Page 49 of Falling in Love with A Tiny Bat

My eyes narrow on my dear, sweet, sunshiney friend wearing literally every color in the rainbow on a dress she made from scratch. I, in contrast, am wearing black. All black. My makeup is a deep violet highlighted with, you guessed it,more black. If I’m anything like a sun, I have supernovaed in on myself. “Did you just say I have the opportunity to use my extroversion as a means to gather an army and become the most powerful faerie in the world?”

“I think so.”

“Yet…presumably…Dani is something more frightening because she can, presumably, both seeandhear the fae without being claimed or fully fae herself?”

Helpfully, Kassandra lifts a shoulder. “That’s the way I understand it. She’s probably something without the same kind of limitations. You’d have to ask Pollux. He likes researching questions like this. But, for now, don’t worry. I’m sure she’ll be fine.” That golden sparkle in her eye turns mischievous. “So…there’s actually something else I’d like to talk to you about…”

“Ugh.” Rolling my eyes and my entire body, I flop into the hay beside the journals I’m supposed to be working on. “I don’twant to talk about it.”

“Xios islivingwith you, huh? And you’realreadyclaimed?”

“Um.Iclaimedhim, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“I don’t mind.” She fiddles with a flower on her dress. “Pollux is going to be so relieved to hear that Xios’s interest in you wasn’t some disturbing phase. We gave him a talking to after you both met, and Pollux threatened to kick him out if he tried to trick you into giving up your soul. Xios moped around for weeks after that. I did not know bats could look so sad.”

I totally forgot that Alexios can shapeshift into a bat. I wonder why he doesn’t do so more often at my house if he was comfortable sulking as one around Kassandra. I’d one hundred percent prefer a little bat roommate to the butler/babysitter nightmare he is now.

“It didn’t take you very long to claim him,” she muses, while I’m contemplating the joy to be found in keeping a little bat in my jacket pocket. “Was it a conviction choice?”

Aconvictionchoice?

Laughable.

Truly.

I’ve been crossing my arms, stomping my feet, and slamming my bedroom door to God ever since the man showed up.

“It absolutely was not a faith, trust, and pixie dust situation.” My eyes roll, tracing the rough beams in the ceiling. “It wasn’t even akissclaim. Did Pollux not tell you that I called and asked about claiming soulmates?”

“Now that you mention it… He did say you called to ask some weird questions. I guess he could have been referring to soulmate inquiries.”

Weird?

Rude.

“You and Xios…” she muses, tone going whimsically distant. I hope she’s not daydreaming about anything that would scar mefor life. “What an interesting pairing.”

Yet again, rude.

“What exactly do you mean by that?” I ask.

Papers shuffle down there, and I turn my head to find Kass at the front of the room, arranging worksheets on her desk. “You know, soulmates reflect each other and fit together perfectly. There’s a balance to them.”

I do not like where this is going.

“Xios and you seem so…similar.”

I shoot upright. “What?”

“Too similar.”

My mouth falls open. “You dishonor my bloodline.”

Her lips curl—wicked. “Yeah, see, he says stuff like that, too.”

“A hex on your offspring.”

“My point is making itself.” Cheery little monster that she is, she says, “I have the best idea.”

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