Page 13 of Falling in Love with A Tiny Bat

His lips purse. “How disturbing.”

I grit, “It’sbeautiful.”

“Your humanity is showing in alarmingly obvious ways, dear starbeam, and I’m too tired to deal with blatant falsehoods. If there’s nothing else, my pets will see to it the babe’s things are brought to your home. I shall meet with you again soon tomonitor your progress.”

My lip curls. “What does that mean?”

Distinctly disinterested, Castor says, “It means this is anopenadoption, and you would do well not to forget who the babe truly belongs to.”

Ah.

I see how it is.

Castor has chosen death.

Chapter 4

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Immediately banished.

Alexios—bless him—is staring right at me with the most confuddled look in the world on his face.

Castor’spets, who happen to be goblins, have only just finished dragging my baby’s things into my house and placing them in the locations I designated.

They’re gone now, leaving me with my baby, my…soulmate, and my thoughts.

The fragile weight of my sweet little boy rests in my arms, his every breath making my heartbeat stutter. He is everything. I need to do right by him, raise him well, keep him as far away from the evil prince as possible. Protect him.Lovehim.

Do everything for him that my parents never did for me.

I have spent so much of my life wanting a child.

Now that I have him in my arms it’s daunting.

I know it’s not just because my baby is a faerie, which surely means he’ll come with challenges I can’t imagine. All babies—human and faerie alike—come with a slew of unexpected behaviors never outlined in any parenting books.

When it comes tochildren, no one is ever trulyprepared.

Alexios regains his senses, lifts a hand to his mouth, and clears his throat. “Perhaps I misheard you. It has already been a long night. Could you repeat yourself?”

“I could, but I think you heard me perfectly.”

Alexios’s smile twitches. “Are you aware that many fae have delayed auditory processing issues?”

“Delayed, huh? I’ll give you a few more seconds then.” I focus entirely on my son, whose beautiful eyes have been fighting sleepiness ever since I fed him the concoction Castor provided.His food is definitely aformula, but it is definitely notstore-bought. There’s no label with directions or ingredients. Which is, you know,concerningfor me. The powder mix also happens to be inside a hollow black gourd in my fridge. When I asked what it was made of, Castor did not give me a straight answer. He merely recommended I not ingest it myself. Or smell it directly. And to wash my hands well if I got too much on my skin for any length of time.

“Zahra,” Alexios states, tone immovable.

With sudden awareness, my baby’s eyes open.

I rock him and coo, “Shhh, it’s okay. Xios was just leaving. His angy voice won’t bother you in a moment.” Lifting my attention, I glare across my kitchen “Do Ireallyhave to repeat myself for you, Xios?”

“I would very much appreciate it if you did.”

Heaving a sigh, I stare down my nose at the royal swear word. “I refuse to live in fornication. Sleep outside.”

His eyes close. He grips his hands together in front of his crisp slacks. When his eyes open again, lightning crackles through the gray. Vaguely amused, he murmurs, “Doesn’tliving in fornicationrequire us tofornicate, snowflake?” He doesn’t move from where he’s standing on the other side of the room, but the press of his presence alone sits on my chest. “You can’t be worried about mere appearances. Most shouldn’t know that I or that child are here, and Castor set charms in place to keep our scents from clinging to you.”

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