Epilogue

Secrets and stardust…

"I finally got Ash settled," I murmur, coming down the stairs to find Alexios sprawled on the couch with his phone. "Are you all right…or… well , I guess, is how the fae phrase it. Are you well?"

He lowers the screen against his chest and tips his head back to look up at me. "I'm very well. How are you?"

I ignore that question, because I'm not really interested in exploring my emotions right now. Circling the couch, I sit down once Alexios sits up to make room for me. Adamantly, I ignore when he leans into me, snuggling his head against my shoulder. Chest tight, I murmur, "I can't stop thinking about what happened. You don't…you don't think Castor would come for Ash, do you? If he does, is there even anything we could do to stop it?"

Alexios's phone buzzes.

I ask, "Who are you texting?"

"I'm apologizing to Castor for the Join My Tree Town spam Willow is facilitating. She's very persuasive. After we left, she got his number from me and convinced everyone to send him friend requests."

My hand lifts, skating over the soft locks of Alexios's braided hair before I get a chance to realize what I'm doing. "You…really believe in him, don't you?"

"Don't be mad," he murmurs.

"Right, sorry. After everything, trusting him is a little insane."

"No." Alexios laughs, stops my hand, and kisses my palm—sending a jolt of something straight down into my stomach. "I mean, don't be upset . With me. Specifically."

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— hates flying almost as much as I love it.

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 to we raised you better s and you're so disrespectful s.

"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 him Uncle Castor now, 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 do wonder 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? They love you. They trust you."

"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 because I 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."

Alexios sighs, rubbing his wrist. "Probably. Because that's the kind of people they are. Even though Castor's threats largely only affect you, because you affect me and Kass, and Kass and I affect Pollux, and Pollux affects Cael, and Cael affects everyone else…they are all rising to the occasion. Because of a thread, of a thread, of a thread of love, they are stepping up to help." He bumps his shoulder into mine. "I told everyone earlier, didn't I? Castor needs someone he can trust and lean on. Someone in his corner. For all his years of existence, he has the emotional maturity of a child, testing a parent on their love."

"So? You aren't his parent. You're literally one year old today, so why do you have to be the one to step in here, risking everything for someone you haven't even known for a full year?"

He laughs, setting his phone aside and kneeling on the floor in front of me to cup my cheek. "Because, angel, love doesn't need a year. It takes the moment you can clearly see the beauty in someone's soul. I am in a unique position where such things are more transparent to me than they are to others. Loving someone is nowhere near as hard for me as being loved is." His thumb traces my jaw as he stands on his knees, leaning close and framing my face in his hands. He murmurs, "Also, I might only be a year in existence, but I am not a child."

My breath catches.

"When are you going to tell me?" he whispers.

Voice strained, I ask, "When am I going to tell you what ?"

"That you love me?"

"Don't be ridiculous."

"I can taste it on your breath, angel." His hands slip, both now bare, toward my neck as he settles his forehead against mine. "You've been toying with the idea for a while now."

I tense. "This isn't fair. I have no idea what you're feeling even though you see everything inside me so clearly."

"Give me your humanity, and I'll give you my power, my everything. Then, it will be more than fair."

"What a tempting offer."

"How could I make it more alluring?"

My fingers latch around his tie. "I don't know. What could you really hope to offer beyond everything ?"

"For you, anything."

"What is Castor's goal with all of this?"

Alexios sighs. "If I knew the details of that, I would not be trusting him in any part, now would I?"

I suppose not.

Do I care?

Absolutely not.

And, yet, the fae can only say the things that they believe. And Castor has said some things to me that lead me to believe in him, at least a little bit.

Pain is never an excuse to hurt someone.

But if I let myself empathize with the feelings of neglect, hopelessness, and longing, what didn't I try when I was a child to earn love?

It can take time—and people like Alexios—to teach someone that love is never something we earn .

It is the first gift given.

The one we are implored to accept and embrace and behold in every avenue of our lives.

Even when it's hard, or scary, or we have our doubts. Sometimes, for some things that look too big or bleak to handle on our own, we have to give up control to God.

"If…I give up my humanity, Xios, we really need to find a story faerie willing to be my friend. I don't know how long I'll survive being less funny than my full potential."

He chuckles. "I think you'll do well."

"My sarcasm won't make it, I fear."

"Ohh noo, whatever will we do?" He touches his nose to mine. "See? Workarounds. You'll do well."

Sighing, I push down the tremor of fear in my chest. "If you can kiss me…I will give you my humanity in exchange for your everything."

His hand trembles against the pulse in my throat as his index finger circles my round ear. "You are exceptional at bartering."

"Do we have a deal?"

"I suppose we will find out in a moment, won't we?"

I swallow, tightening my grip on his tie.

"Easy," he murmurs. "I love you, Zahra. You know I couldn't be even this close without permission. The moment you don't want me anymore, I have to pull away."

"I know."

He kisses my cheek. "I love you. So much."

Frail, I repeat, "I know."

"You can tell, can't you? Even without any powers, you can tell."

I let my eyes close. "Yeah."

His lips meet mine, grazing warmth. Something tugs on my chest when he moves to deepen the kiss, angling his mouth over mine. He shakes. His breath coasts across my cheek. "Zahra," he whispers when I test the waters and return the caress.

Given that Alexios began our relationship with a request for my everything , the last thing I expect him to whisper into my mouth is: "Are you sure you're ready to become fully fae?"

I'm certain my emotions are already bared for him to feel, my thoughts are too intimate to share, and I'm not ready to give up my soul. If I don't try to take the steps I can, I don't know if I'll ever get closer to healing the aches that haunt me. So, while I'm still too scared to believe it yet still human enough to lie, I force myself to say, "I trust you."

"In a moment," he murmurs, sweeping his fingers through the long half of my hair, "I expect to hear that again."

I hope I'll be able to say it.

I'm not sure what I thought becoming fully fae would feel like.

Loss, probably.

An inexplicable sensation of being cut in clean pieces, then losing an entire aspect of who I am.

This feeling…is the opposite of that.

Rather than being stripped apart, I find myself renewed. Filled. Surging with sensations that speckle my skin with stardust, fill my eyes with wonder, and trace the very essence of hope into my flesh.

I am a wish.

For peace.

For love.

For goodness and kindness.

As Alexios frees my lips, I gasp air.

When his kisses skate down my neck, I tilt my head back.

He nips my collarbone, licks, swears. "Just as I thought," he says, breathless, "you…" He swears again, gripping me, desperate. A full, warm breath hits my chest as he collapses into me, trembling. "Yes… yes ."

Bleary-eyed, I try to look at him. "Xios…are you…"

"Shh…" He wets his lips close enough to my skin that I can't see the action, but I can feel it. "I have never been better. Hold on." His hand glides down my side, bracing at my hip. His ear rests against my shoulder as he dips his face upward to leave a tickling kiss against my neck. "This is going to be overwhelming for you if I don't control myself better."

"Control…what exactly?" My attention catches on my hand when I lift my arm to push stray hairs off his cheek.

My skin. It's…lilac. Lilac and star-scattered and foreign…and right .

He clutches my clothes. "Everything. My power, first, then maybe you can take the rest as you please." He swallows. "Disregard the reprehensible desire in my emotions when my abilities surge into you." Off balance, he drags himself away, fumbling with one of his cuff links. When his eyes meet mine, he melts, and swears. "For the senses connected to my powers." Planting the cold metal in my hand, he curls my fingers around it and cups my cheek. "You are…so beautiful." He wets his lips, searching me until heat rises into my face. "Your hair is a tangle of northern lights…your eyes a galaxy… Oh, Zahra…could you really be mine?"

I shiver when his thumb traces the shape of my mouth.

Then he says, "Own me."

My heart thumps, filling further. Suddenly, his entire being is within my reach, my grasp. His emotions flurry across my consciousness, tempting me to parse through them. The weight of what he feels for me lifts me up, lighter, and lighter, and—

He laughs, holding my wrist like a tether as I discover I'm weightless, inches above the couch.

"I…can fly?"

"Yes. You control your own gravity. Many fae abilities are impacted by their emotions. You, my love, feel free. Safe. Correct."

"Can I control your gravity?"

"Probably. Maybe practi—"

I yeet him into the air, and he goes lurching above me, tied to his grip on my wrist.

"—ce first," he chokes out, peering down at me, eyes wide.

We…are floating above my couch. In my living room.

My skin is purple.

And his emotions are a symphony teasing my mind with the concept of more. His soul…his thoughts…they are majestically within reach. I'm scared to touch them.

"I am very glad you have high ceilings," he murmurs, then he sprouts massive white wings. They stretch, elbowed and leathery, flap once, and push us together in the air, close enough that he can wrap me up in a hug. Naturally, our legs mingle, and we become a singular entity in the solar system of us .

"Why can I sense your soul and thoughts like physical objects for me to take hold of?" I ask.

"Because, that's what it feels like to be me. Everything is within reach, all the time. Anything unguarded is mine to steal. Anything else, mine to fight for if I so choose."

"All this time…you could have taken whatever you wanted?" I close my mouth, swallow the sensations bombarding me. "But you asked instead? Did you not want to risk fighting me for things?"

"You're my soulmate. I doubt it would have been hard to convince your soul it wanted to be closer to mine if I took it without asking. I asked, because I wanted your mind and your heart. Your peace. Your willingness. Controlling you without your consent was never the puppeteering I longed for." His smile sinks deep into my heart—it's so warm, so desperate . He rakes me in, closer, because he can, because I am in too much awe to be anything but willing. "This look in your eye…it is what I have wanted."

He wants me.

I feel it in every fiber of his being.

But the desire that coasts along in the realm of physical want lingers beneath a surface of wholehearted adoration. He wants nearness of hearts more than anything else. At my side, he forgets what it feels like to starve. At my side, love overwhelms every ache.

At his side, I don't think I need to lie. "I trust you."

"I know."

"I love you."

Bliss lights in his eyes as he wraps me up, tighter than I have ever before felt comfortable with. Voice breaking, he whispers, "I know."

Tears flood my eyes as I hold him, trust his wings to catch me if I lose my grasp on powers I don't at all understand yet. "I…I have never felt this safe before. You're beautiful, Alexios. Beautiful ."

His heart stammers against my chest as everything he is envelopes me. Softly, he says, "I am so glad I exist."

While I float, surrounded by things I thought I'd never have, I, too, am so glad I exist.

And, yet, a thought hits me that makes me shove Alexios away. "Wait."

Rattled, he finds my eyes. "What?"

"Castor isn't our enemy."

His brows knit. "That's right?"

"He found Dani. He knows where Dani is." Perhaps a little too fast, I thrust us toward the ground, spared only from crashing by Alexios gripping me tight and pumping his wings. "Let's go see him and get her."

Alexios's hold on my wrist doesn't let me get far, so I throw a look back at him. "What's wrong?" More hesitant emotions filter in throughout all the softer, brighter ones I've been tasting. I'm not sure what to make of them, and the temptation to dip into his thoughts comes stronger, but I refrain.

"I'm…convinced we shouldn't meddle with Castor and Dani right now."

I reel back. "What? Why not?"

Alexios covers his mouth with his free hand. "Well…trust me?"

"Are you serious?" I take the two steps back to him.

He sets a straying lock of my rainbow hair back over my ear. "She's safe."

My mouth drops open. "Castor kidnapped her." I snap, " Didn't he? "

"Maybe? Might not have happened…yet."

"Are you insane? Dani is running from an abusive household. The last thing she needs is confirmation that she can't take care of herself!"

Voice low, he murmurs again, " Trust me , snowflake. You can feel how much I care about you. You know a care this deep wouldn't stop before reaching the people you care about. I would not risk harm coming to them."

"What aren't you telling me?"

"If I told you everything, it wouldn't be trust."

Pulling my wrist out of his hand, I cross my arms. My pretty, purple, sparkly arms. Because I'm not human anymore. Because I trusted him enough to make me not human anymore. My grip loosens. "How long do I have to trust you?"

"Not long, I imagine. Castor is…troubled."

"You are really not inspiring confidence that he'll take good care of Dani."

Alexios lifts a shoulder. "All the more reason he'll be calling on us for help soon, right?"

I spin on my heel. "I'm texting him."

Alexios catches my shoulder, and I don't even flinch as his grip stops me in place. "You're quite poor at practicing trust."

"It comes with the territory of having had no one to trust growing up."

He kisses my cheek, wrapping me up from behind, trapping me again in the cocoon of his wings. Which, for the record, are not tiny. At all. "Tonight," he murmurs in my ear, "relax with me. Tomorrow, we'll see if Castor's survived the consequences of his own actions."

My lips purse. "Are you proposing snacks and a multiplayer Kirby game right now?"

"That sounds wonderful. What do you say?"

I twist in his hold to look him in his mischievous, stormy eyes. "I say…how do I become your wife?"

Heat deepens the red in his cheeks. "By promising to be mine forever."

"I promise." I touch a kiss to his lips. "I'll prepare the snacks. Check on Ash after you're done regulating in your room. Tell him Mommy and Daddy love him."

Alexios shudders. "D-did you just marry me and appoint me the father of your child?"

My no-longer-human tongue wraps around my sarcastic No, don't be stupid , and I scrunch my nose. Extending my hand, I say, "Phone."

"What?"

" Phone ."

Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he hands it to me, so I go to our message thread, and type my very important snark into the box, then I return his device, twist on my heel once more, take a firm step away, and stop.

I lift his cuff link between my fingers. "How am I supposed to do anything while holding this?"

"Oh. Um. You. I." He clears his throat.

"Take your time, sweetheart. I'm not going anywhere."

A whimper pours out of him, the sound rising from the ground, so I look back to discover him in a large bundle of white wings on the floor.

A lesser woman would think ew, that's my husband?

I, personally, think he's adorable. And there's something to be said about feeling safe enough with me to collapse at a moment's notice.

Crouching, I murmur, "You good, bro?"

"Turn off your access to my power, then you won't have to worry about tempering my heightened senses with the cuff link's enchantment. My powers will always be accessible to you whenever you want them. I put our contract in my marriage vows…weeks ago." His weeping eyes peek out at me. He pouts. "Stop smiling."

I brace my free hand beneath my chin and smirk. "No."

He mumbles a swear. "Sadism looks good on you."

Bending, I kiss his forehead and release my grasp on his power for now. As I set his cuff link down and head to the kitchen, the sensation of his ability remains within reach. His presence sticks in my gravity.

The sensation is firm enough that I have to take a moment to swallow back tears when I make it behind my island counter.

I will never feel alone again.

Catching sight of myself in the silver YouTube Play button above my table, I still. Blue, green, and purple waves overtook most of the black in my hair, leaving the parts that remained the shade darker than night sky. Stars twinkle in my green eyes, wisps of violet flooding through them every other time I blink.

Stardust and navy hues.

Vast as a blaze of light.

Reborn.

This time, I don't startle to find myself a few inches off the ground, and I don't land as harshly as before when I plant my feet back on the tile.

This time, I close my eyes, and I listen for the voices that have haunted me my entire life.

Silence responds.

In the silence, all is well.

And I know, that I am loved.

※

This concludes FALLING IN LOVE WITH A TINY BAT ! I appreciate you reading about Alexios and Zahra.