Page 142 of Falling in Love with A Tiny Bat

I’m too tired to trip through semantics with this man right now. I haven’t stopped wrestling God since we stepped into Zylus’s coach with my fussy baby, who—for the record—hatesflying almost as much as Iloveit.

Even though I know that wrestling God is a literal, Biblical event, it still always feels so wrong to take any tone that resembles a pleading demand.

I guess that’s what happens when you’re a child whose needs are never fulfilled and whose emotional outbursts as a result get chalked up towe raised you betters andyou’re so disrespectfuls.

“Xios, please, I’m tired… Just talk to me.”

“I told Castor the day I joined the Villain Protection Program, snowflake.”

I blink.

“We laughed over it for so long, he started crying. He couldn’t believe two practical strangers cared enough to bother going so far.”

My lips part. “What?”

“Tonight has been scripted since before Ash was born. Castor wanted fire and pain. I convinced him what he actually, desperately was looking for was understanding. You don’t need to worry about Ash or Dani. Castor still isn’t our enemy. And with Meda able to text himUncle Castornow, I’m almost certain he’s going to become even more harmless.”

My mouth opens, but I snap it shut before words unaligned with my beliefs burst forth like deadly poison. Lamely, I echo a noticeably more spiteful, “What?”

“I can taste you getting more upset.”

Dry laughter escapes me. “Wow. I sure dowonder why.” Breath fills me, and I face Alexios squarely, pulling my hand from his grasp. “What were you thinking? Didn’t you see the way Alana looked? And what about Pollux and Kass? Theyloveyou. Theytrustyou.”

“I can’t speak for Kass, but I’m not the only one Pollux loves in this situation. He wants help for Castor, too. As for Alana…tonight could have been as uneventful as it was for Willow and Zylus if she’d felt able to tell Cael her plans. I’ve spent more time than anyone in A’s head. They will get stronger from this, not weaker, and if there is ever a time in the future where something similar might happen with someone less redeemable, she will not be inclined to keep her machinations from Cael. They will trust each other more going forward because they love each other enough to make that effort. However terrible the result seems, recognize that I helped Castor build every facet of this plan, and I would not have left any side worse off for it.”

My eye twitches.

In a fit of misplaced sense, I grab Alexios’s hand, jerk off his glove, and slap his palm to my heart.

His face blazes red.

“You feel that?”

His throat bobs. “I-I— Um—”

“My heartbeat, you lousy pervert.”

He croaks. “Right. Y-yes. The heartbeat. It was just…unexpected.” He turns his face firmly away from me. “Considering I am most definitely not thinking about or even looking at bunny rituals…probably.”

I look down.

At my bunny ritual shirt.

Well, whaddya know? We’ve come full-circle, haven’t we?

Scowling, I crush his wrist. “I’ve been panicked this entire time, and you didn’t think to let me in on the secret beforehand?”

“Make you an accomplice to the crime? Never. You struggle far more with guilt than I do.”

“Mm, yeah. Maybe becauseI have a soul.”

“I have, desperately, been trying to get one.”

I huff, drop his wrist, and cross my arms. “We need to tell everyone.”

“No, we don’t.”

“They’re worried, too. They’re probably going in circles trying to figure out what they can do to help protect Dani.”

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