I sniffed the air. “Baked bread. The sweet kind we make for dessert.”
“Aw, that means you like me!” Brigid threw me a wide grin in the mirror. “And I think you smell like strawberries, which means we’re definitely going to be friends.”
She chuckled, then added, “My other husband—the human I was dating before I realized I also had feelings for the High Prince—he smells like whipped cream. We all smell good together. And in the bear community, that’s how you and everyone else can tell you’re a true match.”
“Okay... I think I’m actually getting this concept,” I said. “So the Shadow King, who you like, smells like lemons to you, too?”
“Yes. And he’s absolutely in need of a bit of sweetness to make a good dessert. But sweet bread and lemons don’t pair well together, so we could only ever be friends. Do you understand?”
Actually, I did.
For once since coming here, I didn’t feel impossibly confused. This all made a strange sort of sense.
“And the High King? What does he smell like?”
Brigid’s face twisted. “Like rotten celery. Can barely stand to be in the same room with him without holding my nose. He’s a cold one, that High King of ours. Only cares about profits and margins, and smells like the most useless vegetable.”
She shook her head. “I think the only reason he and Tadhg ended up such great pals is that he reminds Tadhg of our da—cold, withholding bastard, he is. But at leastDashowed up to walk me down the aisle before kipping off back to his digs in the attic. Declan’s—an’ I’m not even slightly exaggerating here—the absoluteworstaltogether.”
I furrowed my brow. “Yet your brother deposited me here in his palace and sent you to help me acclimate.”
I finished unweaving the last braid on my side and twisted in the seat to face Brigid directly.
“Why would he bring me here and ask you to come, too, knowing how much you truly despise him?”
Ready to Go?
Brigid froze,her eyes wide in a way that reminded me of the expression on the fox’s face that one time I walked into the community chicken house and found him with a hen’s neck in his mouth. Completely caught in the act.
But then she wiped her face and reset.
“You know what, I’m prone to exaggeration. Tadhg’s always on me about that,” she waved a dismissive hand. “You should hold off on judging your High King until you’ve had a chance to meet him yourself. I mean, you’rehere, so he can’t be as bad as I thought, right?”
Confusion returned to roost.
“What does me being here have to do with?—”
“Oh my gods, look at you!”
Instead of letting me finish, Brigid grabbed my shoulders and spun me back toward the mirror.
“No need for braids, babes. If I had hair like yours, I’d beinsufferable.”
I didn’t know what to say. I stared at the thick cloud of curls resting on my shoulders, struck speechless by yet another completely new sensation.
Truly liking the way I looked.
“Well, enough of this admiring how gorgeous you are. Worthy pastime, for certain. But I’m supposed to escort you to brunch, and with the winter months setting in, Tadhg’s likely to eat you in the bad way if we take too much longer.”
I was starving, too, but…“Eat me in thebadway?”
I chewed my lip—a stress habit my mother often fussed at me about. “I’m trying and failing to imagine a future in which I’m not confused by this place and everything you all are saying to me.”
Brigid just laughed and opened the washroom door. “You say exactly what’s on your mind. I like that.
“Though... not as much asyou’lllike finding out what I mean byeat you in the good way. I’ve a feeling you’re about to leap into a pile of clovers yerself.”
Then she stopped short.
