Page 44 of Crashing Tides

“Isn’t that why he’s always trying to give me the answers?” At the rate Duncan’s going, I’ll be lucky if he doesn’t try to take my exams for me.

“Maybe he’s trying to help.”

“Seems unlikely,” I say, even as my brain suggests an alternative; misguided. “Anyway, I’m sorry. About everything.”

Her green eyes look me up and down. Finally, she says, “I’m just glad you’re OK.”

“Mostly thanks to you. I thought we were gonna freeze.”

She nods, but I can tell she’s thinking about something else. I make a show of examining a leaf that has floated down to my lap. Campus is vibrant with the changing leaves—gold, red, orange. It would be breathtaking if my head didn’t hurt so bad.

“So what happened to his clothes?” she asks, wrinkling her nose. “Did he just… jump in after you naked?”

My face heats. “I didn’t think to ask. Maybe he was already naked?”

Jane bursts into laughter. “And doing what?”

“How am I supposed to know? Maybe he was fucking somebody on the cliff. Or something.” I cross my arms. Scowl. “Look, I was doing something important. I just wasn’t paying attention.”

She doesn’t know how drunk I was, I remind myself sternly. And I don’t want to disappoint her by alluding to the truth. Judging by her expression, she’s already guessed.

Now it’s Jane’s turn to cross her arms. “Promise you won’t do anything like that ever again.”

“I promise,” I say. “Trust me, I don’t want to go through that again.”

She scrutinizes me. I squirm under her gaze. Finally, she says, “Do you want to go back to the beach and see what you look like?”

What.

At my expression, she looks pointedly at my legs. “You said you didn’t see what you looked like.”

I inhale slowly. Try to slow my frantically beating heart. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Avoiding it won’t help.”

But I shake my head. “Not right now.”

I don’t know how to convey the absolute terror that I feel when I think about transforming—shifting—again. It’s impossible to comprehend the shock of an unfamiliar body, the absolute agony that accompanies a shift, if you’ve never experienced it before.

Not to mention the fact that I have no idea what my natural predators are. Am I the predator? Or do I need to worry about orcas mistaking me for a seal? Are there sharks in the Pacific Northwest? If I go back into the water, am I immediately going to be swarmed by, I don’t know, a pack of wild tuna? Do tuna travel in packs?

“Hey.” Jane puts a hand on my shoulder. I realize then that I’m hyperventilating. “What’s going on?”

“Um…” I wipe my eyes, force a grimace. “Do tuna travel in packs?”

“Schools, Dominic. They travel in schools.”

“OK, great. Next question: Will they eat me?”

“Oh my god!” She laughs and swats at my shoulder.

I grin my best shit eating grin and for a moment, things feel lighter.

Then Duncan Stirling emerges from the shadows between buildings as I’m walking home, and ruins my night.

Chapter

Fourteen