Brigid stood at the entrance with her hands outstretched, syphoning the smoke from the room with a sympathetic smile.
Sighing, holding back tears, I threw the towel onto the counter and leaned on it. “I’m sorry, ladies, they’re burnt to a crisp.”
Heels clicked on the floor behind me, and a hand rested on my shoulder. “Sylv, you okay? It isn’t like you to let something burn.”
This was thesecondtime I’d burned something in the past few days.
There was a room full of females from all walks of life and species, some younger than me, some older. It was a golden opportunity to gain perspective on this entire snowy shitstorm.
“Can I run something by you all?” I whipped around to face them.
“Oo, girl talk. That wasn’t on the agenda. I’m intrigued,” Brigid’s sister, Amara, said, helping herself to abandoned cookie dough in a bowl, scooping some with her finger.
Brigid moved beside Chelsea, her plastic tiara glittering with fake gemstones and a thin pink veil. “We’re all ears.”
Stretching my wings wide like one would their arms, I settled them behind me before beginning. “I found my mate, but it’s incredibly complicated.”
“When isn’t it?” Amara snorted.
“When we first met, he couldn’t believe I was his mate. Mostly because I work in a bakery.”
Chelsea raised her hand like a child in school.
“You don’t have to do that. Chime in whenever you want, Chels.”
“I already don’t like him if he has a thing against confectionery treats,” Chelsea said, looking around the group for affirmation.
“No, no. He loves my treats?—”
Amara snorted again, frowning when everyone turned to look at her with a glob of cookie dough halfway to her mouth.
“—he’s a winter king. The heat makes him highly uncomfortable. To him, there was no possible way that I could be his mate because of that, and the fact that he thought I was ashamed of being fae because I hid my ears. His wariness toward me made me wary ofhim.”
“And youdidn’tdislike him at first? Do you still dislike him?” Chelsea asked, adjusting the tilted tiara on Brigid’s head.
“No, I don’t. But he hid the fact that I have to make the claiming choice bytomorrow.” I wanted to feel the anger, heat flushing my cheeks, and it made me all the more agitated.
“That is pretty shitty,” one of the other females said.
“Exactly. It puts so much pressure on me.”
The part that jarred me the most was the idea that, if Jack had told me the truth earlier, things would be different. But I couldn’t be certain that I wouldn’t have thought he had some agenda then or now.
“Does it, though?” Brigid asked, cocking her head to the side and making her tiara topple again. Chelsea was quick to fix it. “Do you not want him?”
Our time in the hot springs had an ache surging through my core, my body betraying me, urging me to say yes, so we could do that repeatedly.
“Idowant him. I just—” Pausing, I pinched the bridge of my nose and fanned my wings to kick air around. “—I didn’t want to feel rushed into it.”
Brigid, the oldest of us all and clearly happy to take on the motherly role, moved forward. She clasped her hands with mineand smiled warmly. “What is it they say about love? That it’s one of the greatest leaps of faith? Sometimes we don’t get to make the hard choices in a timeframe that’s convenient for us.”
I hardly knew the witch in front of me, but somehow experienced a connection with her like we’d met centuries ago. My sinuses stung and I sniffled. “May I hug you?”
The females around me all laughed, including Brigid, who opened her arms wide. “What kind of question is that? We’re all sisters here. Witch or not.”
We hugged, and I tried desperately not to blubber on her shoulder. When we peeled away, I eyed her tiara, and in a meek voice, asked, “Would you mind if I tried that on?”
“That’s right. Homegirl here bagged herself a king,” Amara said, frowning when she noticed the bowl of cookie dough was empty.
