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"She should be kept as far away fro out of nowhere Several of the Guards backed off, eyes wide and faces pale Apollo grinned at theest Alexandria should not be"

Every pure and half bowed at the waist I did too, forgetting the stitches that were healing, and grimaced

"We need to put a bell on hiether to keep fro

"Actually," Apollo drawled slowly "She is probably the safest here"

Deacon sounded like he choked

Marcus recovered quicker than he had last tilanced at Deacon curiously before his gaze settled on Marcus "I wanted to speak with you privately"

"Of course" Marcus turned to me "I’ll be back in a few days Please listen to what Aiden tells you and… try to stay out of trouble"

"I know I’m not allowed to leave his house unless Apollo tells me to" Those were Marcus’ exact words No one else could remove me from this house other than Apollo, Aiden, or Marcus Not even Lucian’s Guards If anyone else tried, I’d been given permission to kick some butt

Marcus nodded at Aiden and turned to leave Passing by, Apollo gave us a two-finger salute that just looked bizarre corown used to his rando the crap out of everyone when he did it

"You ready?" Aiden asked

Deacon arched a brow

"Shut up," I said as I walked past Deacon

"I haven’t said a single thing" He spun around and followedto have so much fun It’s like a slumber party"

A slues I came up with made me blush

Aiden closed the door behind the others as they left and shot his brother a look

Deacon rocked back on his heels, grinning "Just so you know, I get incredibly bored quite easily and you will be forced to be my source of entertainment You’ll kind of be like my own personal jester"

I flipped him off

"Well, that wasn’t funny at all"

Aiden brushed pastto wish you’d stayed in the er that’s not the case" Deacon rin "Anyway, did you celebrate Valentine’s Day when you were slu with the mortals?"

I blinked "Not really Why?"

Aiden snorted and then disappeared into one of the roo to love this I just know it"

I followed him down the dimly-lit corridor that was sparsely decorated We passed several closed doors and a spiral staircase Deacon went through an archway and stopped, reaching along the wall Light flooded the roolass icker furniture, and colorful plants

Deacon stopped by a s on a ceramic coffee table It looked like aseveral limbs Half the needles were scattered in and around the pot One red Christ the tree to tilt to the right

"What do you think?" Deacon asked

"Um… well, that’s a really different Christmas tree, but I’m not sure what that has to do with Valentine’s Day"

"It’s sad," Aiden said, strolling into the roo to look at What kind of tree is it, Deacon?"

He beamed "It’s called a Charlie Brown Christs this thing out every year The pine isn’t even real And he leaves it up froods is the day after to it down"

I ran ers over the plastic needles "I’ve seen the cartoon"

Deacon sprayed so from an aerosol can "It’s my MHT tree"

"MHT tree?" I questioned

"Mortal Holiday Tree," Deacon explained, and siving it gets a brown bulb, a green one for Christmas, and a red one for Valentine’s Day"

"What about New Year’s Eve?"

He lowered his chin "Now, is that really a holiday?"

"The mortals think so" I foldedThe New Year is during the summer solstice," Deacon said "Their math is completely off, like most of their customs For example, did you know that Valentine’s Day wasn’t actually about love until Geoffrey Chaucer did his whole courtly love thing in the High Middle Ages?"