Page 14 of Falling in Love with A Tiny Bat

Regally, I provide, “Charms don’t work on God.”

“God knows we aren’t fornicating.”

“For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. It’s best not to tempt you with immoral ideas by having us both beneath the same roof.” Sure, it’s an argument twisted in sick favor ofpurity culture, which impliesIam responsible forhisthoughts, and heshouldn’tpluck out his eyes if those thoughts wander, but I don’tcare.

If authoritarian Christians can use the Bible as a beating stick, going so far as to justifyliteralbeatings with it, I think I’m allowed to suggest the Good Word is proGive Zahra the Alone Time She Needs.

Lord knows I’m about to start sobbing.

I have ababy. My lifelong dream of becoming a mother is in my arms. It comes with strings and hurdles, but I have ason. And no matter what Castor is planning, he’ll have to walk over my dead body before he drags my little boy away.

Suffice to say, right now, I just want to be left alone with all my tangled emotions.

Alexios draws his fingers to his lips, never once lifting his gaze from me. “Let me make something remarkably clear: my thoughts about you will never be immoral. If you believe adultery begins in the mind, rest assured no other woman can so much as graze the exalted opinion I hold you in. No other woman has ever ignited the feelings I feel for you, and in the absence of your nearness since we first met, my thoughts have rarely strayed from your existence. You are the beginning and end of any carnal delusions. In my heart, you are mine. We are wed. There will never be another.” His plastic smile evaporates. “WereI to touch you, it could not, by definition, be fornication.”

“We aren’t married,” I hiss. “I know that claiming a soulmate isn’t the same as getting married, so itwould, actually, by definition be fornication.”

“Marriage is a covenant of intimate exclusivity. Were we to embark on such activities, you would be my only. Forever.”

Something in my stomach goes impressively sour. “It sounds like you’re removing consent from the whole concept of getting married.”

“I am not saying I will act without your permission. I am saying that to act is to commit myself to such a covenant. As faras I am concerned, I have already made such a commitment in my heart. Therefore, no dastardly thoughts or actions that might spawn while we rest beneath the same roof could count as a breach of infidelity.”

A breath shakes through my lungs, and it takes every ounce of restraint in me to keep my voice level. “Is that so?”

“It is the way I understand it.”

“Cool. Nice to know.” It hurts to swallow. “Alexios,” I state, “get the—” I swear. “—out of my house.”

?

Xios

Zahra is pissing me off.

Arms crossed on her lavish patio, I stare at her backyard, which happens to be laid out like a makeshift village square. It’s…charming. And, yes, I’m being sarcastic.

Fae constraints allow me such kindnesses within the prison of my own mind.

The quaint wooden structures boast an eclectic number of wares. Surrounded by a slew of canvas tents, fire pits filled with old, damp ashes mark gathering points on the building outskirts. Dawdling in my misery, I march toward one encampment and peruse a vacant spit over a dormant pit. When I am in my Honduran White Bat form, I’m small enough to perch comfortably on the smooth pike, but I don’t want to.

Everything today has gone marvelously wrong.

At this point, I’m supposed to be safe and cozy in my lover’s home, listening for an ent’s whimpers throughout the night, so I may intercede before he has a chance to wake her.

My mental pictures of these moments were quite excruciatingly adorable…and yet…

My lip curls as I cast a wayward glance toward Zahra’s bedroom window in the same instant she drags a curtain over it,leaving nothing but a dark glass behind.

She has ruined everything.

Involuntarily, my fingers drum against my bicep as I peer—helplessly—toward the shadowed window.

Freaking ducks.

Howdareshe be like this?

What was so important to her that she didn’t want to blindly give me everything?

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