Page 37 of Gemini Hunted (Dark Witch Academy #5)

Mordred

I don’t know why I always gotta jerk my cousin’s chain. Always have, ever since we were tykes.

Maybe because he always makes it so gods-damned easy.

Maybe because I always burned to wipe that self-satisfied smirk off his pretty face.

Either way, my royal pain-in-the-patootie cousin is supernaturally quick, that’s a Fae thing.

Only his rabid snarl gives me a blink of warning to defend myself.

I summon my trident into my outstretched hand and swing the shaft sideways, like a staff, to catch both of his descending blades with a clang!

The clash of my demon-cursed silver against his moon-blessed steel rings through the joint like a church bell.

Cousin Z’s strong as fuck, because dragonrider.

The force of his blow jars my bones, no lie, he drives me a step back.

I pivot on one foot and absorb the impact through my braced shoulders.

I know it’s a bad idea to taunt him. But I legit can’t resist.

Old habit, you feel me?

I grin into his savage face. “That the best you can do, cuz? Must be gettin’ weak in your old age.”

He’s exactly one year older than me.

He retaliates with a whirlwind of slashing parries that keeps me on my toes. As I parry and retreat, parry and retreat, his upper lip curls in contempt to reveal one tiny fang.

“That’s just cute, for real.” I give him a wink. He knows I like those fangs of his, always have. Told him so the one and only time I snogged him, back in our Avalon Academy days, at his royal birthday masquerade.

Right before he kneed me in the nuts.

Seeing my wink, Zephyr’s eye narrows with wrath. He hisses a vicious incantation. The moon-blessed steel of his swords lights up with cold lilac witchfire.

Shit just got real.

“Whoa there.” The queen’s worried face hovers on the periphery, but the chick’s combat trained herself. She knows better than to get between us. “Zephyr. Mordred is not the enemy.”

“He is my enemy,” Z says through gritted teeth. “My mortal enemy. He is the serpent you allow in our bed!”

“Yeah, one time, and only to sleep .” This time, I aim my grievance over that sucky compromise at the whole room. “Y’all made me sleep across your feet like a dog.”

Cousin Z extends his fiery sword to point at my chest. The blade hums like a lightsaber. “That demon covets my throne—”

“Naw, that you can keep. Told you before, cuz, that whole insurrection thing was all your auntie, with me in a summoning circle. Babydoll broke the old witch’s curse when he summoned me outta Avalon to the mortal plane.” I shift my grip on my trident and give it a good spin.

Yeah, sure, I’m showing off a smidge. For Cousin Z and his girl. So far, the queen of the witching world seems totally immune to my flirting, which frustrates the hells outta me.

I mean, seriously? Who’s immune to an incubus?

“Lies. All detestable, moon-fucked lies !” My cousin scowls fiercely at my showy theatrics. “You cannot deny you covet my bride!”

My grin shifts to the bride in question. “Well, he ain’t wrong—”

Zephyr growls like a hellhound and leaps for my throat, both blades whirling through the air. I bark out a laugh of fierce delight and slant my trident to meet his blows— one two three four— then follow up with a vicious jab at his gut. Just to earn his respect.

I mean to have that much.

His respect.

Even if I can’t have everything else from him I want.

He twists aside with a hiss. The tines of my trident graze his dragonscale. Just the way my fingers grazed his abs when we danced at his birthday party. The one and only time he ever let me touch him.

My trident can pierce the hide of a megalodon (and yeah, we got those in the Avalon Sea.) So evading is a prudent move on his part.

Still, I’m pulling my punches. I don’t want him dead, for real.

And he’s warrior enough to know it.

“Fight me like a man, you squid.” He sneers at my polite restraint and rolls out that childhood nickname I always hated. “If you dare.”

Finally, a jellyfish sting of annoyance pricks even my thick hide. I scowl and pivot into a vicious sidelong swipe that makes him jump. If he hadn’t, my tines woulda opened his quads to the bone. He whirls into a vicious two-bladed riposte I barely catch on my trident.

I spin into another sweeping parry to make him jump higher. Guy jumps like a flea. Oughta look ridiculous doing it (the way I would). But he’s the Dark Fae King, so he just looks agile and lithe and hot.

“How’s that?” I say on a growl.

“Better. How’s this?” Z bares his fangs in a savage grin and lunges directly at me, both blades fully extended, for a killing blow—

“Hey!” The Gemini queen bellows in the resonant rumble of the lightning voice. “Both of you. I said stop !”

Her bellow ends in a deafening peal of thunder.

A flash of ultraviolet light eradicates my world in a blinding blaze of white.

When my ears stop ringing and my vision clears, the queen of the witching world’s levitating just off the ground between my cuz and me.

Through the spots of white floating in my dazzled eyes, her teal curls and schoolgirl skirt whip around her tiny frame like she’s standing in a gale-force hurricane.

Her violet eyes are pinwheels of purple fire.

Her fingers crackle with lavender sparks.

Hells’ bells. Chick’s hot as fuck when she’s witchy.

Behind her, my furious cousin—who just got knocked over by the aftershock—scrambles to his feet. Also hot as fuck behind the slash of his eyepatch, with his olive skin flushed and his green hair all mussed. Even the tips of his pointed ears quiver with wrath.

Guess I’m glad the queen told him to stop. Otherwise I’d have his moon-blessed steel buried hilt-deep in my gut.

“Boys.” Zara sighs and locks her witchy eyes on Zephyr’s startled face. Her tone’s so quiet I gotta lean forward to hear. “I’m either your queen or I’m not. Which is it?”

Well, shit.

Not gonna lie, this cupcake’s been on my mind since Avalon.

And not just cuz she’s sexy as fuck. TBH, this queen’s plunged her royal fist straight through my chest to wrap around my beating heart (figure of speech, not literal).

All that sexy’s the least of her pull. Most anyone can manage to be sexy enough, one way or another, to pique my interest for an hour. I mean, yo, sex demon, you feel me?

This witch is something more.

Sure, Zara Selene Gemini is a certified badass.

I’ve known that much since the day I watched in secret while she went toe-to-toe with Cousin Z’s psycho mom, the late unlamented Unseelie Queen Maeve.

Since the night Zara Gemini reached through a sheet of witchfire with her bare hands to claim Maeve’s crown and become the Unseelie Queen.

Girl sealed the deal last night, when I watched her face down a gods-damned sea dragon, fathoms deep, in an aquatic atmosphere where Zara can’t even shift.

This Gemini queen is more than strong. More than fierce. More than stubborn when she gets her Irish up.

Underneath all that badassery, she’s a softie. Cousin Z melted her heart with a kitten, for fuck’s sake. Plus it’s obvi she loves this sack of dicks she has for a polycule. Got loads of room in her heart for all of ’em.

I wonder if she’s maybe got room for one more.

She just protected my sorry ass. Summoned lightning to protect my hide from getting skewered by my enraged cousin.

I don’t get protected.

Even in my world, I’m the freak you need protection from . Too much Fae for my rogue demon dad. Too much monster for his Unseelie old lady. Accident of birth, the kid no one planned for or wanted.

My own blood never thought I was anything worth protecting.

Right now, as Zara Gemini levitates in front of my freaky self—three times her size, potent as fuck, and armed with a magic trident—with zero fear or hesitation, protecting me from my cuz and my own shithead ways, sweet-faced as a schoolgirl?

This is the exact moment I fall in love with the Gemini queen.

This whole sitch is so surprising it tangles even my silver tongue.

“Well?” She alights to the floor between us, taps her toes, and crosses her arms over her curvy chest. Which deepens the lush swell of cleavage under her half-buttoned school blouse. “That wasn’t a rhetorical question. Am I your queen or not?”

My royal cousin still seems to be struggling to close his mouth and douse the witchfire that’s humming through his swords. So I seize my moment and carpe me some diems .

Ain’t no royal who doesn’t like a little kowtow, true?

I prop the butt of my trident against the floor, lower myself to one knee, and bow my head.

“You’re my queen three times over, baby,” I tell her gruffly, keeping my eyes on her impatiently tapping toes. Somehow the fact that she’s wearing black-and-white schoolgirl saddle shoes just adds to her overall cuteness.

“You’re the Unseelie Queen, and I’m half Unseelie,” I say through the curtain of my own blue hair. “You’re the dragon shifter queen, and I’m a shifter. Plus, uh, you’re the queen of my heart.”

At this, I risk a hopeful upward look.

“Queen of your heart, am I?” Her head tilts suspiciously. She taps one opal-painted nail against her chin. “Is that the incubus talking?”

“That dude talks with his dicks, for real.” I grin and give her a wink. “I got more rizz than that. Heart’s all mine—I mean, all yours.”

“Have a care, cousin,” Zephyr says coldly, scrambling gracefully to his feet and sheathing his swords on his back. “The hearts this queen collects, she keeps. Mine foremost among them. Besides which, I am her royal consort, forsooth. Swear to her, and you swear to me.”

Before I can self-censor, a snort slips out. “Like that’s supposed to deter me?”

Cousin Z slips up next to his queen and cocks his head like a curious sparrow to study me. For literally no reason, my heart kicks in my chest and my pulse picks up.