“Best ‘haviors!” they chorused as they took off.
“No running! It’s muddy!” she called after them.
“A doll named Candy?” I murmured.
Mina blushed once more. “It’s a long story.”
“No like Candy,” Kirch rumbled.
Eyeing me, Veck cocked his head. “Purred-roo knows story?” he asked.
“I do,” I stated simply, trying not to sound defensive.
Sensing me tensing up, Kehl moved in closer and wrapped an arm around me.
“Rek say you goot frend to not good Candy. Rek say she try all the times be good. Sad all the times,” Tarnk chimed in.
Mina blew out a long breath. Scrubbing at her eyes, she pinched them shut, like she was fighting something. “I know. I know she is… I just…”
“You don’t have to explain anything to me.” My shoulders lifted in a shrug. I’d admit I was curious though.
Mina peeked an eye open. “She told you everything-everything?”
“Everything,” I replied quietly.
Mina’s throat worked and she grimaced. “I don’t like Candy-”
“Dace,” I gently corrected.
Mina stopped herself, nodded, and restarted, “Dace. I don’t like Dace. There’s bad blood. You have to believe I didn’t honestly think she’d do it! I mean, Rosa told me about it and I- I felt- I still feel horrible.”
My eyes narrowed, nostrils flared.
Mina spoke faster. “She swore Rosa to secrecy. I finally got it out of Rosa that Candy- Dace told her she was worried that people might hear about what I’d done and judge me for it, and she couldn’t even- Because of everything that’s happened between us and I just-”
“No need say no thing,” Kirch growled out softly.
Mina shook her head. “I need to. It’s been eating me alive.”
“You’re the reason she cut all of her hair off. You tricked her into it,” I surmised.
It took everything in me not to growl out loud at the news.
Mina paled. “You didn’t know.”
“She wouldn’t tell me who but I knew someone had tricked her into it,” I admitted.
“I don’t like Cand- Dace- Sorry, I’m trying. I don’t like Dace. I don’t want anything to do with her, but I don’t wantothers hating her on my behalf. I heard what it’s doing to her, and that’s not fair either.”
“I’m glad you see it that way. Maybe tell the others so they’ll stop trying to get me to hate her. It won’t work.” I was rumbling unhappily as I spoke. Realizing this, I cut the sound off abruptly.
Mina looked more startled at how quickly I hid my ire than the fact I was rumbling unhappily at all.
“I don’t want to make things around here hell for anyone else. Dace is trying. I’d have to be blind not to see she’s trying and has no intention of leaving.” With a growl under her breath, she shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m actually saying this but I’m a little worried about the way she lets Berkr treat her.” After the longest pause, she muttered, “No oneshould tolerate being treated like garbage.”
“Like being tricked into cutting all of your hair off?” I tacked on quietly.
Mina’s face reddened but she nodded. “Like some asshole tricking you into cutting your hair off, and then acting like it’s no big deal, like you think you deserved it, in a way that’s horrifying and unsettling,” she agreed. “I don’t want her doing that in an attempt to make amends.”
