How can this be happening?
How can I even trust anything coming out of Gemini Foley’s treacherous lips?
Lifting my eyes up to his, I rasp, “Who was that woman?”
Gemini’s eyes have softened ever since he finished smoking his joint, but his gaze still burns against my skin. I can practically hear it turn to crisp.
His voice is just as soft when he answers, “She’s the Oracle. She speaks directly to our gods.”
Well then …
Something inside of me, similar to my usual intuition yet so unfamiliar, tells me it’d be wise to believe the Oracle.
The seventh heir …
I can barely wrap my head around it, let alone accept it.
“I’d suggest you take my hand, love.” He wiggles his fingers. “It’s getting late, and I’m losing patience.”
A heavy sigh escapes me, followed by a sharp inhale when a small jolt of electricity zaps through my arm and down my body as I place my hand in his.
I know Gemini felt it, too, when I witness his bare chest break out into goose bumps. But he does nothing to let on that he felt it, simply pulling me up onto my feet.
When he turns, I get another good look at his sigil tattooed on his back.
Then something he mentioned in passing when he first brought me into the mannequin room comes back to me.“So many tattoos, and yet you’ve left your back unmarked.”
He was piecing his theory together even then. And he’s right; whyhaveI left my back untouched when the rest of my body is covered with tattoos? I never did think much deeper about the meaning until now, and I always assumed I just hadn’t found the right design yet.
And what if, this whole time, I was listening to a subconscious desire to please my … my god?
“What does my sigil look like?” I blurt out as we step into the house.
Gemini swivels around, but doesn’t stop, now walking backward as his eyes narrow, studying me. “Why do you think I knew your god was the god of thievery?”
His question to my own confuses me.
“Petty theft?” I respond with suspicion, having a feeling it is the wrong answer.
Gemini lifts his lips, as if amused, but shakes his head. “Like I said, that was just one of the reasons. But!” he says, pointing his finger in the air and turning back around so as not to walk straight into the couch. “The quest to my answer was muchsimpler. I just had to look to the city where my pretty, petty thief had come from.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“You never stopped to wonder why Pravitia has six ruling families and Corutio has seven?”
I stay quiet, mulling over what he just said as we step into the hallway. “Keeping up with the ruling class has never been my top priority, whether it be here or back in Corutio.”
Gemini chuckles, and I roll my eyes at his inability to ever be serious.
I wait for him to continue his explanation, but I’m distracted by something a lot more pressing.
I stop dead in my tracks. “We’ve passed my room,” I state with the most authority I can muster while my heart has shot up to my throat.
“Indeed we did, doll. Indeed we did,” Gemini says over his shoulder, his darkening voice slowly curling over every word.
I stare in horror as he strolls into his bedroom. My eyes blur with the sheer volume of thoughts clamoring in my head.
“I should no longer be your captive,” I say with ire.
