Page 80 of Falling in Love with A Tiny Bat

“You’ve changed your mind?” he murmurs.

I close my fist around the necklaces, grin, and shove them in my pocket. “They’re in the no-no square.”

Baffled, he blinks. “Th-the what?”

“No-no, don’t touch me there. This is my no-no square,” I sing. “Attempting retrieval would be molesting me. That’s not something you would do, right?”

Red flaring to his cheeks, he says, “Absolutely not.”

“Excellent.”

“Xios!” someone behind me cheers.

So, I grab his free hand, and we bothjet.

?

Giggling at the vast expanse of stars before us while I stuff a spoonful of fresh strawberry ice cream in my mouth, I say, “All this time you’ve been bullying me about being anextrovertwhen you know more people than I do.”

Seated in the grass of a hilly landscape overlooking the come-alive night life of Winterfeld, Alexios shakes his head. “Being anextrovertmeans you thrive on social interactions. It has nothing to do with how many people you know. I’m an anomaly. A rare unseelie sanctioned beneath Cael’s banner. That has earned me a grand number of relationships with impressively low effort on my part.” Releasing a sigh, he arranges the tray of street food I had him get for me, and the overwhelming amount makes me think we’re going to have to save thatfancy restaurantidea for another time.

Which, you know, I amnotcomplaining about.

Even though I’ve never gone on a date before, this one is the best, and I’m not sure I’d mind another.

“May I ask,” Alexios begins as I take a fry from a woven basket, “if we were going to run every time someone called my name, why didn’t we just wear the necklaces?”

I stuff the fry in my ice cream, receiving audibleaghastfrom my companion. “Wasn’t it more fun?”

“Isfunhow you spellrude?”

“Hey, bucko, you didn’t seem all that put out.”

He grimaces as I deliver the strawberry fry to my mouth. “It was…exhilarating.” Lying back against the hill, he takes in a deep breath. “Everything about you excites me in some way. You’re simply beautiful for my senses to behold.”

His long lashes fall against his cheeks as he closes his eyes, and I find myself entranced by him, too, just a little at least.After everything I’ve been through, it takes me a long time to let anyone in. Maybe that’s why I cast the net so wide, searching for the proof thatmost people are good people. I don’t want to live in the shadow of my trauma. I don’t want to feel like I can’t trust the world at large.

Ilovepeople.

And not just because I believe, religiously, we’re charged with loving people.

People are fascinating to me.

The way every single one has entire worlds spinning inside their heads…takes my breath away.

Nothing else begins to compare to the beauty of a soul.

“About today,” I begin, gently.

Alexios smiles. “I’m glad you enjoyed your Mother’s Day, angel.” His eyes open, glinting like polished steel. “Are you about to thank me for it?”

“Is that what you want? Is that why you did all of this?”

Sitting up, he sets my tray of food aside, lifts his hand, and locks strands of my hair behind my ear. “No.”

“So you’re not just trying to make me fall in love with you?”

“You’re my soulmate, and I’m too young to have learned to doubt fate. I don’t need totry, Zahra. I am in love with who you are when you aren’t trying. Why would things be any different in the other direction?”

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