Chapter 35

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What have I said about unexpected guests ??

"Where do you think she gets her repressed rage from?" I murmur, watching a five-foot-two lass blindly chase her husband with the pinata stick.

Beside me, Kassandra watches Willow swing. "I…actually think they're flirting?"

I shift my attention to her. "At a one-year-old's birthday party? That's highly inappropriate. Xios." I nudge Alexios in the side with my elbow, refusing—as I have been for the past few hours—to make eye contact with him. "Shield yourself from this adult display before you grow up perverted or something."

Alexios nudges me back, mumbling, "How dare she waste her energy hitting anything but that affront to nature… Mushrooms should not have eyes."

"Xios," I drone, "we're going to play lots of Mario games together starting tomorrow."

He mutters, "We're not done with Kirby. I like Kirby. He eats anything. He's my personal hero."

Kassandra eyes us, suspiciously. "We should watch the Mario movie tonight. Xios can sit and text relatable every time Mario almost throws up a mushroom."

"I don't have my phone." Alexios sniffs, indignant. "I flew here. All I can hold when I'm flying are my cuff links."

Kassandra leans forward, past me, to look at Alexios. "How are you surviving without your phone?"

"Despite my general demeanor, you should know I've mentally matured beyond emo teenager ."

"Babies shouldn't use phones anyway," I offer. "Imagine me being mated to an iPad kid. I'd quite simply perish from shame."

"Speaking of children." Pollux's voice grumbles behind us, sending a tremor up my spine.

He hooks his arm around Kassandra, but his threatening gaze lands firmly on me.

"Speaking of children?" Kassandra asks, peering up the broad stretch of her husband.

His attention doesn't falter. "Have you given any thought to children?"

"Pollux." Kassandra scowls. "It's a bit soon to ask something like that."

Pollux loses some husband points when he ignores her in favor of muttering, "Hypothetically, if you had a child, who would be watching them right now?"

My eyes roll. "Obviously us. We'd bring our child with us, like you and Pila."

"Is that so?" His eyes narrow.

I narrow my eyes right back at him, because there is no way in Sodom and Gomorrah he's judging my parenting right now. At Alexios's birthday party, no less. Tiny plastic babies haven't even had a chance to explode out of the papier-maché mushroom. And, you know something? I didn't even put them there.

If he's going to judge anyone, he should judge Willow the Stick Hog. Someone should really make her give someone else a turn. Sharing is Caring and all that. It makes so much sense that, when she was in my class's age group, she stabbed someone with scissors. I am not even surprised.

A low sound rumbles in Pollux's throat. "He better not be alone with who I think he is."

"Are you really growling at me?" I snap. Planting my hands on my hips, I angle my body directly at the mountain of a man. "I implore, reconsider ."

"What's going on?" Brittny asks, joining us with a bowl of cashews she just brought from inside. "Who better not be alone with who?"

Ollie, clearing his throat, braces his hands at Brittny's shoulders. "Um, sunshine, I think this might not be a conversation for us to impose upon?"

"No," Kassandra says, looking between Pollux and I, "I'm curious, too. This isn't like either of you."

I scoff, then I slap a hand to my chest, reel slightly back, and scoff again. "Not like me? I'm offended. We all know I'm an unpredictable queen who never makes any sense at all."

Everyone in my vicinity, save possibly Kassandra, also knows I've broken out in a cold sweat to match the suddenly erratic beat of my heart. Every muscle in me constricts when Cael approaches, concern writ upon his princely features.

"Is everything well over here?" he asks, setting a hand on Pollux's and Ollie's backs, gentle as ever.

For some reason, his smile alone makes me step back into Alexios, who says, "Peachy."

Cael laughs, and his gentility dissolves into something laced with a chill. "Per chance, Xios, is the peach rotting?"

Graceful, Alexios steps between Cael and me. Airily disinterested, he cocks his head. "What gives you that idea?"

Cael's chin lifts, directed at me. "The sheer, unbridled chaos of her emotions."

"She's having a moment. Let her have a moment."

The prince's black-and-yellow wings spread. "Are you keeping something from me? I'm sure I can help with whatever it is."

Alexios chuckles, darkly. "Yes, well, you do have that hero complex, don't you? Didn't you hear? My hero of choice is Kirby ."

Cael doesn't get a chance to respond before a heavy thunk hits the mushroom pinata.

Everyone's attention turns toward the spinning red-and-white party shroom to find a dagger embedded between the two bright sticker eyes.

My breaths stutter as I follow the direction of the thrown blade back to Castor , who is holding my baby.

Brandishing a wicked smile, Castor splays his robes in elegant presentation. "For the record, I identify as a someone not a something ."

Over by the pinata, Zylus catches Willow's stick before she lands a blow, and she pulls her blindfold off, sagging when she sees Castor and Ash. One of her perfectly trim brows jumps, but she doesn't say a word.

No one does.

The air stills with tension.

After many moments, Pila is the first to break it, stepping forward from the raised garden beds by Willow's chicken coop. "Where did you get that child ?"

Castor chuckles. "I do believe you already know. I also believe you should stay where you are."

Stopping her advance, Pila wraps her arms around Terra's body. "You brought an ent forth from my saplings? How did you manage this on your own?"

" Please . Don't speak as though I didn't have any help." Even though he's blindfolded, I feel the weight of Castor's attention when it shifts toward Alexios and me. "Isn't that right, Xios?"

Alexios frees a puff and spreads his gloved hands. "So this is how you spill the beans?"

"Xios." Pila's voice wavers. "What is he talking about?"

Pollux mutters, "Xios stole the sapling from the dryads. That's why he met me in the nursery when Pila and I went after Kassandra and Meda."

Cael's wings buzz as his amber eyes cut toward the dream eater. "And you knew?"

Laughing awkwardly, Ollie scoots Brittny behind the three men near us, toward me, and offers the hint of a smile as he separates her firmly from where Castor is standing. With my baby. "I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for—"

"Reasonable?" Pila whispers. "What could possibly make this reasonable ? Castor has a baby from my season. He has one of my babies. The only thing sparing him a branch to the throat is that I might hurt my baby ."

Dread wraps a cruel fist around my heart and twists . My baby. Not hers . Mine . She already has one. Ash is mine .

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, little flower." Castor's mirth falls. "Did no one think I might want an invitation to my closest friend's celebration?"

"You are not welcome here." Cael's wings spread, blocking my line of sight to Ash. I grip Alexios's shoulder as Cael takes a step forward. "Leave the babe, and go ."

"Hold on," Willow snaps.

"Starlight—" Zylus attempts, but she's already marching forward.

"This is my house, not yours, Cael. I say who is or isn't welcome. Castor is more than welcome. I've even invited him to movie nights before. And guess what today is?"

Splaying her own wings to match her husband's, Alana marches "We've talked about this, Cael."

"We have," Cael mutters. "We've yet to reach a conclusion I am comfortable with. Treating an enemy like a friend on every account is storybook fantasy. I must think about the good of my people and not welcome monsters into their midst just because you favor their archetype."

Castor's soft laughter rises into the breeze. "Well, well, well. Isn't this charming ? My villain girlies stepping in to commit treason." His head tilts. "Or should I say, more treason?"

Cael bristles, pinning Alana with a look. "Have you kept something from me as well?"

"Once again, I identify as a someone , and I dare say," Castor purrs, "most here have been keeping secrets…"

In a split second, Castor's standing in front of Alexios, my baby just out of my reach as he begins to whimper and writhe in his swaddling cloths.

Castor hisses, "I would have hoped you'd tell me of your plans to rehabilitate me, Xios. Leaving me to discover the schemes of this… Villain Protection Program Alana runs by myself is cruel, isn't it?"

Out of the corner of my eye, Alana pales.

Alexios hums. "How did you find out?"

"I have my ways of learning a grand many things. Now, step aside. I have business with the foster mother of my child."

" My child." My voice breaks. "You said he was mine ."

Gazes burn into me, but I can pay them no mind. My eyes are locked on Ash as he fusses, fighting Castor's hold.

In my head, I picture him vanishing as swiftly as he appeared, taking my baby away, never to be seen again.

Castor exhales a depraving laugh. "At one point, he was yours. Whether or not he continues to be is entirely up to you."

Rage filters into every last one of my limbs, battling fear. If this comes down to whose side I'm on , he will rue the day he turned my interests of living peacefully with everyone upside down. If he forces me to go with him in order to keep Ash, I will singlehandedly become his downfall. I will shed my humanity, gather my allies, and tear his kingdom apart. I will become known as destruction, and his end will come pitifully slow .

"Do you feel her malice, Cael?" Castor murmurs.

"It seems you have let her mother this child." Cael's blackened gaze lands heavy on me. "What wouldn't a mother feel in order to protect her young?"

Castor frees another short laugh and rocks Ash, trying fruitlessly to soothe him. " Yes , then? Correct me if I'm wrong, but do you allow malice in that shining kingdom of yours?"

A sudden force pounds into my lungs, leaving them stricken of breath. In the wake of the power display, Cael's voice rumbles. "I am presently allowing mine."

"Of course you are," Castor mutters, tilting his head away from me. "When don't you let yourself be an exception to all your rules?"

While Castor appears distracted, I lunge for Ash, swiping air.

"Ah-ah. Valiant effort, Razah." Castor dances back, just out of reach once more. "You've a trade to consider."

"What kind of trade?" I snap.

His short fangs glint in the fading sunlight. "I've found Dani."

My heart lunges up my throat.

"Do you want her…or Ash? As I find myself wanting for both friends and family, the least you can do is humor me by picking one or the other, don't you think?"

No, I don't think. I don't know what I've been thinking. Giving this man the benefit of the doubt has been among my worst decisions ever. The age-old question that has haunted me my entire life rears, blaring past the pound of my heart in my ears.

What Would Jesus Do?

How stupid.

How stupid to even think I'd have a clue what the literal Lord of the Universe would do in a moment like this. Thinking about what He would do is what got me into this mess.

And, besides, the best I can come up with is flipping a table , but there aren't any close enough to grab.

Squeezing my eyes shut for half a second, I let my senses take in the fragile sounds of my crying baby. He just got better. I've only just found reassurance that I'm not going to lose him and bury my little boy before I can so much as hear his first laugh, his first word.

However horrible her lot in life, Dani is a grown woman who can make her own choices. I am not responsible for her. No matter what I could have done to help.

My throat closes, but I force out the words: "I want Ash."

For some reason, when Castor's smile spreads, I fear I've made the wrong choice.

Delicately, he rests Ash in my arms. "In that case, he's yours. Now…" He releases my baby's weight, and I find him plucking his dagger from the pinata after I blink. "…I do suppose I have a dungeon to ready for Danielle."

"What?" I croak.

" Please . Obviously, the choice was which of your precious people…do I get to keep ?"

He's gone before I remember how to inhale, leaving nothing but the swaying pinata and my sobbing baby behind.