I balk for a split second before Gemini flops down and crosses his legs. I follow suit, settling in front of him as I eye him suspiciously.
He drags both hands through his pink hair in some sort of theatrical pause before giving me his full attention. “You must feed your god, Veil Vulturine.”
“But—”
He waves me off like a pesky fruit fly. “You’ve been doing this all your life. Now you must learn to do it intentionally.” His gaze turns serious. “With purpose.”
Confused, I make a show of looking around the empty room. “How am I meant to steal anything when it’s just us two?”
His smile turns devious. “Steal my power.”
I stare at him, dumbfounded. “I — I can’t.”
“You’ve done it before.”
My mind drifts back to the day at Pandaemonium, when he caught me trying to run away. Something happened between us that day, and I never quite had the words to press Gemini about it. Just one more thing cloaked in maddening mystery. And I always seem to be the last one to know.
“Whateverthatwas, I don’t know how that even happened, let alone how to do it again.”
“Not everything needs words to be understood, pet,” he replies far too dismissively. Placing his hands palm up between us, he adds, “Put your hands in mine.”
I resist his command and instinctively curl my hands into fists instead.
Gemini scoffs, followed by a dry laugh. “You are incorrigible.”
Admittedly, I’m not sure why I’m being so difficult right now when he seems to genuinely want to help. Or as genuine as Gemini Foley can be.
I conceal a small sigh and delicately place my palms in his. Electricity zaps through me, and I’m flooded with images of us. Ofhim. His naked body towering over me as he fucks my mouth with abandon. A shiver travels down my spine, and I try to swat the image away as quickly as possible.
This isn’t the time to think aboutanyof that.
I try to hide where my mind has gone by looking away and fidgeting into a more relaxed position on the floor. But Gemini never misses a thing, and I pretend not to see the twinkle in his eye when my gaze slides back to him.
“Ready?” he says.
I nod.
“Close your eyes.”
Again, I unconsciously resist, taking a few unnecessary seconds before I do what he said.
I inhale deeply. The heat of his hands against mine is now heightened with my one missing sense. It takes longer than expected for Gemini to speak again, the pause feeling intentional, as if he’s trying to teach me something, even in the quiet spaces in between.
“There is no such thing as a rift between you and your god,” he says, his tone sounding quite solemn. “You are an extension, a mortal rendering of their divinity. This means there will always be a connection — inside of you. It’s from that source from which you draw your powers.”
His fingers curl around my open palms, and I break out into goose bumps.
“It’s time, Veil Vulturine, for you to find that loose thread. Tofeelthat power pulsing through your veins.”
What if I can’t?
The reaction is immediate. Still so unsure and questioning, let alone accepting, that I have some kind of divine ability—no matter how amoral the gods are or how frightened I am of them. I swallow down my insecurities and take a large inhale, dutifully keeping my eyes closed.
Gemini falls silent, his presence still imposing, even without my eyesight. But the touch of his skin against mine grounds me, and I don’t linger on how uncomfortable that thought makes me. Instead, I use it as my first stepping stone, hoping that maybe it will lead me to this ever-elusive place inside myself.
I don’t know how long we sit there for. It’s long enough for time to start feeling like an elastic band being stretched and stretched and stretched. I don’t know if and when it will eventually snap.
Gemini is right. The words evade me. Like smoke, they become immaterial, and I lose myself in the feelings.
