When I lean over to catch the fruit with my teeth, Gemini pulls the fork back with a smirk, and my stomach sinks, feeling like a toy—yet again. We don’t exchange any words as he smiles and I glare. He offers the strawberry again with mock innocence, but I stare at him for a long, tense breath before leaning over again. Because, deep down, I want that godsdamned strawberry even if my dignity is slipping further away from me with each passing second.
It’s as delicious as I expected, and I immediately hunger for more, but keep my hands on my lap, back straight, while I watch Gemini butter some toast, humming idly.
“You will eat everything I give you — understood?” he says, his gaze lifting to mine as he pushes the buttered toast to my lips. His eyes turn hard, but it’s gone in a flash as he repeats, “Understood?”
I nod, my nervous gaze fixed on his. “Understood,” I mutter before taking a bite of the bread, chewing slowly.
We continue this charade until the toast is all gone, and he moves on to a piece of bacon, then a small sip of orange juice, followed by some eggs.
Unrolling a cloth napkin, he dabs the corner of my mouth, his attention oddly focused, as if he were performing the most serious of tasks.
“What happens when you tire of me?” The words slip out without much thought.
He quirks his eyebrow up, his hand still hovering near my lips, while he cants his head to the side, studying me, as if trying to decipher a riddle.
“Where are you from, Veil Vulturine?” he finally says.
Hearing my full name coming out of his lips has my skin tingle with a mystifying shiver. As if he’s looking at me, the real Veil, for the first time since he kidnapped me and not the doll he wishes to play with.
“Does it matter?” I ask, somehow wanting to avoid the subject.
Gemini leans back in his chair, discarding the napkin, and smirks. “Oh, that it does, pet. That it does.” He crosses one leg over the other and then does the same with his arms, his wrists hanging loosely atop his knee.
I allow myself the liberty of a sigh before replying, “I’m from Corutio. It’s a city north?—”
“Oh, I know of it,” he says with a dismissive wave of his hand.
His expression turns far too serious for my liking, as if this small piece of information confused him even further.
Silence lingers.
His eyes narrow.
I swallow hard.
Breaking eye contact, he sighs. “Our gods favor more than just our dear Pravitia, I fear,” he declares, as if miffed that his beloved city isn’t one of a kind.
“Have you been?” I ask warily.
“Nonsense,” he says, his gaze landing back on me.
His grin turns wicked, and my heart squeezes in apprehension at the sight.
“Why would I leave this city when I have everything I would ever desire”—he taps a finger on the table with the cadence of his two last words—“right here?”
11
GEMINI
“Killed your little rabbit yet?”
Leaning over Constantine’s pink cast, black marker in hand, I lift my eyes to hers and grin.
“Why would Ieverdo such a thing, love?” I drawl mockingly.
We are the first to arrive at the meeting. The boardroom is quiet as we sit around the large quartz table, waiting for the others to finally make an appearance.
Constantine tries to swat my head but misses, and I chuckle as I return to my doodle of a crying clown.
