest.

I bet my apple-polishing bestie is afraid of late fees from the library or something if she loses it.

Me? I’ve seen enough of that book in action.

A yelp from Neo yanks my attention back to him.

Without the flashlight’s wavering beam ahead to guide him, he’s barely visible in the dark, but still blundering determinedly toward the tunnel.

Unfortunately, he’s hindered—both by the backpack strapped to his broad shoulders and the duffel he’s cradling protectively in his arms.

Sounds like our kitten has definitely had enough of that carrier. Piercing meows, piteous with protest, rise incessantly from inside.

Still airborne and guided more by sound than sight, I weave my way through the forest of shadowy pillars, each one emerging suddenly from the dark, and call down to his shadowy form. “Neo, baby, you gotta haul ass.”

“Trying!” he calls back. “I can barely see, babe.”

“Just follow me, okay?” I hum to summon a crackle of voltage, then lower myself to float a few feet before Neo like a human glow stick. At this elevation, of course, I’m vulnerable to attack myself.

Well, bring it on, world. I’m fucking ready .

I’m sick to death of being hunted.

Forcibly I regulate my spiking adrenaline and ratchet my aggression from an electric crackle to a steady hum. The important thing right now is, the subdued violet light of my electrically charged body is guiding my fated mate.

Directly before us, no more than thirty feet ahead, the tunnel yawns.

A hyena’s sinister chuckle rises from the dark.

We’re being stalked.

I growl, swerve to put myself between Neo and the sound, and tell him roughly, “Run.”

Yeah. I’m definitely gonna teach my bookworm some basic self-defense skills, like he’s been repeatedly asking for.

As soon as we make it outta this mess.

“I’ll hold you to that,” Neo whispers, plucking the thought right out of my head. “I mean it.”

Then he’s running blind, blundering from pillar to pillar for the tunnel. If he falls in the water, I earnestly hope Mordred will catch him.

Mordred .

That’s one mating bond that would be useful for me to have right now. I mean, if only to communicate with the guy (just leaving all actual sex with the sex demon out of it). I’m definitely hoping V has that demon on a good tight leash.

But I can’t ask, because V himself is suddenly all murky and cloudy in our mating bond.

Which means one of these shifters, prowling and slinking and converging on this tunnel from all directions, must be toting that nullifying object.

I desperately wanna shift. My dragon eyes see infrared in the dark, but my human eyes can’t. And my dragon queen wants out . She’s snarling and thrashing in the prison of my skin. Frantic to defend our mates and protect our dragonets.

(Second time today she’s mentioned that, by the way. Dragonets. Like maybe she knows something I don’t?)

Stop distracting me, showgirl, I instruct her firmly. We gotta concentrate.

If my shift takes out enough of these supporting pillars, I’ll bring the roof down.

And Lucius is still out here. Somewhere.

Aided just enough by the dim violet glow of my electrified body, Neo lopes across the cavern and rushes under V’s floating body into the tunnel.

Thank fuck for that. At least that’s one of my warlocks safe—

A hyena explodes from the darkness, right on Neo’s heels. I give a warning yell and streak through the air in pursuit.

But Vasili’s much closer.

He’s a slim violet glitter in the near-total dark. With the wicked slash of one pale hand, V’s telekinesis hurls that hyena, howling and snarling, through the air into the reservoir.

With a mighty splash, that shifter vanishes in the depths—and doesn’t resurface.

I think of Mordred lurking down there and shiver.

Yeah, I’m not bonded with the kraken. But I hope like hell V gave marching orders to his demon before that nullifying object kicked in. Because we need Mordred and the Horn of Ceres in that tunnel with us.

Suddenly indecisive, I alight beside the reservoir and peer into the inky depths.

“Mordred?” I whisper. “You still in there, Aquaman?”

But I’m hella distracted. Somewhere in this pit of darkness, the whine and growl of labored breath tugs at my sleeve for attention. Sounds to me like shifters fighting—

Zara!

Sweet Jesus. V’s telepathic rasp makes me jump.

I hear you, bad boy. Projecting through the obstruction of that nullifying object—wherever it is—feels like trying to breathe with your face smothered in a pillow.

Zara… My dominant alpha’s voice whispers through my head.

All faint and staticky, like an old-fashioned car radio broadcast in the mountains that’s almost outta range.

Without you, little queen, this entire performance is for nothing.

Stop fiddling with that kraken. I’ll find Lucius and the others.

Kindly get your luscious derrière inside this tunnel.

Yeah, no.

Not happening.

I’m not leaving. Not without Lucius.

Especially when the walls ring with a shrill yip of wolfish pain.

Resolve fires in my diaphragm like a flaming sun.

I fling back my head, open my mouth, and voice a pure high note that summons a sheet of heat lightning beyond the slit of skylight.

In that flash of electric light, I finally find Lucius.

Fully shifted, his wolf is all the way across the cavern.

He’s single-handedly (but with paws) guarding the outer door like Cerberus guarding the gates of hell.

Fighting like a titan to keep a whole ravening pack of hyenas outside.

Filling the doorway, my wolf is savaging three of the hugest hyenas I’ve ever seen.

They’re like the A Team of hyenas, I seriously didn’t know they could get that big.

And Lucius.

God.

He’s getting savaged in turn. My mate’s shaggy flanks and haunches are streaked with gore and bloody gashes. His chestnut fur is soaked and dripping with blood.

Even as I stare in horror, the biggest of those hyenas—like the pack alpha—lunges in and clamps its jaws around my mate’s throat.

Lucius!

My dragon queen roars with fear and outrage.

Her bellow fills my head till my skull rings like a bell. My shift, which I’ve been barely holding off by my fingernails this whole time, thunders over me in a flash of blinding white.

My spine lengthens. My tail sprouts. My muzzle emerges, my legs thicken, my forearms elongate, my wings unfurl.

The snap of my opening wings unfolds in a mighty downstroke that vaults my body high into the air. All around me, stone pillars snap like matchsticks.

The exact thing I was desperate to avoid.

With a handful of those supporting pillars knocked off kilter, the high ceiling trembles and fissures. A few scattered chunks of debris tumble down and ricochet off my soaring body.

Fuck. Me. Sideways.

The roof is coming down.

I roar in my lightning voice with enough decibels to make any hyena’s ears bleed. Then I lengthen my neck, snap my wings tight to minimize more structural damage, and arrow toward Lucius through a hammering hail of falling concrete.

Behind me, I’m desperately hoping Vasili’s close enough to the tunnel to swoop inside with Neo.

If we’re lucky (for once), both those guys will be safe in there with Mal and Jae, shielded from the skull-crushing danger of falling concrete.

But I can’t join them. Not yet. Whatever else goes wrong in this fucked-up day, I’ve gotta save Lucius.

Before the whole roof comes down.