Page 52 of Renaissance Bear

"It was!"

"Oh! I thought you were about to get laid!"

"That also would have been terrible timing!"

Jasmine got up and flopped across the opposite chair. "Well, okay. As long as you're going to tell him after the tournament, I guess another couple days won't hurt. But you don't want to make him feel like you've been lying to him, Al."

"I know. And I'm not, exactly. I'm just not telling him everything."

"A lie of omission is still a lie," Jasmine droned in a voice very like their father's when he was lecturing them. "I'm not gonna tell Dad on you, though. Anyway, I'll meet you at, what, like, one o'clock for the costume change, and then I'll be Alessandra for the afternoon while you're Edward."

"Yeah." Alis got up again and hugged her sister. "I appreciate you."

"You should," Jazz agreed. "Now go be fabulous."

"I would be so much more fabulous in my own dress," Alis muttered, but she went. The whole roster today was different because of the fights scheduled for the afternoon. The court scenes with Lord Argent were early today, which at least meant she could get them over with, and then take out her aggressions later on the battlefield.

Worse, Jon wasn't there to play the winsome minstrel this time, because it was in fact an entirely different scene. Half the Silver Court came today, a combination of elegant silver-clad elves and more pixie-like fairy creatures in brighter colors. Alis thought she would actually have loved it if she hadn't had to simper and lean on Lord Argent like he was the love of her life. At leasthesmelled better today, the flat underlying scent of metal no longer noticeable.

Well, obviously not. He hadn't been at the lists fighting the past few days, anymore than she or anyone else had. She probably smelled like metal on fight days, too. Released from the end of the scene—a scene in which she had no idea what she'd said or promised—Alis fled back into the Red Court's tent, wondering if an obsession with scent could actually turn her into a shifter. That would be cool.

There had to be a reason Shelly wore a perfume like that. Alis went into the dressing room, poking around at the pile of things Shelly had left. "Tamira? Do we have any of Shelly's perfume here?"

The Red Queen followed her in and made an unpleasant noise. "Yeah, but why would you want it? It's like a skunk rolled in roses."

"I don't know. I've got this idea and I'm not sure where I'm going with it."

"Well, if it involves that perfume, you should go to the latrine with it. Here. I put it in a Tupperware container so it wouldn't stink up the dressing room." Tamira pulled a small lidded plastic box out from under some clothes. "I also hid it in the hopes she would never find it again."

"And that's why you're the Queen. Thank you." Alis, clutching her smelly prize, went to figure out what she was going to do with it now.

Chapter 24

The next afternoon, twitching impatiently as he awaited the third and final unarmored fighting division bouts, Jon thought he'd had no idea how right Alis was. She'd just been wrong about the reasonswhy.

Shelly hadn't shown up for work again, for one thing. Alis was still Princess Cecilia, and everything had been fine when they'd crossed paths early in the day. But now she and the rest of the Red Court were in the seating for the fights, and although she was as statuesque and beautifully dressed as ever, the spark was gone again. Just completely gone. Even when she smiled and waved at him, it was uncomfortable, as if their connection had been severed.

That's not our mate,his bear told him calmly.

Jon made a strangled noise, loud enough that the guy next to him gave him a concerned look. He muttered, "Sorry, I'm fine," out loud, and said,That's Lady Alessandra, isn't it??to the bear.

It was clear the bear had absolutely no interest in her name, but shrugged it away, anyway.Lady Alessandra is not our mate.

She has been half the week! What's wrong with the other half? Alis and I are great together!

Something clicked at the thought and he almost laughed. Maybe the bear was right. MaybeLady Alessandrareally wasn't his mate. Maybe sometimes Alis just got so deep into the character that something changed about her. That almost made sense. In fact, it was maybe the only thing thatdidmake sense.

Especially if he allowed himself to forget the few times he'd laid eyes on the armored Black Knight, and had that sudden sensation of connection again. Hereallyhad to find that guy and find out what the hell was going on there. It wasn't like he wanted to break Lord Edward's heart, but he couldn't imagine sharing the same kind of passion with the knight as he did with Alis.

But Edward was a true human, anyway, so maybe he didn't feel the same zing of certainty when he saw Jon. If he had, he would have coming looking for him, right? That made sense, too. Although for all Jon knew, Edwardhad, since the guy's real name and face were a well-kept secret.

You would know if our mate found you,the bear pointed out dryly.

Oh. Right.So Edward hadn't looked for him. Maybe he was as confused as Jon was. Maybe his secret identity was more important to him than love.

That, too, made a kind of sense. Jon sighed, watching the early bouts get started. He was ranked surprisingly high, given his original loss, but he'd done well after that and racked up enough points to take the wildcard slot for the semifinals, rather than having to fight his way through the quarters. Those were happening now, and the first fight went shockingly fast, leaving the crowd both excited and disappointed.

Ifhewas a true human, Jon thought, and ifhewas faced with a baffling glimpse of twitterpation that he couldn't address without revealing his real-life persona, he might avoid it, too. As a shifter, obviously, he would understand that it was fatestriking, but for true humans, love at first sight was mostly something that happened in fairy tales. So he could understand Edward ignoring it, honestly.

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