“I’m not even hungry,” Jacqueline lied. Her stomach gave a slight gurgle as she breathed in the remnant smell of buttered bread and hot fried fish, but luckily Tally gave a tiny snore at the same time, so she was almost certain no one would notice. “What about you two? Neither of you had as much to eat as your sister.”
“That’s because we have manners, actually,” Dylan announced, kicking his legs. “But also she’s growing a lot and she has to grow for her and her seal.”
“And you two don’t?”
“You’re probably past that first growth spurt.” Arlo raised an eyebrow at the two of them and got a vigorous nod from Dylan and a grunt and a shrug from Kenna.
“First growth spurt?” Jacqueline hadn’t meant to look at Kenna, but she did, and the girl jumped like she’d sat on a bee.
“Shifters have our first growth spurt when we’re, like, um, however old we are when we first shift, which for Tally is really early, because the seal needs a lot of energy to even exist that first time. And then we have normal human growth spurts or whatever and then it all settles down and we can pretend to be normal humans, if
we’re old enough.”
Arlo wiped the cooking pan clean and added, “Not completely. We still have to eat more than normal humans do.” He nodded at Jacqueline. “Our animal sides still need extra energy.”
And I bet it takes a lot of energy to keep your body looking like that, Jacqueline thought. Her cheeks heated up and she looked down at Tally dozing in her lap. When she looked up again, Kenna was staring at her.
“You really don’t know anything about shifters?” she asked. “But…” Her eyes flicked between Jacqueline and Arlo.
Arlo held up a reassuring hand. “Don’t worry. She’ll keep your secret. Won’t you?”
“I won’t tell anyone,” Jacqueline said. “Promise.”
“That wasn’t what I meant,” Kenna protested.
“Yeah, if you don’t know about shifters, then how can you be—”
“Not that, Dylan!” Kenna hissed. She caught Jacqueline’s look of confusion and bit her lip. “I mean, how did Eric know to call you if you’re human?”
Jacqueline tugged on her sleeves to buy time. “I, er, I think he was just looking for anyone who could help you.”
Kenna pursed her lips as though she didn’t quite believe her. Jacqueline didn’t blame her—but she wasn’t ready to tell the truth just yet. Maybe it was selfish, but she didn’t want this crazy adventure to end just yet.
Not before the kids were safe, at least.
Dylan was tugging on Kenna’s shirt. “But what about…”
“We’ll talk about that later!” Kenna shout-whispered back.
What’s that about? Jacqueline exchanged a questioning look with Arlo, and he shrugged. Somehow, that helped. It couldn’t be a mysterious shifter thing if Arlo didn’t know what was going on, either. Just a mysterious kid-sibling thing.
“Do you have a phone out here?” she asked Arlo. “I should check in with my work. Let them know I’m okay and that I found the kids. And…” she added cautiously, “if there’s anyone you need to call, Kenna, Dylan…”
“Like who?” Kenna was back to being surly.
“Any relatives, or…”
“There’s just Eric,” Kenna said sharply. “He’s looking after us. I guess he’s, like, our uncle.”
“He’s the one who left you on the beach?” Arlo growled.
Kenna’s eyes flashed. “He’s taking us to Hideaway Cove! Where we’ll be safe! No one else—”
“Our parents died,” Dylan said quietly.
“I’m so sorry.” Jacqueline reached out for Dylan automatically and he wriggled over to her. Arlo put a hand on Kenna’s shoulder and she sort of sagged into it.
“They were in a car crash,” Dylan whispered.