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“What are you doing?”
My eyes darted to Tessie at the base of the tiny hallway.
She tilted her head and stared at Bastian beside me. “Is that my brother?”
I considered lying for a second. “Yes.”
“Oh. Can you wake him up? I’m hungry.”
“I’m awake.” His voice vibrated against the back of my neck, and he moved his arm from me and stretched, like he woke up next to women every day. “Luna will have breakfast for you when we get to my place.”
“Where were you last night?”
My head cocked to Bastian, taking in his face. I could read it in his eyes. He didn’t want to tell Tessie, but he didn’t want to lie.
I made the choice for him. “Can you help me pick out my outfit for the day, Tessie?”
“Okay!” She ran off to my room, and I heard my closet door open before I even shouted my permission.
When I turned to face Bastian, he didn’t just have his thank you projecting from his eyes. It sat on the tip of his tongue, too.
“Thank you.”
“I’m still mad at you. You don’t want me near Tessie, yet here we are.”
His sigh heaved past his chest. Heavy. Like it took everything in him to exist.
“I’m going to sound like a hypocrite, but I need a favor.”
I eyed him warily. “Fine.”
“Until we find him, everyone will be looking for him. My mom, my dad, my uncles, Asher, everyone who works for them, me… Everyone. I clearly can’t trust Tessie’s babysitter, and…”
“And you trust me. The woman you wanted to keep away from your sister.”
Even as I said them, my words held no real bite to them.
I didn’t take it lightly that Bastian trusted me with Tessie, a fact he’d be reluctant to admit had Vince’s absence not changed everything. In fact, he still didn’t admit it.
That was okay.
I had my secrets, too.
I could never tell him about that night with Vincent.
Even as tearing the city apart looking for Vince tore him inside.
I was his Apate, not his Jupiter.
Never Jupiter.
“I’ll do it.”
Of course, I would.
I loved Tessie.
Sure, that’s why.
