Chapter 8

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This guy doesn't like food . Must be some kind of opposites attract soulmate nonsense.

"I can't believe you bought a car," Alexios says, holding my dear sweet son—who I was assured profusely would not combust if I took him out in public at mere weeks old. I'd have fought more about germs, but. You know. The dirt eating, thing. Ash is going to grow up to be just like the sand eater kid we have at the school where I work. Blankly following behind me and the cart full of bulk wipes and other assorted baby supplies, Alexios whispers, "You just…you went out. And you bought an entire car ."

I needed a back seat, which my motorcycles don't have. I can't put a baby car seat in the side buggy I use for groceries, right? No matter how durable the fae are, I will not be doing science experiments on whether or not that is safe for my son.

Standing in the produce aisle of Costco, I purse my lips and scan a bag of potatoes for bruises. They smell fine. Cool. Taters for dinner.

I plop them in the cart and continue on toward the fruit.

"Mommy is insane, isn't she?" Alexios whispers to my baby, filling his sweet little head with propaganda .

"I'm extremely offended that you believe that," I mutter at my rotten soulmate .

"I phrased it as a question. I'm not certain whether I believe it or not. Insanity is, perhaps, among my favorite traits, so if I do, it isn't exactly an insult at least."

" Perhaps , huh?"

Alexios's lips pull into a frown. "It's the literal thinking, snowflake. We tend to make ample allowance for absolute correctness when we can. To feel comfortable speaking such things with certainty, I'd need several business days and my friend Sephin's help creating a spreadsheet that can rank every known trait to see if insanity does truly fall among my favorites."

Blowing out a breath, I look through a bag of peaches and mumble, "Sometimes you say things that really make me glad I've got human blood… Existence is exhausting enough without all that." When I've found a decent bag, I lift it toward him. "You like peaches?"

"Fruit is an inconsistent nightmare. Pray tell, how do you tolerate it?"

"Reminds me of my childhood." I pop the peaches in the cart. "Come on, Xios. We're shopping , and we have the whimsical entire trunk of a shiny new car to fill. You're my live-in babysitter for the foreseeable future. After the way you glared at my french toast this morning, I'm going to need you to pick out food you like. Kass won't be happy with me if I let her adopted kid starve."

Disgust. It pours over Alexios's face with a violence that rivals the look he gave my egg and cinnamon mixture earlier. "Despite popular belief, Kassandra is of no relation to me. Whatsoever."

I sense tea. It's brewing. And it's about my boss. Mom always told me that gossip was wrong , moments before she'd insult what the pastor's wife was wearing at church. Hypocrisy is such a poor shade on most people…which is why I have never once claimed to be above such things. I blurt, "You don't like your stepmother?"

"She is not my stepmother."

"She married your father. That's how it works."

"Once again, Pollux is also not my father."

I arch a brow, skip the apples, and pick up a bag of cutie oranges. "The fae can lie if their beliefs are wrong and they have no proof to change them. I wonder how I can prove you're in denial…" Blinking at the tiny oranges in the bag, I say, "Wait a second. Why wouldn't you want Kass to be your stepmother? What's not to like about Kass? Kass is great. She hired me even though I'm but a wee mongrel. You should respect your fantastic stepmother luck."

He releases a heavy breath and adjusts Ash's blanket beneath his sweet baby chin. "You're confused. I don't dislike Kass. I simply will not be claiming familial relationships with her."

Like a nosy little muskrat, I chirp, "Why?"

He goes red in the cheeks, pouring all his attention into Ash. "Because. There's a minor plausibility that I may, potentially, at some point in the history of my existence…" He deflates, muttering, "…have flirted with her…and asked for her soul."

I let my mouth absolutely gape . "Alexios, you animal ."

"I was younger! It didn't mean anything. I was only trying to get on Pollux's nerves a little. I'm sorry."

I literally, from a romantic interest standpoint, could not care less. "Are you in your rebel teen years, already?" I muse. "Flirting with your stepmother to get back at your father…" I tut, shake my head. "Sounds like the start of a smutty book blurb."

"Must you poke at such an irreverent topic?"

I smirk. "Is it making you uncomfortable?"

"Would it not make anyone uncomfortable?"

Humming, I catch sight of someone I know across the main aisle of the store, in the deli section. "I don't know. Want me to ask that guy?"

Alexios bristles, but before he can open his mouth, I'm wheeling my cart toward the open refrigerators.

"Sal! Hey, it's been a while."

Sal, an old neighbor from when I first moved up here to Virginia with nothing but what I could pack in the side car of my first motorcycle, looks up, squints his aging eyes, glances both directions over me, then seems to focus on my face. "Oh! Zahra. Have you been here the whole time?" Dumping a wedge of Asiago in his cart, he smiles. "I must've missed you somehow."

The somehow would be on account of faerie glamour. Alexios, for unknown reasons, seems to like laying the magic that congeals around the fae to hide them from human perception on thick . In all honesty, I've noticed several people I know during this trip, but beside Alexios and Ash, I am invisible.

Which means…

Stopping my cart by Sal's, I glance back toward the fruit to find Alexios hasn't moved. Stark horror consumes his eyes. Even from here, I can feel his distinct desire to eliminate himself from this plane of existence.

"Yeah," I note, half smug. "It's a big store." Pulling my attention off my poor soulmate, I beam. "Anyway, how have you been? How're Nancy and the kids? I saw pictures of your youngest's wedding on Leopard."

Sal waxes on for a little while about his life before suggesting that he best get on with it . Once we've parted, Alexios inches his way back to my side—ghost white.

"That was uniquely the most terrifying thing I can recall experiencing at this exact moment," Alexios breathes, clearly clutching Ash for emotional support. Shaken to his core, he whispers, "And I've lived with two beings made of fear up until two nights ago…"

"Uh-huh, uh-huh. That's nice. I asked Sal if my jokes would make him uncomfortable, and he told me you were being a bigger baby than Ash. And, actually, he regularly enjoys jokes about flirting with parental figures."

Alexios scowls.

"It's true. He told me himself."

"He did not."

"You were too far away to hear him."

"I was not."

I grin. "You're attracted to your stepmother. I can't wait to tell Kass how this eats you up at school on Monday."

"I am in no way attracted to Kass." He frees a forbearing sigh and shakes his head. Next thing I know, he's up in my space, pressing me against the dairy section, Ash's sleeping body the only thing between us, providing meager comfort. "Were I ever attracted to anyone else, they would hardly hold a candle to your beauty. Their forms might have fled my mind upon my first witnessing you. You are peerless, ethereal, transcending desire, surpassing adoration. That I can say with utmost honesty I have never been attracted to anyone beyond a mere momentary interest in amusement prior to having laid eyes upon you is fact that cannot be disputed."

Dang, dude. "Don't underestimate my debate skills. I can dispute just about anything."

"I hope to never underestimate anything about you ever again, not after the first time when my urgency cost me everything I have ever wanted."

"Did you really think it would be so simple to trick me into giving you everything?" Lifting a hand, I tap him in the forehead. "Did your little brain honestly go oh yes, I'm sure she'll just blindly agree to my demands ?"

His nose scrunches, and he lifts his free hand to his forehead. "I had hoped you'd be overcome by my appearance in the same way I am overwhelmed by yours. By the time you came out of the trance brought on by my handsomeness, it would be too late."

I roll my lips into my mouth to hold my demeaning guffaw at bay. "Not a—" I cough to clear the laughter from my voice. "—not a very detailed plan, was it?"

"It can be surmised that the prospect of having you put me in a position where my cognitive functions were inhibited."

"Per chance, are you still in such a position, Mr. Handsome ?"

A sly smile curves his lips as he steps back, freeing me from being confined next to the rows of cheese. "Unfortunately."

"That must be so sad for you."

"I assure you, it is causing me immense distress."

I'm about to laugh when I remember he can't lie. "You good, bro?"

Sighing, he glances in the cart. "How many times are you going to ask me that?"

"As many times as necessary. It's within my core beliefs to you good, bro anyone who is behaving suboptimally. Almost positive it's in the Bible." Although, to be fair, it's phrased more along the lines of look out for the interests of others, not just your own.

You Good Bro is the Zahra paraphrase. If King James could make his own version of the Bible, so can I. The rows of cheese things distract me, and I locate a tub of baby spinach raviolis. "Do you like spinach, or are you a monster?"

Alexios murmurs, "I am, quite literally, a soul-stealing creature born of despair."

Not a spinach fan then. My eye catches on a slightly different variety of ravioli. "They have mushroom ones, too."

The man actually gags.

It is such an offensive sound, I slowly turn around, just to make sure Ash is still okay. Upon discovering that my son is still sleeping merrily, in spite of the noise that just left Alexios, I arch a brow. "Don't make me say it again. It's barely been five seconds."

"I am not good. You like—" He wraps up a description of mushrooms that contains so much graphic language I am extremely relieved no humans can perceive us right now. " Why? "

"Are you really going to stand here, in Costco , and food-shame me for liking mushrooms?"

He watches my eyes, laser-focused and intent. Finally, he says, "Yes. I think I am."

" Wowww ." I put the package of mushroom ravioli in the cart.

He flinches.

I am having more fun with a basic stranger—who lives with me—than I should.

"Get the spinach ones," he implores.

"Why? You don't like spinach." I trot the cart down the aisle, perusing potato salads and charcuterie platters. There is an entire bag of cheese cubes twice the size of my head. I want to stack them into a little house and send pictures to my WonderCraft friends… At the Christmas party, Alana made an entire castle out of cheese, and I long to emulate the faerie princess. Not to mention that Enigma, from the WonderCraft server, would so totally remake my cheese creation in the Minecraft world, then invite me by for a tour.

Collab opportunities.

My lifeblood.

I will need different colors, though, so I can drive home my skills at texturing . The first time we all collabed, I built a house of dirt with a single flower beside the door. After I left, Enigma walled my skillful display off with hazard color blocks then put up signs announcing it as a national treasure. His brother, Endeavor, included me in the end-of-season server tour, and I daresay I peaked in that moment.

As I'm delighting in having located different flavors of cheese cube bags, Alexios says softly, "I don't like much, Zahra."

"Hm?" I look up off some colby jack to find him looking mighty pitiful. "My dude, my fam, my dearest broski, it is not the end of the world if you're a picky eater." I toss a hand at the vast displays of sustenance all around. "I'll get you whatever you want. I'm not your mom, so I'm not going to monitor your nutrition intake. Eat fish fingers and custard for all I care."

His pale flesh tinges green. "Fish fingers…and…what?"

"It's a reference. I forgot you're too young to be cultured in any way at all."

"I am old enough to know that the dish you just described should be outlawed."

"It's not as bad as it sounds." With this much cheese, I should opt to build my joke tonight, take the pictures, then share with the LARP group tomorrow. Goodness gracious… LARP day is tomorrow…isn't it?

Imagine that.

Glancing at Ash's tiny, sleeping face, I wonder if I should cancel. I barely managed my anxiety during the stream last night. It's not that I don't believe Alexios has very good reasons for making sure nothing bad happens to Ash…it's just…

My attention skims up to his phenomenally distressed expression. It could win Oscars.

Is he… mature enough to manage a baby while I'm outside pretending to be a faerie creature as though two aren't in my house?

I woke up with Ash last night before Alexios could get to him, so each time he wandered in, I was already taking care of things. All he could offer in assistance was a pout. I have no idea what happened while I was streaming, if Alexios knows how to change a diaper, if he understands how fragile a tiny life can be.

Alexios could have done little more than feed Ash and rock him to sleep after he woke up crying.

I should cancel.

I should probably cancel.

Images from last night after the stream flicker in my head like a dying light.

Or maybe I'm overreacting.

I can't be the anxious mother who never lets her kid do things. If I raise Ash under the umbrella of my worries, he'll grow into them, and there's very little worse than living in constant fear. It'll be…fine.

"Why are you having a crisis?" Alexios mutters. "Your soulmate isn't bringing slug-flavored ravioli into your new house."

"Um. Ew. Don't make comparisons like that. Do you like normal ravioli? Just plain?"

"Meda does."

Because Meda is a delightful little bean. Unlike her difficult brother.

I huff. "Xios, you're very bad at answering questions."

He smiles. "I am skilled in the art of deflection."

"That is not a good thing."

" That is an opinion."

I sigh. "Fine. Starve." Despite myself, I swap the mushroom ravioli for the spinach on my way back out of the aisle.