Page 60 of Sequel to the Easter Bunny

“Why are you here, pretty little mortal in your ridiculous bunny mask?”

“Juun has tasked me with gaining your blessing.”

“My blessing?”

“Yes.” I swallow, as a brittle leaf falls on my shoulder and immediately turns into a spider, skittering down my arm.

I flinch away from it with an ugly squeak and flick it away, splashing as I move sharply to the left.

“Nothing here will hurt you.” Their voice is oddly calming as it booms.

“Sorry, I don’t like creepy crawlies.” I clear my throat and step away from the next leaf that might land on me. “She didn’t specify what you need to bless.”

“You like using loopholes, don’t you?”

“It’s the way I have to play the game.”

“We both know what she wants me to bless: your strange marriage to that bastard bunny—if you can call it that.”

“She also said, she’d know you blessed it… if you connected her and Heim’s realms again.”

They chuckle and for a moment I think they’re going to tell me to get out. “She wants me to do the unpalatable and the ill-advised.”

“What do you mean?

“I despise your bunny. Though he’s not correct about why. There’s no one to blame for Juun’s choices but her own. Blessing his happiness leaves an ugly taste in my mouth.”

“Then do it because you like change.”

“I don’t like it, Lily,” The scolding tone makes me want to take a step back. “I crave it.”

They catch the next leaf that comes close to them, playing with the spider for a moment, before they bite it in half, throwing one half in the water then spitting the other out too.

“As for the ill-advised… the only way to connect Juun’s realm to Heim’s is to give her access to my own. I would rather let you peg me with one of those antlers.” They sigh heavily and seem to deflate, their long hair shifting over their shoulders.

“Juun doesn’t want my blessing, she wants my forgiveness.”

“Is that something you could give?”

They turn to me, but they don’t answer. “Go back to Babel and bring me your kittens.”

I know who he means, but “They’re not mine.”

“For the right price, they could be.” Gren chuckles, but there’s no mirth in it. “You know of who I speak, return with them, and we can move forward.”

My feet are dirty when I make it back to Babel.

I’m going to have to ask Jack to start giving me shoes when he creates these clothes.

It’s not hard to find Calico and Minx when I reach the club-like space. They’re at the same horseshoe-shaped bar I found them at last time.

They both light up when they see me and draw me into them.

“Our favourite off limits woman has come to see us again,” Calico says with a soft smile. “To what do we owe the honour?”

“Or,” Minx says, leaning forward and purring. “Do you just want to play?”

“Gren asked me to bring you back to his realm.”

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