Page 63 of Sequel to the Easter Bunny

Dark where Jack is light, the god in front of me has horns instead of tall ears.

Half of him resembles a bull, half of him is shaped like a man. If the legends and whispers are true. Minoka, the trickster god stands in front of me… pretending to be Jack.

And the kittens have fallen for it.

“We have not done anything to your bride… nothing you’d disapprove of, anyway.” Calico twirls me into his arms and I hit him a little too hard. Because he’s too hard. Not that Jack’s… soft, but there’s something rough and dense about this gods’ body.

“Hello, wife.” The words are sour in his mouth and hearing them grates at me.

Because it’s not Jack. This isn’t some enchantment making me see Jack as the other god. Minoka is the one pretending.

This is what Gren wanted me to see through, this veil of enchantment. A new facet of their game. Maybe he wasn’t certain I would. Or maybe it is Jack under two layers of illusion.

“Hello, Eebie.”

He doesn’t find it weird that I call him that.

Definitely Minoka.

No matter what he has planned, he’s playing the charade through, and I think I have to as well.

Sliding his hand through mine, he leads me away… hopping.

Hopping?

If I wasn’t determined to play the fool, I would have called a stop to it right there.

“What are you doing?” I ask, as innocently as I can.

I see his eyes shift, see the momentary understanding of miscalculation, and then, he smiles with that wide mouth, showing the flat row of his lower teeth. “I’m just so happy to have you back.

But he doesn’t ask me what my next task is. He doesn’t ask me where I’ve been, or why the kittens were involved.

And while, he’s stopped hopping, he leads me through Babel, winding me in through and around, and for the first time, I realise it’s an enormous circle.

By the time we make it back to where we started, a small group of the others here have begun to trail us. And I’m certain none of them realise he’s not who he appears to be.

Not yet. But a disguise is only as good as the reveal.

“Come sit with me, baby girl. I want to show you off some more. Make the rest of these fools jealous.”

I wonder if that’s what he thinks Jack sounds like… or if the illusion that hasn’t worked on me should have disguised his voice as well.

I go with him, letting him guide me. Never taking my hand from his. He doesn’t mention the thorny cuff.

It’s so clear that he’s putting me on display, I can’t help but wonder if this was actually designed by Gren, or if it’s some other twisted game the gods have chosen the draw me into.

Curious, I say “Carrots” low, almost under my breath. But Minoka hears it. He looks at me with a single raised brow over those dark eyes limned in long lashes.

“You say the silliest things, baby girl.”

Very definitely not Jack. And if my magic word won’t work with him….

The tiniest tendrils of panic claw at my skin.

But, as I circle Minoka and he draws me in front of him, I see Jack.

The real Jack.

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